HANA KRAUS BEER
JANE LEAVEY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
UNKNOWN
INTERVIEW BEGINS
Jane: What’s your name?
Hana: My name is Hana [Kraus] Beer.
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<Begin Disk 1>
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MEMOIRIST:
INTERVIEWERS:
LOCATION:
DATE:
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THE WILLIAM BREMAN JEWISH HERITAGE MUSEUM
ESTHER AND HERBERT TAYLOR
JEWISH ORAL HISTORY PROJECT OF ATLANTA
LEGACY PROJECT
Jane: Mrs. Beer, could you tell us a little about your life in Czechoslovakia before the
Nazis came? [Tell us] how many people were in your family and how old you were when
the Nazis came into Czechoslovakia.
Hana: Sure. Basically it was just my mother and father and me. I had no sisters or brothers,
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but also it was my grandfather who lived with us. We had a very good life before the Nazis
came in 1939, when slowly but surely things were deteriorating and falling apart.1 We had
to take in another family to live with us as boarders that came from the border part of
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Czechoslovakia called “Sudetenland.” Slowly but surely we were prohibited of entering
certain public places.2
Jane: What city was this in?
1
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The leaders of Britain, France, Italy, and Germany held a conference in Munich on September 29–30, 1938.
In what became known as the Munich Pact or Agreement, they agreed to the German annexation of the
Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge of peace. The Sudetenland was an area along the border of Bohemia and
Moravia near the Sudeten Mountains. The Sudetenland had a predominately German population that was
incorporated into the boundaries of Czechoslovakia after World War I and thus became a major source of
contention between Germany and Czechoslovakia. In the wake of the agreement, the leaders of the democratic
government in Czechoslovakia resigned. The state restructured itself into an authoritarian regime and was
renamed Czecho-Slovakia. External demands on its territory continued to plague the state, however.
Encouraged by Germany, Hungary annexed territory in southern Slovakia in the autumn of 1938 and Poland
annexed the Tešin District of Czech Silesia. Then, on March 15, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied
the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, in flagrant violation of the Munich Pact. They were merged
into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in the Greater German Reich under the leadership of a Reich
Protector.
2
Immediately after the German occupation in 1939, a wave of arrests, attacks, and persecution began. In June,
a decree was issued barring Jews from almost all economic activity, Jewish businesses were forcibly “bought,”
and much Jewish property was seized. When World War II broke out in September 1939, the Jews were
denied certain ration items, such as sugar, tobacco, and clothing; and their freedom of movement was
restricted. In October, the first deportation took place. By November, Jewish children had been expelled from
their schools and Jewish use of telephones and public transportation had been restricted. In September 1941,
Jews were forced to wear the Jewish badge and live totally separate from the rest of the population.
2
Hana: I was born in a city called Pilsen [Czechoslovakia], which is like an hour away from
Prague, very much on the western border of . . . actually, it was Bohemia part of
Czechoslovakia.3
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Jane: You mentioned that things started to get bad in 1939. Can you talk a little about
some of the [unintelligible, 10:22]?
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Hana: I remember distinctly that I had to leave school. I got a job as an apprentice, as a
dressmaker. We all tried to I wanted to learn a trade in case we would immigrate to another
country, so that we could support ourselves. September 1, [1939]—when Germany occupied
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Poland—was my first day of work.4 I remember that day very well because I heard about it
and there were sirens going. My father was a sales representative.
Jane: And then the Nazis came into Pilsen? What happened then?
Hana: The Nazis did not come into Pilsen.
Jane: The Germans?
Hana: No. That was much later. It must have happened much later. Everyday we got
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different orders—like we had to give up jewelry and we had to wear stars. It didn’t all come
at the same time. It came gradually. We still didn't realize what was really happening, the
seriousness of the situation. Even so, most of us were planning to leave the country. We had
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relatives in the [United] States and in England. We were trying to leave the country, but we
never really succeeded. I was supposed to have gone to Israel with the Youth Aliyah but that
never happened.5 First it would have been Switzerland, where I was to get training as a
nurse, but that never materialized either. I don’t think my parents weren't too thrilled about
it because I was the only child and they didn't want me to leave.
We really basically just lived our lives as well as we could. With so many changes
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around us, we didn’t know what to cope with first. Nobody was really sent to a camp as a
family, but they took [Jewish] men away. The rumors went [around] that the men went to
Pilsen [Czech: Plzeň] is a city in the Czech Republic about 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of the national
capital, Prague, and about 70 kilometers (44 miles) east of the German border. The western part of present day
Czech Republic where Pilsen is located was historically a province known as Bohemia. After the dissolution
of the Austro-Hungarian state at the end of World War I, the provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia,
Subcarpathian Rus (Transcarpathian Ukraine), and portions of Austrian Silesia became the Czechoslovak
Republic, which is more commonly referred to as Czechoslovakia.
4
World War II officially began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain and
France responded by declaring war on Germany on September 3.
5
Youth Aliyah is a Zionist organization that rescued over 5,000 Jewish children by the time World War II
broke out in 1939. The organization provided training for the youth and arranged for their resettlement at
kibbutzim and villages in Palestine. Aliyah [Hebrew: ascent] is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to
Israel. It is one of the most basic tenets of Zionism.
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3
3
places like Dachau and some of then never came back.6 I had friends whose fathers were
sent away at that time and the men never came back. It was in 1942 that they really . . .
I wanted to say that up until then, our life was very good. Czechoslovakia was a very
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nice country and we lived a very cultural life. I just can say that we had a very good life.
Jane: What did your father do?
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Hana: My father was a sales representative. He and my grandfather had their own business,
like export/import of foods. My mother helped in the office. We were considered middle
class. We all had maids. That was taken for granted. Everybody had a maid, which we had
Jane: And school?
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to give up when the Germans came.
Hana: School? I really only . . . When the occupation started in 1939, I was . . . 14 years
old. I went to high school. I was not allowed to continue school. That was an official order
that all the Jewish children had to leave school.
Jane: You mentioned to me about wearing a star and a specific incident?
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Hana: Right. I don’t know at which time, [but] we were ordered to wear Jewish stars. For
some reason or the other, they picked on me. They called me to the Gestapo, which was
very scary.7 They accused me that I was seen not wearing the star. I was really a kid. I don't
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know why [but] I never told my parents. I went there alone. They [my parents] didn’t know
about it. I went [and] really faced the Gestapo man. I know what saved me was that I said to
him, "Well, I would never lie to you." Then he let me go. I was questioned. He was trying
to lead me into it [a confession] that I was not wearing the star. I said, "Well, I would never
lie to you." Then they just let me go and never bothered me again with anything like that.
Jane: Then in 1942 you said it got worse?
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Hana: In 1942 . . . the major deportations of the Jews from Czechoslovakia started maybe
in the end of 1941 and [early] 1942. The first transports were shipped to Theresienstadt.8 We
6
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Established on March 22, 1933, Dachau was the first concentration camp established by the Nazi regime. It
was located in southern Germany near the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich. Over 188,000
prisoners passed through Dachau between 1933 and 1945. Prisoners at Dachau were used as forced laborers
and thousands were literally worked to death. Between 1940 and 1945, at least 28,000 died there as a result of
the harsh, overcrowded conditions, medical experiments, and executions.
7
An abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei, which means “Secret State Police.” It was established in 1934 and
placed under Heinrich Himmler. With virtually unlimited powers, it was highly feared. The Gestapo acted to
oppress and persecute Jews and other opponents of the Nazis. The Gestapo ruthlessly rounded up Jews
throughout Europe for deportation to extermination camps.
8
The Theresienstadt (Terezín) "camp-ghetto" near Prague in the present day Czech Republic was opened in
late 1941 and existed until May 1945. On November 24, 1941, the first 1,000 Jews arrived at Theresienstadt as
workers to reconfigure the barracks town into a “settlement” for Jews. It was originally designed to hold
4
had never heard of Theresienstadt and we didn't know what it was. We were just told to take
a certain amount of suitcases and put the most necessary things in there like clothing, some
food, and soap, and things like that. We were all put into a big assembly hall overnight and
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then we were taken to the train station. We were put on a train. We were guarded by the
Germans. In Czechoslovakia, the Germans had a very good system. They didn't do the
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actual guarding themselves, they used the Czech police.9 It was very scary. I was mainly
concerned more about my parents. I wasn’t concerned about myself. I was concerned about
what is going to happen them. Even so, they were not old. They were in their forties.
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[I wondered,] “Are they going to survive?" and "What are they going to do?" I wasn't
worried about myself at that particular moment. I didn't know what was about to happen,
how bad it would be, how dangerous, how serious.
When we got to Theresienstadt, it was like everything you see in the movies. We got
off the trains and they separated us. When we came there, we were allowed to keep our
suitcases. Later on, when people came there they took everything away from them and it
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was taken into a communal warehouse, but we were allowed to keep our things. We didn't
know where we were going to stay. They just gave us just mattresses to sleep on because the
ghetto wasn't built up at that time at all.10 Immediately they separated the men from the
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women. My father was some place else. My mother and I were some place else. We
basically stayed in old army barracks because that was what Theresienstadt was. It was a
[military] garrison. It was a lot of army barracks there. Later on, they built bunks in those
barracks. When we first got there, there was nothing there. We just slept on mattresses [on
the floor]. That’s about what we had.
Jane: Theresienstadt was the ghetto where most Czechoslovakians went through. Can you
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describe what it was like to live in the ghetto?
Hana: In the beginning, it was very different from what it was later on. In the beginning,
they [the Germans] really were not really organized. They didn't know what to do with us.
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prominent Jews, persons of special merit and old people and to camouflage the extermination of European
Jews of world opinion by presenting it as a “model Jewish settlement.” In the course of its existence, it served
as a ghetto, an assembly camp, and a concentration camp for approximately 140,000 Jews from Germany,
Austria, and Bohemia and Moravia. The first Jews arrived at the end of November 1941 and by the end of May
1942, 28,887 Jews had been deported to the ghetto—about one third of the Jewish population of Bohemia and
Moravia. The conditions were terrible and the death rate overall neared 50 percent. Roughly 33,000 died in
Theresienstadt itself.
9
Theresienstadt was administered by the SS but guarded by Czech gendarmes and run internally by a Jewish
Council of Elders.
10
On November 24, 1941, the first 1,000 Jews arrived at Theresienstadt as workers to reconfigure the barracks
town into a “settlement” for Jews.
5
There was still a lot of . . . Not only was it a garrison, it also was a small town, with all the
people that were connected [to it]. People lived there—like a normal life. When we got
there, the gentile [non-Jewish] people were still lived there. Later on, they had to evacuate.11
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First of all, they needed more room for the Jews who were coming. Besides, they didn’t
want us to live together. It was very different in the beginning than what it became later on.
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The whole thing was organized from the bottom up. They had to build it up.
What we did in the beginning, basically we didn't do anything . . . We got orders
what to do. I had several friends there that I knew from school. We were also ordered to go
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and scrub the latrines, which was terrible [work]. In between, I don’t think we did too much.
We lined up for our food. They organized it later so that maybe in a few weeks they founded
several of what I would call “industries.” One of the industries I worked in was repairing
German uniforms as they came from the front. They were damaged by guns, and weapons,
and things like that. We had to repair them. Slowly and surely they did find work for people.
People worked in kitchens. People worked in trades, [like] electricians. People were needed
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there. Theresienstadt really was a self-governed ghetto.12 It was actually governed by Jewish
people, but the Jewish people had to obey what the Germans told them.
Jane: There was a whole community in the ghetto—artists. That was something you were
going to talk about.
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Hana: Yes. That was something I don’t know how it really came about. There was a lot of
talented people in Theresienstadt Later on they permitted us to put—I say "us" but I was
never really active in it too much—they put on concerts, they put on operas, and they put on
plays.13 It was very unusual for a ghetto to have something like that. It was more of an
outlet. When we first got there, we couldn't move out of our barracks. We couldn't be on the
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street. Later on, when the gentiles had to leave the ghetto, we were free to move within the
walls of the ghetto. We could walk on the street. We could go attend all these concerts and
11
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Prior to its inception as the Theresienstadt camp-ghetto, Terezin had been a civilian town. Established in
1780, it was originally a fortress town. In early 1941, its inhabitants, including 10 Jewish families, numbered
3,700 individuals. The non-Jewish population was completely moved out by June 1942.
12
The German authorities charged a Jewish administration called the Council of Elders, with implementing
orders and making selections for the deportations, but otherwise allowed it to act independently as a quasimunicipal authority. The Council organized municipal services, such as housing, electricity and water, sewage
and sanitation, policing, and religious, judicial, and postal services. The council organized personnel for labor
detachments and organized educational activities, cultural events, and religious celebrations.
13
Despite the terrible living conditions and the constant threat of deportation, Theresienstadt had a highly
developed cultural life. Outstanding Jewish artists, mainly from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany,
created drawings and paintings, some of them clandestine depictions of the ghetto's harsh reality. Writers,
professors, musicians, and actors gave lectures, concerts, and theater performances. The ghetto maintained a
lending library of 60,000 volumes.
6
plays when we wanted to. But also, everybody by then . . . had work. There was a certain . .
. youth organizations were very strong.14 There were one or two buildings there that was
occupied only by teenagers. You have probably heard of the book, I Never Saw Another
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Butterfly.15 That was all written by the children there. Those were the children who even
had schooling. People volunteered to hold classes. People worked in agriculture. They
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raised their own vegetables because it was very fertile land. And what else did people do? It
was more or less, they tried to make it self-sufficient when it came to things like that.
Jane: What about deportations from the ghetto? When did that begin?
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Hana: The deportations were on and off until 1944.16 After 1944, it was like a mass
deportation. Up till then, it was on and off. People were just put into transports, given a
number, and they said, “Well, you just have to leave.” People didn’t know. They had no
idea where they were going. People who had it worse, though, were the old people because
there was no medical attention. That is how my father died. He caught pneumonia and they
couldn’t give him any medication. Those things were really . . . Even I was in a hospital
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towards the end of the war. I got hepatitis.17 When I think about it now, I can't believe I ever
got well. The conditions were so bad in the hospital—unsanitary. They [the Jewish doctors
and nurses] tried their best to take care of us.
Jane: During the selections for the deportations, how did they chose the people?
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Hana: I really don’t know how they chose people. I know that in 1944, they just wanted to
get everybody out of there. Before that, I don’t know how the selections were made.
14
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Because of overcrowding and the separation of men and women into different barracks, most families in
Theresienstadt did not live together. In order to make conditions better for the fifteen thousand children who
passed through Theresienstadt, the Jewish leadership established special homes in public buildings. Zionist
youth movements, including Youth Aliyah, actively participated in creating a unique atmosphere within the
homes that focused on preparing the children for emigration to Palestine. Although forbidden to do so, the
children attended school, painted pictures, wrote poetry, and otherwise tried to maintain a vestige of normalcy.
15
I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 19421944 was first published in 1978 by Schocken Books, although a different version of the book was published
by the State Jewish Museum in Prague in 1959. A well-known Austrian Jewish artist, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis
brought art supplies with her to Thereseinstadt and established art classes for children. Although DickerBrandeis and the majority of the children died, two suitcases of their artwork and poems survived the war and
were given to the Prague Jewish community. Decades later, they were rediscovered, exhibited, and collected
for the publication.
16
Of the nearly 90,000 Jews deported from Thereseinstadt to other ghettos, concentration camps, and
extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, over 60,000 were from Bohemia and Moravia. The
first deportation of 2,000 Jews to the ghetto of Riga, Latvia took place in January 1942. After a lull in
deportations over the summer, the final phase began in the fall of 1944. Between September 28, 1944 and
October 28, 1944, a series of 11 transports carried 18,402 Jews from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
By the end of 1944, only 11,068 people remained in the ghetto. Fewer than 3,100 of the Bohemian and
Moravian Jews who were deported from Thereseinstadt are known to have survived.
17
Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, often caused by a virus. Although easily preventable, it is
contagious and can cause chronic liver disease, which can be serious or even fatal in some cases.
7
Jane: What happened at that point to your mother?
Hana: My mother was deported in 1944. We were supposed to have left several times
before, but our numbers were always taken off [the list] because one of my uncles was in
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the Jewish government. In 1944, [it] was like a transport left every week. My mother got a
notice to leave. I wanted to go with her. What they did with people, the people who were
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told to leave had to gather at the train station and stay there overnight and be prepared to go
the next day. I spent all my time with her there. Then, when the actual going took place, you
had to go through a gate and the Gestapo was standing there [with] dogs and everything. I
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thought I just would go out with my mother and that I would just smuggle through. No, they
knew that I wasn't supposed to have been there. They stopped me and said, “No, you can’t
go.”
Jane: That was the last time you saw your mother? <Hana nods to indicate “yes”> You
had shown me a newsletter that you took around in the ghetto. Can you tell me a little bit
about that?
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Hana: I think that was the time before any kind of organized work was available, before
they found out that we can do something else, that we can be more useful. This newsletter
was something that some of us had to take everyday from one room to another. There were
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certain orders or announcements in the newsletter that everybody in room one and room two
and so on . . . I had to sign that they have read it and that they have seen it.
Jane: Theresienstadt was called the "model ghetto." Why was that?
Hana: I think that the Germans wanted to show the International Red Cross that that was
how all the concentration camps or ghettos were run.18 They invited a group of people from
the International Red Cross to come into the ghetto and see what it was "really" like. Before
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they did that we had to put on our best faces.19 That means that everything outside . . . There
German propaganda often portrayed Therseinstadt as a “model ghetto” to mislead or conceal the reality of
its role as a collection center for deportations to ghettos and killing centers in occupied eastern Europe. The
publicly stated purpose for the deportation of the Jews from Germany was their "resettlement to the east,"
where they would be compelled to perform forced labor. Since it seemed implausible that elderly Jews could
be used for forced labor, the Germans cynically described Theresienstadt as a "spa town" where elderly
German Jews could "retire" in safety. The deception likewise served to calm the public when other special
categories of Czech Jews—intellectuals, artists, writers, doctors, and scientists—were deported.
19
Succumbing to pressure following the deportation of Danish Jews to Therseinstadt, the Germans permitted
representatives from the Danish Red Cross and the International Red Cross to visit in June 1944. It was all an
elaborate hoax. Elaborate measures were taken in preparation for the visit to disguise conditions in the ghetto
and to portray an atmosphere of normalcy. To alleviate overcrowding, large transports were sent to AuschwitzBirkenau in May 1944. Those who remained were engaged in a "beautification" program. Prisoners planted
gardens, painted housing complexes, renovated barracks, and developed and practiced cultural programs for
the entertainment of the visiting dignitaries.
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was fresh paint was put on. The children had to lie. They put on plays and everything was
make believe. In fact, they even put on some of the concerts for the Red Cross where the
Germans were proudly present. They told them, "This is how it is." It was all really only
Jane: Did you speak to anyone from the Red Cross when they came?
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make believe because this is not how it really was.
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Hana: No. I don’t think anybody did. It was just the Germans and maybe the high Jewish
officials.
Jane: Towards the end of your life in the ghetto, can you describe . . .
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<End Disk 1>
<Begin Disk 2>
Hana: While I was in the hospital, we heard the rumors about the Allied armies advancing
towards Germany . . .
<break in tape>
Hana: You want me to ask the question?
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Jane: Yes. <interview pauses, then resumes> If we could just backtrack for a moment and
talk a little about your family again. Were you traditional Jews? Were you able to practice
your religion in Theresienstadt?
Hana: There were people who would practice their religion in Theresienstadt. There were
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some very well known rabbis. Rabbi [Leo] Baeck was in Theresienstadt.20 He was very
instrumental in giving people who wanted to be religious, making it possible for them. I’m
not sure, but I think there were some places where they could hold services on holidays. But
I’m not sure about that. As for as [my family], we didn't practice the religion. I didn’t come
from a terribly religious home. We observed the holidays and we knew that we were Jews.
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There were some people there that were highly religious. They were kosher21 and
Orthodox.22 I think the people who were older really suffered the most and especially if they
were kosher. I think they refused to eat the food that was given to them, but slowly but
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surely I think they realized that if they don’t eat that food they won’t have anything. But the
religion certainly wasn’t something that was visible.
20
Leo Baeck (1873-1956) was a well-known liberal rabbi and leader of the German Jewish community. Baeck
was deported to Theresienstadt in 1943. In Theresienstadt, he worked with the Council of Elders, gave
lectures, and worked to care for the youth.
21
Kosher refers to Jewish laws that dictate how food is prepared or served and which kinds of foods or
animals can be eaten.
22
Orthodox Judaism is a traditional branch of Judaism that strictly follows the Written Torah and the Oral
Law concerning prayer, food, social behavior, the Sabbath day, holidays and more.
9
Jane: As the war came to a close and your mother was deported, what happened to you
then?
Hana: When the war came to a close, we were liberated by the Russian army.23 It was like,
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“What do we do now?” We really didn't know where to go or what to do. Each of us knew
that we wanted to go back to our hometown, but there wasn't anybody there to go back to. I
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remember that I had some friends that have gone home and they came back for me. I put
whatever I had left . . . they put it on a truck. We drove into Prague, which at that time was
the Russian zone. My hometown [Pilsen] was occupied by the Americans.24 I had this
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problem of getting from the Russian Zone to the American Zone. I had some friends that
were in the Israeli-Czech army, which was really part of the English army.25 Somehow I met
up with them in Prague. They smuggled me on the bottom of the army truck from the
Russian Zone into the American zone so I was finally was home. But what was I going to do
there? There was nobody there. It was at least a town where I grew up. I found an apartment
and I lived there for about a year. I had relatives in the [United] States and in England. I
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really didn't want to stay there [in Pilsen]. I wanted to leave.
Jane: How did you do that?
Hana: Through legitimate channels. I had relatives in England. They sent me a visa. I
stayed in England for about three years. I couldn’t come to the [United] States but I couldn't
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get a visa.26 Then after about three and a half years, I came to the United States because my
uncle lived here and he sent me a visa.
Jane: If we could talk a little bit about survival. You obviously were able to survive. Can
23
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In May 1945, the total number of prisoners in Theresienstadt exceeded 30,000. The International Red Cross
took over the camp-ghetto’s administration on May 2, 1945. The SS fled Theresienstadt on May 5 and 6.
Scattered German military and SS units continued to fight Soviet forces in the vicinity until Soviet troops
liberated Prague and entered the camp on May 9. They assumed responsibility for its prisoners the next day.
24
On May 3, 1945, the third US Army of General Patton entered Pilsen. Though most units were pulled out
within several weeks of the end of the war, the U.S. Army remained in western Czechoslovakia until
December of 1945.
25
Hana is probably referring to the Brichah (or Bricha or Berichah), an underground effort that helped Jewish
Holocaust survivors escape post-World War II Eastern Europe to what was then the British Mandate for
Palestine. From 1945 to 1948, officers of the Jewish Brigade of the British army, along with operatives from
the Haganah (a clandestine Jewish paramilitary organization that operated in the British Mandate of Palestine
from 1920 to 1948) worked to smuggle survivors into Austria, Germany and Italy and then on to Palestine
through elaborate smuggling networks. The Czechoslovakian government was supportive of the Brichah’s
efforts and Czechoslovakia was one of the key transit points on the route from Poland into to the Americanoccupied zone in Germany and Austria.
26
Hana set sail for New York City, New York aboard the HMS Queen Mary from Southampton, United
Kingdom on May 28, 1949. Restrictions on Immigration into the United States were still in effect at the end of
the war. Congressional action to increase immigration quotas did not come until the Displaced Persons Act of
1948 was signed on June 15, 1948, authorizing 200,000 DPs to enter the United State.
10
you talk a little bit about what you think made some people survive and others not survive?
Was it luck? Was it choices?
Hana: I really don’t know. I think it’s fate. I don't think we had anything to do with it
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really. I think it—what was offered to you, the opportunities—it was total fate. I could have
been deported with my mother. I didn’t know where she was going. It was fate. I don’t think
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it was any kind of an inner strength. Of course you needed your inner strength to survive in
certain respects, but if you are young it comes naturally to you. I think if you’re old—and so
many old people perished—because I think they gave up. Otherwise, I think it was just fate.
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In my situation, there was no way you could fight your way out. Nobody would have dared
to leave. If anybody tried to leave, the person was either caught or the rest of the ghetto was
punished. They once missed one person. They took the whole population of the ghetto. They
marched us into a field. We didn't know whether we were going to be shot [or what]. They
said they wanted to count us. I don’t know how many thousands of people they were trying
to count. It was almost impossible. It was just to instill this fear into us that they were going
to kill us. That’s because they were missing one person. Even if it sounds very good that
something’s happening.”
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there was culture and all that, you always had this feeling, “Yes, I’m not free and
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There was a shortage of food. I think our favorite subject was what we were going to
eat when we get liberated. Everyone was fantasizing.
Jane: About food?
Hana: About food. I still don't understand how we survived. From the nutritional point of
view—and I’ve mentioned this to so many people—it’s beyond my understanding how we
could survive on the type of diet that we were given. We had no eggs. We had no milk. We
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had no meat. Basically what we had was starches and vegetables and not even enough of
that. It's very amazing that we didn't all lose our teeth or whatever. A lot of women stopped
menstruating for that particular reason. It either was stress or it was lack of nutrition. It was
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very common.
Jane: Again, if we could backtrack for a minute. When you left to go to the ghetto
originally, if you could describe some of the feelings of having to leave your home and all
or all of your possessions behind. What was that like?
Hana: I think my main concern was my worry about my parents. [I worried,] “How they
were going to survive?” and “What are they going to do?” I don’t think I was worried about
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myself at that particular time. I don’t think I was aware of the fact of what was really
happening—how bad it was, how dangerous it was, how serious it was.
Jane: Are there any other aspects of this that you’d like to talk about that maybe I haven’t
s
mentioned?
Hana: Maybe I’ll talk about this because this is what’s always on my mind: we’re dealing
iv
e
with the Holocaust per say but nobody realizes the consequences, what people have when
they have lost their families, which you can never really replace. That continues through the
rest of your life.
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ch
Jane: You feel that’s affected you throughout your life?
Hana: Right. My children never knew, never had grandparents. I think it's a very tragic
situation and it's never stressed enough I think when people talk about the Holocaust. At
least in my situation, nobody in my family survived. The people who were fortunate—
maybe their siblings survived or some relatives—but from my family, no relatives have
survived.
ily
Jane: Did you try to find out what happened after the war?
Hana: I tried to find out what happened to my mother. Yes, we all did. I know what
happened to the rest of the family, but I never really found out what happened to my mother.
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m
<End Disk 2>
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ba
Interview Ends