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"The entire European continent, people were traveling en masse, going home, going home. Everybody had a place to go but the Jews." | |||
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Alisa (Lisa) Nussbaum Derman Born 1926 Raczki, Poland 
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From Bialystok we came to Lublin. In Lublin we met, we met a a greater number of, um, of um, of young men and women that Aron knew that were members of the [Ha-] Shomer ha-Tsa'ir that were friends of his and his sister's friends. And we traveled with them. We were given passports as Greek Jews, and we began to travel. From Lublin we went to Kracow, from Kracow we went to, to Czechoslovakia, to, to, um, Bratislava. From Bratislava we went to Hungary, and wherever we met, we went, we were met by the Beriha. They somehow arranged it where the trains, uh, the entire European continent, people were traveling en masse, going home, going home. Everybody had a place to go but the Jews. They were going home to Italy, to, to Czechoslovakia, to Romania, everywhere. People were traveling, the, the trains were all full, you, you grabbed on, people were hanging on the outside of the, of the boxcars, and, and in, in the passengers cars. There were no tickets, people just traveled. The Red Cross announced, too, that they had facilities or whatever. We, we were given really passports by the, uh, Red Cross, as refugees. And we came to, uh, Graz from, from, from, uh, Hungary we came to, to Graz. And in Graz we had to cross the river and to cross to get the western zone of occupied Europe. Uh, we did it with the help of the Beriha. They led us, a group before us went to, to go through to swim through the river, and some of them drowned. And they decided to hold off and to send the rest of the groups through the Alps. And we went through the Alps, with leaders that led us. And we came to Treviso. Treviso was already Italy. And it is in Treviso that we met up with the Jewish Brigade [a brigade group, in the British army, of Jewish volunteers from Palestine]. | ||
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Leah Hammerstein Silverstein Born 1924 Praga, Poland 
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Soon we started to organize ourselves and I was assigned, we were, we did, I mean, again our, uh, commanding people, I mean the people at the top of the group, like Yitzhak Zuckerman and others--I mention his name more often than others because almost all the leading people of Ha-Shomer ha-Tsa'ir died in the war, except maybe for Haika Grosman. And, well, we started to organize not only to, to have a, a gathering point for Jews to come to, but also to send out people to look for liberated Jews, you know. Because when people were liberated by the Soviet army, the first impulse of people was going back to their places. That was the natural instinct, to see if somebody survived, if the house survived, if something can be rescued. So I was assigned to, to do that with another girl. Her name was Krysia Biderman. Actually her real name was Sara Biderman, Krysia was her pseudonym during the war. And we were traveling criss-cross Poland looking for surviving Jews, and we found them. And sometimes these meetings were so packed with emotion that I, I lack the words to describe it, you know. Because the idea that we are really survivors couldn't sink in yet. You were full of apprehensions that maybe it will change again, you know. For, for, for years you were, lived like a hunted animal. It, it gets into your psyche. It's very difficult to get rid of that feeling that you are not in danger anymore. All these self-defense mechanisms are still with you, you know, and in many cases people were reluctant to admit that they are Jews. In many places, places they didn't want to talk to us. They didn't know who we are. But there were also cases when we came and we got such a warm welcome. I remember, I don't even remember which place, what was the name of the place, but we came to a small place and there was a Jewish family there and we got a very warm welcome. We were tired, you know, traveling constantly on the ways and, and she gave us a good supper and she put us into bed and we could wash and, it was real Jewish hospitality that was known before the war, which was absent during the war and again, you know, it was like slowly coming back to life. | ||
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Charlene Schiff Born 1929 Horochow, Poland 
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I was, and I'm speaking from a personal point of view, and I know I'm not the only one, there I was, an orphan, a survivor of unspeakable pain and atrocities of the war, and nobody extended a helping hand during the war. Now, after the war, wouldn't you think we would have priority to go out or to get out of Germany? But no, I had to wait three long years. There were quotas. There were always quotas. There were quotas to get into the United States. My...when I finally did get a hold of my family in the United States -- because I remembered my grandmother's address -- I still, I mean, they guaranteed that I would not be a burden to the government, and yet I had to wait three long years before I was allowed to come to the United States. Meanwhile, I, I tried on my own to get a student's visa, and I attended the University of Heidelberg for almost--well, over a year, but, uh, that would have given me a student visa. I must say that the people at the University of Heidelberg bent backwards to accommodate me. There were such a gaps in my education, formal education. It was nonexistent, and yet I took some tests and they helped me and I was accepted as a full-time student. And, uh, I will never forget that. I'm grateful for that. But I still had to wait three years to come to the United States, and I don't think that was right, to treat us in such a way. | ||
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