Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Print

Oral history interview with Alegre Tevet

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1991.A.0112.28 | RG Number: RG-50.045.0028

Search this record's additional resources, such as finding aids, documents, or transcripts.

No results match this search term.
Check spelling and try again.

results are loading

0 results found for “keyward”

    Oral history interview with Alegre Tevet
    Transcript
    You see here?
    You can say when you're going to start.
    Pardon?
    Oh 10 seconds.
    You start.
    This is Diane Plotkin.
    It's January 30, 1992.
    We're interviewing Mrs. Alegre Tevet at Southern Methodist
    University.
    I'm Mark Jacobs.
    My name is Alegre Tevet.
    And I came to visit my daughter, Sarah, who lives in Dallas.
    I live in Portland, Oregon.
    Why don't you start by telling us when you were born,
    and where you were born, and something about your family,
    and about growing up.
    Well, I was born in Greece on November 15, 1922
    in the city of Drama, Greece.
    And I was the fourth of the girls.
    And I have three brothers, and four girls.
    We were seven children in our family,
    and my father and mother were living.
    What were your parents' names?
    My father's name was Samuel Kastro.
    My mother's name was Sarah Kastro.
    I had a sister.
    Her name was Regina.
    She was married.
    Her name was Regina Arama.
    I had another sister, she survived with me, Julia Cohen,
    lives in Tel Aviv, Israel.
    My other, sister Matilda Kastro, she's deceased too.
    She was in concentration camp.
    Three brothers Aaron, Menachem and Josef.
    So we was a very nice family, very happy family.
    My father was a shoemaker.
    My mother was a housewife to raise the children.
    We were not very rich.
    We was not poor.
    We all worked very together, the family.
    And my oldest sister, she was a dressmaker.
    My sister, the one she survived, she's a milliner.
    She used to make hats.
    And my other sister, Matilda, she was a beauty operator.
    And I was a beauty operator with her.
    And then I had the three brothers.
    They was going to school, but part time, they
    used to work to make extra money, what they needed.
    We was a very, very happy family,
    and I see the two Jewish schools.
    I went to a Jewish school.
    They call them the School of Alliance.
    I learned my Greek, and my Hebrew,
    and French, which was very important to all
    the Jewish families to learn one extra foreign language.
    Of course, the Hebrew is our nationality,
    not nationality, our faith.
    And the nationality was the Greek.
    Did you speak Ladino in your house?
    Pardon me?
    Did you speak Ladino?
    Yes, at home we used to speak Ladino, everybody
    because I'm a Sephardic.
    And my father and mother, everybody was Sephardic.
    We never have Ashkenazis in our home town.
    And I don't know Ashkenazi is--
    I have a cousin who married Ashkenazi,
    and then we knew the difference from Ashkenazi to Sephardic.
    But we used speak at home, we used to speak Ladino.
    And when I used to go out with the friends,
    we used to speak Greek, and the Hebrew of course,
    to know the religion of the Jewish faith.
    My mother and father, they was a very warm people.
    They give us such a warm home, happy life.
    We never have sadness in our family,
    never screaming, never yelling, always with love, sweetheart.
    I love you.
    We used to behave ourselves.
    We never have the kids to argue or nothing.
    So we was very close family.
    Well, we all went to schools.
    And I was going to high school for two years.
    And then the war broke out.
    So we can't afford it to go to high school.
    I stopped going high school.
    And then I was helping my sister, beauty operator.
    And I was making a little bit of money.
    So when the war broke out and the Greek
    was in war with Albania, and Italian.
    So the Greek went to the war, everything,
    and Germany came through Italy.
    And then from Italy, they came to Greece.
    They lost the war.
    And I used to live in Drama, Greece, which
    is the border of Bulgarian.
    It's north of Greece, they call it Macedonia.
    So in Drama, in Greece, they declared the war
    with the Bulgarians.
    The Bulgarians came through Drama.
    And my mother and father, they was having such a experience
    with the first world war, that the Bulgarian, they
    was barbarians.
    And she was scared.
    And in between, my sister, she was married,
    and she was living in Salonika.
    And when the Italians was bombarding Salonika,
    so my sister came to Drama to visit with the little boy.
    And so when they stopped the bombarding in Salonika,
    she went back.
    And she took one of my sisters, the one
    she lives now in Israel.
    So she took her back with her, and one of my brothers.
    So they went, the four of them to Salonika.
    After a little while, a month after, my other sister
    went with another brother.
    They went to Salonika.
    Can you tell us approximately when this was, what year?
    That was in 1941, in then end of '41.
    And then they went to Salonika.
    So we was only my mother and father and one of my brothers,
    Aaron.
    We was at home in Greece.
    And when the Bulgarians came, my mother says,
    you're a young girl, and the boy, they're going to take you.
    They're going to kill them.
    We have to leave here.
    So they don't allow--
    they was divided, Salonika was divided with the Germans
    and Macedonia was divided with the Bulgarians.
    And they don't give you a permit to go
    to travel, to cross the city.
    So we took false identifications,
    and I went with my mother to Salonika.
    And a week after, my father and brother, we went to Salonika,
    they came.
    They came to Salonika, in between,
    I see all the Jewish people, they
    was wearing those stars, the yellow stars, a Jew.
    So we still was going to work.
    We was working and everything.
    But you have to really make your living,
    because the war, the people was dying from malnutrition
    in the sidewalks in Greece.
    So they don't allow us to go to the central streets.
    Did you have to live in a ghetto?
    Pardon me?
    Did you have to live in a ghetto in Salonika.
    Later on.
    They put us in ghetto, yeah.
    Later on.
    At least we was making a living.
    We was living in a home, nice home.
    We rented and we was working everybody.
    So the whole family was together?
    All, the whole family, we went to Salonika.
    In between, the Bulgarians, they was coming and taking,
    knocking on the doors, and taking--
    it doesn't make any difference if you're Jewish or not Jewish.
    They were knocking in the door.
    They take the people, and they kill them.
    But after a couple of months, the Bulgarians,
    in the middle of the night, they knocked all the Jewish homes
    on the doors, and they took the people,
    the way they was, with their nightgowns, with pajamas.
    Some people, they was giving a birth to a baby,
    with the little babies.
    They were the ones they took them to warehouses.
    And that's what we heard from some Greek people that
    came to Salonika.
    They heard, they took all the Jewish people.
    They brought them to warehouses.
    We never know what happened to all those Jewish people,
    not only to Drama, not only Kavala, if you see on the map,
    in the Greek map, Drama, Kavala, Serres, Xanthi, Komotini,
    Alexandroupoli, [PLACE NAME]---- all those cities.
    They took all the Jewish people.
    They put them in a warehouse.
    But they don't know nobody what happened.
    So some people they say, they put them
    in the trench, which was true that they put them in trench.
    And they throw them in the [PLACE NAME] River.
    That's what they say.
    So, I heard from a lot of people,
    they did that to all those Jewish people.
    But nobody survive, nobody.
    The only thing we was lucky, the family, we
    left Drama and we went to Salonika,
    and I'm here now to talk my story what happened.
    In 1942, they put us in ghettos in Salonika.
    That was close to the depot train, train depot.
    They put us in ghetto for a week or two weeks.
    We stay over there.
    And then they take transports.
    You know what is transport.
    They took in transports, and they put them in the trains.
    The trains was like cargo--
    little small window with the bars, one on one side,
    one on the other side, like animals.
    So they shoveled us down inside, one on top of the other.
    And no water, no food, until we went to Birkenau.
    So whatever we took with us, sometimes they stopped,
    they took us a little barrel of water, and they take the,
    you know you have to go to bathroom
    and things like that, they clean up.
    So about five or six days, we stay on those trains, five,
    maybe a week.
    Before you tell us about the camps,
    can you tell us what it was like in the ghetto?
    In the ghetto was nothing to tell you.
    For two weeks, three weeks, we was over there.
    It was nothing, because the ghetto was only Jewish people.
    That ghetto was little houses, and houses, and houses.
    They used to live Jewish people in Salonika.
    They took the transport, the first ones they took on those.
    They took him to concentration camp,
    and they cleared up that one, and they
    prepare that when they take in transports,
    they bring them over there.
    They don't took all the Jewish at once to put it in a ghetto,
    because there was a lot of Jewish people in Salonika.
    There was very, very wealthy, and very, very poor people.
    So the poor class, they used to live in that ghetto.
    They took them first those.
    They cleared up.
    And then they started to transport.
    They take them, example, one section of the city.
    They bring it to that ghetto.
    And then they take another section of the city.
    They bring in the ghetto.
    See?
    In between, some people, if they can hide, fine.
    But it was impossible to hide.
    How many people to a room?
    How many people to a room?
    Oh 10, 10, 20 people.
    To a room?
    Not to the room, to two rooms.
    To two rooms?
    To two rooms, yeah.
    What kind of food did you get?
    Whatever we took from home, because when they took us
    from home they put us in the ghetto over there, see?
    Whatever we brought from home, we never know where we going.
    Nobody knows where we was going.
    See?
    It's impossible to know what you're taking.
    I don't know.
    We never thought that it's going to happen that way.
    So we took whatever we have at home, a little flour,
    rice, beans, whatever we had.
    And that's what-- and then they used
    to bring us like the salvation army, they bring soup.
    What do you call them that?
    Soup kitchen.
    That they used to bring us too.
    And for three weeks, we was over there,
    until the transport there was.
    As soon as we was leaving, there was coming another section,
    another section of Jewish people they bring them to the ghetto.
    So when we went to Birkenau, it was hard.
    We never thought.
    Because we saw the snow and everything.
    It's still snowing over there.
    We would say, where are we going?
    Right away, they opened the doors, and they drop us down,
    and they start to separating.
    About how long was your train ride?
    Five, six days, a week almost.
    It was a week.
    It was a week.
    Do you remember about how many people were in your train?
    Oh, my god.
    You can't count the people.
    You can't count the people.
    It was one on top of the other.
    You can't stretch your feet.
    It was impossible.
    Can you describe any of the people?
    Who they was?
    Yeah, there was a lot of families
    which were from the section I used to live,
    from the, like example, the west side, east side.
    What do you call them that?
    So that.
    And we don't know the people, because we never
    live in Salonika.
    We just was transferred from Drama to Salonika.
    We don't know the people.
    But they were Jewish people, nice people.
    Did they all survive the ride?
    If they survived, some of them, I don't know.
    Did they survive the train ride?
    Did anybody die on the train ride?
    Yes, two people died in the train, yeah, two people.
    Two people die.
    And they took them, they throw them out.
    That's all.
    It was hard.
    It was a very bad experience to be in that train, very bad.
    My father used to say when he left the house, he was crying.
    He broke every dish, every glass of the house.
    And he pulled the mezuzah from the door.
    And he was praying.
    He was so sad, very sad.
    He pulled the mezuzah from the door, and he said,
    god shall be with us.
    He was still a young man, to see such a tragic life,
    very tragic life.
    Everybody was thinking that was the end of our lives
    when we was in the train.
    We never thought we was going to be alive out of the train.
    So when they took us out and they opened the doors,
    and they were saying [NON-ENGLISH] here.
    The older in here, and the women here, and the girls here,
    and boys here.
    So they separate to us, and I was running with my mother,
    because I was very close to my mother.
    And they pulled me up, and they took me
    with my other two sisters.
    My older sister, she was holding the little boy in her arms.
    So they took her with my mother, she went.
    Two of my brothers, Aaron and Menachem, they went separate.
    My father separate.
    My little boy, but my mother.
    My boy was 10 years old, very smart.
    He learned the German language right away.
    Who was the 10-year-old?
    I'm sorry.
    Pardon me?
    Who was the little boy?
    Josef.
    And who was he?
    My brother.
    Your brother, OK.
    He learned.
    He was a very smart boy.
    He learned right away the German language in a short time.
    And then they took us, line, walking, walking.
    We went to Birkenau.
    Who did you march in front of somebody?
    Did you go in front of somebody?
    For people, yes, yes, big, 1,000 people, sweetheart, thousands
    and thousands.
    We was in the line.
    Yeah, there are some people, they survived with the--
    we was together.
    And they live.
    One lives in Seattle.
    One lives in New York.
    Who told you where to go?
    Where to go?
    There was the Germans with the dogs.
    With the dogs?
    Yes.
    There was the Germans with the dogs.
    And we used to walk, and we walk straight,
    like you walk in the army.
    And we went to the--
    it was a big community--
    they call them [NON-ENGLISH].
    They take a shower.
    They shaved.
    We took all the clothes.
    They shaved our hair, every place.
    And they-- they keep us like this, nude.
    And then you're going to take a shower.
    Before we took a shower, they put the--
    they put us the number.
    And then we went to take a shower.
    And they gave us clothes like camp clothes, a pants,
    and a jacket, and underwear, some stockings,
    some shoes with the wood.
    Like prisoners we was.
    And then they put us in the blocks.
    And they come in the barracks.
    You know the barracks?
    What shall I start now?
    We went inside, everybody cry.
    Crying, we don't know what happened to everybody.
    We was my two sisters and I, three we was together.
    We never separated for a little while.
    You know, we was always together.
    We was going to for 40 days, they have us quarantine,
    not to go out of the cabin.
    But maybe I was young, but I was very curious, very courage.
    And I have some friends that survived.
    They are in Salonika too, in Israel.
    She said to me, Alegre, they're asking,
    the barrack was divided in four sections.
    And they call them-- each section they have
    a [NON-ENGLISH].
    [NON-ENGLISH] is like they watch you.
    You go to bed, if you're sleeping,
    or you're doing something wrong, they
    report to the blockalteste, the one the higher of the barrack.
    Maybe you there know better those things.
    And each [NON-ENGLISH],, some of them they was nice,
    because they were Jewish too.
    Some of them, they wanted to be strictly not
    to get involved wrong.
    So this is we can go to the bathroom.
    We can't go out.
    So everything was at the barrack.
    They have big barrels in each section of the barrack,
    so we used to do that over there.
    And then when the time comes, you
    have to go and throw it in the toilet outside.
    So they says, I want four girls.
    Who wants to go out?
    The second day, I went out.
    I went out.
    I was so curious.
    I want to know what's going on now.
    So we went with four girls, take the barrels.
    It was very heavy.
    It was iron, very heavy.
    So we went, and we saw some French Jewish girls,
    and Polish.
    I don't know Poland.
    I don't know other language, only French.
    I ask her, what happened to our mothers?
    And start crying, she says [NON-ENGLISH]..
    They burned them up.
    I say, how can they burn up?
    She said, don't you see the chimney?
    The smoke, she says.
    That's what our mothers is, and fathers, and brothers,
    and sisters, everybody that are over there.
    I don't know how we came with that barrel
    back in the barrack.
    Like I don't know.
    I don't know.
    We came.
    We start screaming.
    And we said, the whole barrack over there
    was two section was Greek Jewish, you know Sephardics.
    And the other section was Ashkenazis.
    But we were so friendly, everybody.
    Those two, they was in quarantine too.
    And I say, they burn our parents.
    They put them in the ovens.
    They burned them up.
    And everybody is screaming and crying.
    So the [GERMAN],, the ones they was watching us, and they say,
    they was trying to give us what do you call them--
    to give us a little comfort.
    They says, you have to look for your life.
    They says, now they're gone, they says.
    We can't bring them back, they says.
    If you're strong, you will survive, they says.
    And I don't know.
    My mother, she always was afraid of fire.
    She always was very--
    she a lot of fear of fire.
    How she came and she went over there?
    I was thinking that, and it was driving me crazy.
    So one of my sisters, Matilda, she
    became very depressed, very, very depressed.
    She was working with us.
    We was working in Auskommando.
    Auskommando is outdoor, and very hard labor.
    Take like walls they are, we used
    to take like those electric poles, they got,
    those heavy ones, and to push them, and to break the walls,
    and then to take the bricks, and clean the bricks.
    Hard labor.
    What they need those bricks for?
    But to give us a hard labor.
    So I work over there for six months.
    In 1942, by the end of 1942, and then we went to Auschwitz.
    Before I went to Auschwitz, they make a selection.
    You know what is selection?
    Selection.
    And they made a selection.
    And then they went to work.
    And my sister, Matilda, she was very, very skinny,
    like a skeleton.
    But she was about six months she was at the camp with us.
    She went to work a little bit.
    I said to her, please Matilda, come with us.
    Don't stay.
    You stay in the lager, they're going
    to put you in crematorium.
    You're working, you forget.
    Come with us.
    She was very depressed, very depressed.
    She was staying always.
    She always sick, sick, sick.
    They made a big selection.
    They took her.
    And one time she skip, she ran away back to the cabin.
    Well a week after, and she told me that, she told us.
    A week after, they made a big, big selection.
    And they took her.
    They took her.
    She knew she was going to go to crematorium.
    See my mother, my other sister don't know.
    They took a shower, from the gas, one breath,
    and that's all.
    But my sister Matilda knew it.
    She was going to go to crematorium.
    She knew it.
    My brothers, two brothers, three.
    But she knew it, Matilda.
    She knew that.
    It was hard for her, poor girl, young.
    22 years old, the fruit of her life.
    So we went back from work.
    And I-- when we went, and I saw the bed what's happening,
    and I asked the girls from the other side.
    I said, what happened to my sister?
    They said, they took her.
    They took her.
    So, that was one big tragedy.
    I lost my mother and father and my brothers.
    But I knew that my sister, she knew it,
    she was going to go over there.
    So that was really very sad, very, very sad.
    So after they transfer us to Auschwitz,
    I was working in a shoe kommando.
    Shoe kommando is for the shoes.
    So to take the leather, separate it, the [NON-ENGLISH],,
    with the plastic separate, the rubber separate, everything.
    So the whole shoe, how it was was the shoe,
    we peeled like you peel a potato,
    like this we peel the whole shoe, clean them up.
    And we separated.
    So I work over there more than a year.
    And in between, that was in 1943 and '44.
    And I was working in a shoe kommando.
    And then the German came, a big husky man
    with a fur coat and everything.
    And he was like a commander.
    He came, and he checked, and he said to me, [GERMAN]..
    So I stand up.
    He said, [GERMAN].
    You have dirt on your hands.
    I said, no soap.
    [GERMAN], I say.
    No soap.
    [GERMAN] So as soon as we went to the lager back,
    right away the whole kommando we went to take a shower.
    Once a week, they gave us.
    They never gave us soap to wash.
    So and then every day we used to take showers.
    So I was lucky I was working in a shoe kommando.
    There was not rain, it was indoor, not in the rain.
    So I worked for a little while over there, almost a year.
    I learned the German.
    I was obligated to learn a little bit German.
    So if they said to me, [GERMAN],, I can say [GERMAN]..
    He's going to slap in your face.
    So I have to know what it means, [GERMAN],, get up.
    So and I learned the language a little bit.
    So I work at the shoe kommando.
    There was coming transport from Hungary, the end in 1944.
    From Hungary, and all the transport was coming directly
    they was taken to the crematorium.
    And all the things that was coming from the transport,
    they used to take them, and throw them in a ditch.
    So when I used to go from one barrack
    to another with other girls to pick some shoes to bring
    to there, we used to go to the ditch and dig over there,
    and if we find something, so we can eat,
    like you find a jar of marmalade,
    you know something, at least a few potatoes.
    We used to dig in the ditch, and to take.
    When you're hungry, you can eat the rats.
    And then in Auschwitz, every once in a while,
    they used to make the zahlappell.
    Zahlappell is to count.
    They don't count you.
    They don't call you by name, they call you by number.
    See, they have the list, and they call you by number.
    Sometimes they make it to be nude, not to wear clothes.
    And they take you outdoors, outside of your barrack.
    Each barrack, they have their own group.
    We was in the barrack, and over there we
    was about 120 people, 130 people, each barrack.
    And they call them barracks in here,
    but we used to call them blocks.
    Blocket, maybe your daddy knows that.
    And they used to call us, and we stay nude,
    and they used to call by name.
    And you say [NON-ENGLISH].
    If somebody is absent or is inside, they don't came out,
    the whole lager you have to be blocksperre.
    Blocksperre is nobody can go out of the block.
    Nobody.
    If they see you go out, they shoot you.
    Blocksperre is like here, they say curfew.
    No out at all.
    So we never went out.
    Because somebody was missing.
    And then when they find it, they take him and the hang him.
    So two girls that tried to run away, two beautiful girls,
    they tried to run away.
    They caught them.
    They brought us from work to the lager to see the hang them up,
    the two girls, in front of our eyes.
    It don't happen one time, it don't happen twice,
    it happened so many times, happen that,
    in case you're not in the appell when they come to you.
    They have to count.
    Each day, every morning and every night,
    when you come from work they count you up.
    And when the morning, before you go to work they count you up.
    So there, they're very strict.
    You can skip from one block to another like this,
    everything was barbed wire.
    If you go close to the wire, you get electric shock.
    So you can't.
    Hard time.
    There came in 1944 when they started to come aeroplanes,
    and started bombarding in Auschwitz.
    And as soon as they was coming, the aeroplanes,
    they start coming, they used to take us in shelters,
    in warehouse shelters.
    It's war shelters, now, you call them, war shelters.
    And they put us over there.
    And we can hear the bomb, the aeroplanes,
    but they never, never throw one bomb in the concentration camp.
    Never.
    I don't know.
    I never heard.
    But we was there for quite a few times, five,
    six times, when they came and they was doing that.
    And then they decided to take us from Auschwitz
    to bring us to Bergen-Belsen.
    So we work two days and two nights,
    all day you walk in the snow.
    And you see ditches, one side, the other side.
    A lot of people dead in the ditches.
    A lot of people dead.
    They shoot them.
    If you cannot walk, they shoot you.
    If you're starting to cripple down, they shoot you.
    So you have to be very strong, and like you are alert,
    alert to be.
    And--
    I saw ditches of people die, dead.
    On the other side pictures of people dead.
    So we walk the whole day.
    We stop.
    We have some soup.
    And then walk again.
    So we walk, and they put us in barns,
    you know where the animals you put in, barns,
    with the straw, a lot of straw.
    That was our beds.
    We sit down.
    And you sit down in the straw, and go to sleep for the night.
    Early in the morning, was the coffee all,
    the coffee to give us the coffee, and a piece of bread.
    And then walk again, until we walk two days.
    And then we took the train.
    And they bring us with the closed trains, some of them
    was open, some were closed.
    They took us to Bergen-Belsen.
    When was this?
    Bergen-Belsen?
    When?
    In 1944.
    The end of '44 and '45.
    In '45, yeah, because we don't stay too much in Bergen-Belsen,
    that's what I remember, see, the end of '44.
    We walk in the snow 1944.
    And we went with the trains.
    When we saw the trains, we thought
    that was the end of our lives.
    We thought that they're going to take us directly.
    A lot of people die from suffocation, malnutrition,
    no food, no nothing, or fear.
    So they die in the trains.
    And then we arrive in Bergen-Belsen.
    And they put us in cabins, in barrack, barracks.
    They put us in barracks.
    And then they--
    I was working in Auskommando again.
    My sister always was with me.
    But before I go to Bergen-Belsen,
    I have something more important.
    When I was in the show kommando, and I am in Auschwitz,
    and then the separate us.
    They say, they cut the girls, not too many girls
    to work in the shoe commando.
    So they separate me with my sister, Julia.
    I have to tell that.
    And my sister, she was working in Auskommando, it's outdoors.
    So I was-- I knew beauty operator, so I started
    fixing her to the blockalteste.
    That is the higher up of the of the barrack.
    And I beg her if my sister can have a better kommando to work.
    She say, I'll put her to sew.
    So I put my sister with my little German language,
    I put my sister to go sew, in a kommando of sewing.
    So she was indoor working.
    And she was working in the evening.
    I was working in the daytime.
    Always we used to meet at the gate of the lager.
    When I used to go out to work, she used to come.
    So it still was nice, we see each other.
    I know she was in indoor kommando working.
    So after when they said they're going
    to send us to Bergen-Belsen, I said I want my sister together
    with me.
    That's the only one I got, I say.
    Because that kommando, that was going to go later.
    So I took my sister with me.
    And she was with me all the way through to Bergen-Belsen.
    When we went to Bergen-Belsen, we worked together
    in the Auskommando.
    And they put you in the toilets, where they go.
    Some people, they worked hard.
    They go to the toilet.
    They relax for 10, 15 minutes.
    They have to have a guard in to watch if you
    stay too long over there.
    There was a German with a dog in one
    side, and another German soldier with the dog on the other side.
    So they never let the girls to stay too long in the bathroom.
    So when my sister and I was working, and he said to me,
    the German [NON-ENGLISH],, come here.
    So I start shaking.
    And my sister said, [NON-ENGLISH]..
    He said, [NON-ENGLISH],, come here.
    He said to me, he said, why are you crying all the time?
    I said, why shouldn't I cry?
    My mother kaput, my father kaput, my brother kaput,
    my sister kaput.
    All is kaput, I said.
    Everybody die.
    Why shouldn't I be sad?
    And that was in the middle--
    that was in '45, I think was in February,
    in March he said to me, he said [NON-ENGLISH],, he says, please,
    don't cry, he says.
    You're going to go home.
    No mother, I say, no home.
    No mother, no father, and I say no brother, no nothing.
    I say where should I go home?
    I say, where am I going to go home?
    He say, yeah you're going to go home.
    He says, me kaput he says to me, exactly like this.
    He said me kaput.
    Anyway, so that was an appeal to me,
    but he gave him a little something.
    Because he used to see me, always I
    was crying, working and crying.
    The tears was coming everybody, see?
    We're at the end of our lives.
    There was very hard labor.
    And then they don't let us work for a month,
    because the war was losing, and we was at the barracks
    all the time.
    And so some girls were singing.
    Some, they was laughing.
    Some, they was crying.
    Some, they was dying.
    So one morning, it was the dream of our lives.
    Never, never thought I was going to see that day.
    We get up early in the morning, oh, and we saw the white flags.
    I don't know what was the white flag for or nothing.
    And there was screaming people.
    We was free.
    We are free!
    We are free!
    And some people from the joy and happy there was,
    they die right away.
    Right away, they die, in front of our eyes.
    I say, listen, sweetheart, we are free.
    I say, we're going to go home.
    To where?
    Where are we going to go?
    We don't got a home.
    Where are we going?
    But we was free.
    We was free.
    They came right away in the tanks, the big tanks
    and the big trucks.
    With the English and the Germans on top the trunks
    and the tanks.
    And everybody screaming and throwing rocks at the Germans.
    You can't kill with a rag, a piece of rap, you throw to him,
    it's nothing for him.
    But you feel like you did something if you throw.
    Anyway, so it was a pleasant day to see the freedom,
    and it was a sad day, a very sad day.
    If you think, you lost the whole family, lost the whole family.
    I have so much to learn on my family.
    Never had the chance to see nothing.
    I saw my brothers a few times at the camp,
    when I was going to work.
    They separate 20 girls one side to take us in another kommando.
    And all of a sudden, I don't know.
    I was so courage all the time.
    I was, I want to see everything.
    I'm very curious, curious for my life.
    I want to know what's going on.
    So I went always.
    I want to be in the front line, always.
    So I went to the front line, 20 girls they separated,
    my sister and I, we went.
    We went to a that commander, and we saw--
    and my two brothers, Menachem and Ari, Aaron.
    And they was pushing, the car, the wagon,
    they put horses, to carry the wagon, right?
    Then the person was the horses, and they was pulling
    the wagon, full of bricks.
    So I had my bread for to eat for lunch.
    And I throw my bread to my brother.
    And I say, Ari, eat please that bread.
    So three times I saw him and to my other brother, Menachem.
    So my sister and I, we never eat the bread.
    We always prepare it, when are we going to go and see it,
    to throw the bread to him.
    I used to leave always a piece underneath a bush,
    and he said because that commander, that's
    the only commander, there was women to work,
    to clean the bricks.
    And the men they used to come, take all the clean bricks,
    put them in the wagon and carry them to the devil,
    to another corner.
    Hard time.
    So I saw three times, and three times I give my bread only.
    And that's what I find out, and then I
    don't see them at all anymore.
    When I saw some people, they survive,
    I ask if they saw my brothers.
    They were so handsome, oh dear god.
    Dear god, I have in front of my eyes the whole family
    right now.
    I can see his face, tall and blond,
    and red face, so handsome.
    My other brother, Menachem, so affection,
    for who shall I cry first?
    For who shall I cry?
    Honest to god, drives you crazy sometimes.
    Drives you crazy.
    That is impossible to forget, it's impossible.
    But I was free, thank god.
    I never dream, never in my life dream I'm
    going to be free from there.
    [NON-ENGLISH], thank god.
    I'm alive and I can tell my story.
    It was they treat us very good, they came the English.
    They treat us.
    They put us in another warehouse with the regular beds.
    And they start giving us food.
    Some people, they die.
    They can't resist from the food they give us.
    They died.
    They never see the freedom.
    You cry for them too, because they went through so much.
    And at the end of the war, they never
    have the chance to see nothing.
    For who shall I see?
    They give us clothes.
    They took all the pictures.
    They took movies, the English.
    It was they treated us very good.
    They came the Red Cross.
    They asked me if I want to go to Israel, if I
    want to go to the United States, whether I
    want to go back to my hometown.
    I said, I want to go back to Greece.
    Maybe I'll find my brothers.
    I know the rest of my family nobody's going to be alive.
    But at least I'll see my baby.
    I find my brothers.
    So I had a first cousin in Athens.
    She survived.
    She went to hide, because a lot of people there
    they change into the German camp--
    to Athens.
    People run in the mountains.
    They hide and in other cities.
    But in Macedonia, they don't have the chance.
    They was blocked from both sides.
    So I have both sides from Salonika and from Drama, Greece
    and Serres.
    They was clocked like this, see?
    You can't escape.
    And I send a message with the Red Cross to my cousin
    in Athens that I'm alive.
    And between, they put in the Jewish community
    in Athens, the list of the survivors.
    And my cousin, two cousins, they saw the list,
    and they was very happy to know.
    And then I have first cousins in Israel.
    They went in 1933.
    They went.
    At that time, they was going emigrate a lot of people
    to Israel in 1932, '33.
    So she-- so they notified over there that we are alive.
    And then from there they, took us
    they put us in Belgium, another city,
    clean up, and treat us good.
    We stay over there for a little while.
    And then they bring us up in the mountains, something in Sweden.
    They put us in tents.
    And we stay over there maybe 10 days, two weeks.
    And then from there we went to Brussels.
    In Brussels, we stay like a dormitory.
    It's not a room, a room, a room, a big, big, big dormitory,
    big good beds, and everything, but it was not room separated.
    You know what I mean.
    And there were showers, a big cantina restaurant,
    and everything was free.
    And they give us a few dollars money, if we go out to spend,
    so right away everybody wants to go fix her hair,
    to look like a mensch, like a human being.
    And so, and I know the French.
    All the girls, they know French to speak.
    And we was getting along very well in Brussels.
    Really I like it very much.
    The people was very nice.
    They treated us good.
    He's just going to change the tapes.
    OK, Mark is there anything, any gaps here
    that you want to fill in?
    10 seconds.
    Some Brussels was very nice.
    The people, they treat us very well.
    I know I repeat it again.
    But it was lovely.
    We stay over there.
    And then from Brussels, they put us in cargo planes,
    not with the seats, cargo, where everybody on the floor sitting.
    So we went to the first time I flew in 1945,
    and it was in June--
    no, no.
    No June, I'm sorry.
    No.
    It was not in June.
    I arrived in Athens in September,
    just about the end of August and September,
    I don't remember really well, really.
    And I stay over there for a week over my cousin's.
    First, they put us in the synagogue in a hall to sleep.
    Over there, mix men and women.
    I said I left the concentration camp.
    I came to a country.
    I thought they're going to treat us like a human being.
    So far they treat us after the liberation,
    we sleep in beds and everything.
    Now they put us in the synagogue over there in the floor.
    They give us a blanket, and sleep over here.
    So I went to my cousin, and we stayed
    with my cousins, my sister and I. And then a week
    after, we took the bus and we went to Salonika.
    We went to Salonika.
    The Jewish community.
    They put us up in a synagogue, and they
    divided with the straw mattresses, things like that,
    gave us a new blanket, and a few dollars.
    That time, you notice what is the freedom, what I don't die.
    What is the freedom for, to suffer like this?
    And we sleep one night over there.
    The next day I said to my sister and I,
    we knew a man that's from my hometown.
    He was at the concentration camp.
    And he inherited the house from his brother.
    So we say, if we can rent one room of his house.
    So he says, you are from my hometown,
    I'll give it to you the room free.
    So he gave us one room to live over there in Salonika.
    So we stayed over there at least September or October in 1945.
    But it was Rosh Hashanah.
    My husband, he was in concentration camp too.
    So my cousin told me, Albert Tevet is alive too.
    Oh, I say.
    He's from my hometown.
    I know him very well.
    So I said I hope we see him.
    So when I went to Salonika, he came to the Jewish community
    and he saw me and my sister.
    Oh, he say, you are alive.
    I saw the list.
    Where is Matilda?
    Because he used to like my sister very much.
    So I say Matilda don't survive.
    Why don't you come to Drama, he said.
    He already survived.
    He went back to to Drama, from my hometown.
    He got his business back and everything.
    He had lots of supplies.
    So he got his business back.
    He already established himself.
    He said, why don't you come to Drama?
    I said, what for?
    I don't got nobody in Drama.
    I don't got nobody here.
    I don't know what are we going to do.
    He says, listen, why don't you have Rosh Hashanah with me?
    I'll take you to the synagogue.
    We'll have dinner, he says I'll treat you like a brother.
    I'll treat you like a sister, he says, two sisters.
    So well, very good.
    So all of a sudden, we were sitting over there.
    They came two of my girlfriends.
    They was from Serres, And he was born in Serres, my husband.
    And I say, here is Suzanna and Stella.
    I want you to meet them.
    And he said from Serres, Yeah.
    They start talking, and talking.
    He forgot that I was over there, and he told me,
    we're going to go to have Rosh Hashanah together
    and everything, so he was talking with them.
    And then I said, Albert, I will see you tomorrow.
    Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
    So fine.
    So I told him where we live and then everything fine.
    So we went, and we went, and like he don't care.
    He went.
    He took Stella and Suzanna because,
    and he went to the synagogue, and he
    thought he was going to meet us over there.
    Fine.
    So the next day he said, I'm sorry.
    I thought we were going to meet over here.
    He make excuses.
    I said, OK.
    So he said, why don't you come to Drama?
    Come to Drama.
    You're going to see.
    You got a house of your cousins maybe you inherited.
    So I went back to Drama.
    As soon as I came, our live, it was like crazy,
    my sister and I, we were losing our minds.
    Because we was well known in the city, very well known,
    especially my other two sisters, very, very well known.
    And the one, she lives in Israel.
    Because we were the only Jewish people.
    We had a big house that we was working at home
    to have the beauty shop, the dressmaker, and the milliner,
    the only Jewish family.
    And we was very well known.
    All the Greek people, they knew us.
    All the Jewish people knew us.
    So where is Matilda?
    Where is Matilda?
    Where is-- everybody.
    [NON-ENGLISH] As soon as I start talking, I was crying.
    I was so sick.
    I was very sick.
    Anyway, so Albert, he says, listen.
    I'll stay in a hotel.
    I'll pay for the hotel.
    So he pay for the hotel for us.
    He took us out to dinner for two nights.
    I said, I have to leave here.
    I can't stay one second.
    We're losing our minds.
    He said, don't lose your mind because you're going to come
    and stay here.
    He said, I'm going to marry you.
    Well, I said, my sister, she's older than me.
    I came from an old school.
    I said my sister is the oldest one.
    First, she's going to marry, her.
    And then I'll marry her, I say.
    And so we went back to Salonika and my sister was engaged.
    She marry a man.
    He was survivor too.
    And then I went back home to Drama,
    and I married my husband.
    When was that?
    In 1945, I marry in 1945, in November.
    Very quick.
    Yes.
    I marry in November.
    I want to marry because I want to be protected.
    I want to be--
    I want to just look at-- god throw me out.
    I don't have nothing, nothing.
    And my husband, he was very good, very well to do,
    thank god.
    He treated me like a queen.
    And I had a very happy life, very, very happy life.
    I had a son, Isaac.
    He's 45.
    He's an architect.
    He's married, and he got two children, Avi and Shanna.
    He has a happy life, he very good to me.
    He's like his father.
    He was born in Greece.
    My daughter, Sarah, married to a wonderful man.
    They have two boys, Jacob and Jeremy,
    and they're sweethearts.
    And then I have my other daughter, Matilda,
    married to Marty Rosenberg.
    He's a reporter.
    He lives in Kansas city.
    They have three beautiful children, gorgeous.
    They all go to Jewish schools.
    That's my dream.
    What year did you come to the United States?
    I came in 1951.
    And I can change nothing no more.
    I'm so lucky to be here.
    I came in 1951.
    I don't know one word of English.
    How is it that you all decided to come to the United States?
    I tell you why.
    My son was born in Greece, and my daughter was born in Greece.
    I had two children in Greece.
    Sarah was three years old, Isaac was five.
    No future for my children.
    Six family, Jewish families in Drama, too much antisemitism,
    too much hatred.
    I can see my husband, because he progressed right away.
    He came back from camp.
    Albert, how come Hitler left you alive?
    Do you think it was a joke to say that?
    The minute from inside, they used to tell me,
    how come you alive?
    How come?
    They took Matilda.
    How come they didn't took you?
    I said I was lucky.
    I was smart.
    What can I say?
    But when they was giving visa for to come to the United
    States, my husband said to me, you know, Alegre,
    they're giving visa to go to the United States.
    I said burn everything.
    Let's get out from here.
    I was comfortable, very comfortable, very comfortable.
    And I mean it that richness doesn't make you happy.
    If you have love, communication of your family,
    and understanding, that is the most important thing to me.
    I was rich.
    I was happy.
    But I no have that future for my children.
    I lost everybody, and I want to bring my children back,
    to bring my family back.
    I came to the United States in 1951, October 1st.
    I stayed in new York for a month because I
    was pregnant with my daughter Matilda.
    After that, they decided to send me.
    But I was-- my visa was for to go to Cleveland, Ohio.
    There's a lot of Sephardim, they are here in Portland,
    he says, and Seattle.
    So they took us to Portland.
    Right away I met a lot of friends, very good friends.
    They became like a family to me.
    I start to learn the language.
    I thank god.
    I educated all my children very well.
    The only regret in my life is, my husband.
    He never saw nothing, never.
    His dream was to see Isaac get his diploma of architect.
    His dream is to see Mary, to put the tallis.
    He never saw that.
    His dream was to have grandchildren.
    He never saw that.
    That's the only regret in my life, nothing else.
    Everything is smooth, thank god.
    But the regret of my life is Albert never
    saw nothing, nothing.
    21 years it's going to be in May I lost my husband.
    But all my children are very well educated.
    I have a son.
    He's an architect.
    He's doing well.
    My daughter, Sarah, she got her masters of teaching.
    My other daughter is a social worker.
    They all graduate colleges very well, marry nice mans.
    I can't ask for better than that.
    I never dreamed I was going to have grandchildren
    and children, never.
    I'm so thankful, god, I'm here in the United
    States of America, believe me.
    It give me the opportunity to do the kids, they understand me.
    They have the pain what I went through.
    They went through a lot with me, all the nightmares, all
    the screaming, all the crying.
    They went through a lot, those kids.
    They gave me courage.
    Mama, be optimistic.
    Never worry.
    We are here for you.
    We love you.
    All you ask, no better than that,
    believe me, to have a nice family.
    Thank god.
    But I don't have no desire to go back
    to Greece, no, not anymore.
    I took my two daughters.
    I went in 1972 after I hear my husband die.
    And I saw them in the place where she was born, Sarah.
    But they have hatred there, the Greeks,
    the antisemitism inside.
    You said your life was happy before the war.
    And you didn't mention antisemitism before the war.
    There was not so much we heard, because I
    went to a Jewish school.
    I was not associated with the Christians.
    I always have Jewish friends.
    All our companies was Jewish people.
    So I never heard.
    After the war, the war started, and they came.
    And now, with what Hitler done, because what
    is the hatred more?
    Because they came, the Greeks from the villages,
    and they took all the good things of the Jewish people.
    See?
    They took a profit from the Jewish people.
    They had that hatred now.
    They saw the Jewish people, they're rich.
    The Jewish people, they're smart.
    They said to me, everybody, even I got a neighbor.
    He said, the Jewish people they are very, very rich.
    I said to her, listen, sweetheart, the Jewish people,
    they are rich.
    They're rich of mind, I say.
    They have a rich mind, I say.
    You see philosophers, big doctors.
    The Jewish, they're educated.
    You don't see a Jewish person as they sweep the streets.
    Only the Jewish school and books, I say.
    That's the richness, not rich of money.
    Because everybody got a hatred, the Jewish people,
    they're rich, rich, rich.
    I said, not the Jewish people they are.
    They are intelligent, they're smart, they're educated.
    It's true?
    How many Jews lived in your hometown?
    My hometown?
    Oh, we have two synagogues, big synagogues.
    There was about 200 people, 400, something like this.
    Yeah, 400 people there was.
    And how large was the Jewish community in Salonika?
    In Salonika was a big Jewish community, very big,
    a lot of synagogues.
    A lot of synagogues, but there was poor people, very poor.
    And there was rich people, very, very wealthy.
    But in Drama, there was middle class and rich people,
    not poor.
    There was no poor people.
    See Salonika is a cosmopolitan, big commercial city.
    They got the port.
    There was the cargoes back and forth.
    See?
    It was a big city, Salonika, very big city,
    and popular and very famous, famous city.
    There was a lot of Jewish people,
    very, very wealthy, very intelligent, and very,
    very poor.
    Lots of poor people there.
    That's why there was a lot of poor people
    they used to live in ghettos, in different sections.
    They call them ghettos, see?
    And those ghettos then after they took all those,
    they cleaned them up, and they bring
    the transport in those ghettos.
    And from there, they take them to the trains.
    There was a lot of poor people in Salonika
    because it was a very big city, very big.
    The largest Jewish community was in Salonika.
    Bigger than in Athens?
    Bigger than in Athens, yeah.
    Yeah.
    No, more than Athens.
    More, in Salonika, was more Jewish people.
    In Athens, you can escape.
    There are so many places to escape, you know,
    the mountains, [NON-ENGLISH].
    The only thing I'm so curious, they
    don't mentioned too much for the Greek people at the holocaust.
    I wonder why.
    I wonder they don't mention, especially to those people
    they took him from the north of Greece.
    They don't know what happened to those.
    I was reading in a book that says 65,000,
    they took Jewish people, I think more than that,
    if you count the little children and everything.
    65,000, no.
    It's more than that.
    Because they took from so many places.
    Only Salonika was about 40,000 people, yeah.
    There was a lot of people in Salonika, Jewish people.
    In Drama, Serres, Xanthi, [PLACE NAME],, Alexandroupoli,
    [PLACE NAME]---- all those places, there's a lot of Jewish people
    that used to live there.
    They never mention for that.
    Did you ever find out what happened to your brothers?
    To my--
    To your brothers.
    My brothers, they went to crematorium.
    Yeah, all my three, and my father, mother.
    See, I lost five--
    seven of my family, and my little nephew,
    eight, just the immediate family.
    I lost a lot of aunties, and uncles, and cousins.
    How did your sister go to Israel?
    Well, she went in 1948.
    She decided that life is better in Israel
    in 1948, just when became Israel a state.
    So she went in 1948.
    In 1949, my husband went to visit Israel, alone.
    So Sarah was born in--
    he left me with Sarah and Isaac at home, and I have a lady.
    Take care of the kids, and he went alone for two weeks
    to see how is the life in Israel.
    If we can make a living over there,
    so we can emigrate to Israel to make aliyah with him.
    Well, he went over there.
    It was, look, they thought he was a millionaire.
    And everybody poor, because the country was poor at that time.
    And everybody from Bulgaria, he had
    a sister she was married in Bulgaria, she survived.
    See Bulgaria, they don't touch the Jewish people.
    The King did not allow the Jewish people to be taken.
    So they killed the King.
    They hang the King.
    But the Jewish people from Bulgaria,
    they took them from the big cities,
    and they put them in little towns.
    You know what I mean?
    And that's what the Jewish people, all the Jewish people
    from Bulgaria, they survived.
    Now they migrate all of them in Israel.
    So my sister-in-law, she was in Bulgaria.
    And she moved to Israel.
    So he went the first time to see his sister since he survived.
    So he went, and everybody is so poor.
    And he says to me, Alegre, put my hand in the pocket,
    and take money, take money.
    I can't find the deep.
    He called me up.
    He said, Alegre, I'll come in two weeks.
    I said, OK.
    So when he came, he says to me, it's not life for us
    yet over there honey.
    Even if I sell everything, he says
    you're not going to be life for us yet over there.
    Let's wait.
    And in between, in 1951, there came the visa for
    to come to the United States.
    So we prefer to come to the United States.
    But she's happy there, my sister, very happy.
    And she was here three years ago with me, and now she's coming,
    god willing.
    My sister, she's coming in April to grandson's bar mitzvah.
    I'm bringing her here.
    So I talked to her last night.
    And I told her that I want you to make the plans that
    to come in, in April.
    She can't believe it.
    I say, believe it.
    Because that's the only thing I can make you happy.
    And she got four children, two marry.
    And she's very happy.
    She says, Baruch HaShem.
    The only problem is when there was the war last year,
    the missiles that was thrown into Tel Aviv,
    I used to call her every time I heard something was going.
    I call her.
    And they had that fear and strain.
    And she say, we left the camp to survive.
    We see another fire we got here.
    I said, it's nothing.
    Don't worry.
    Everything is going to be all right.
    But now she's calmed down.
    She's happy.
    She's happy, and I'm happy here to the United States.
    Is there anything that you feel you've
    left out in your story of what happened to you?
    Lots of things can happen, precious sweetheart.
    Lots of things happen.
    For to start, it takes so long, so long, lots of things happen.
    Is there anything--
    I should tell you-- let me tell you
    one thing what happened to me.
    One night at the lager was making a selection,
    a selection is they check you if you got some pimples, things,
    if you got something, little pimples, they take you
    for the crematorium.
    If you show the bone a little bit extra, they take you.
    So three girls, we run away.
    We run away, and went to the bathroom.
    And the Blockalteste, she was a Polish Jew.
    She pulled me out from there, and she grabbed me
    from the doorway enter into here.
    The enter of the door of the first door.
    Excuse me.
    She grabbed me from my hair, and she pulled me down,
    and she like a dog, like you grab the dog like this,
    a Jewish lady.
    She did it to me, a Polish.
    she was the Blockalteste.
    But that was her duty to do it, maybe.
    You can't help it.
    I thought, I'll escape danger.
    I don't want them-- if I have something,
    I don't know if I have something.
    But I was scared, because they was making selection,
    to take some of them for the gas chamber.
    And a lot of people, they run away like I did.
    Like I told you the beginning, it was everything--
    I have courage to run on top of the fire, I think I'll survive.
    You know what I mean?
    So that was one.
    And one time too, I was working in the shoe Kommando,
    and I went to take shoes from the other barrack
    with another girl.
    And we went to the ditch over there
    to dig, to find something.
    And I found a few potatoes, wherever it was coming.
    And the [NON-ENGLISH],, the German soldier,
    we call them [NON-ENGLISH].
    Frau is mademoiselle.
    [NON-ENGLISH],, I don't know what it is.
    Anyway, so she put me and the other girl on my knees.
    We stay on our knees.
    And two bricks in our hands, and stay
    like this for one hour, two hours.
    So that's what she did punishment.
    One time we was coming from work.
    I don't know, every time we was coming from work.
    Sometime they was checking up, like you
    work in a show Kommando.
    Maybe you bring another pair of shoes
    to sell it to make organization, something to do,
    for a piece of bread extra.
    So they put us in our knees.
    The whole-- all the Kommandos, and to check each one
    if we have something extra.
    So we stay over there three, four hours on our knees,
    and checking everyone if we have something.
    A lot of things, where shall I begin?
    A lot of things.
    All of a sudden, they call us up.
    Take all our clothes out.
    Take our clothes out.
    Stay everybody out.
    One time, it was not, so many, many times.
    You can't count how many times it was that.
    Do you remember any occasions when you all
    tried to celebrate any of the Jewish holidays?
    Yes.
    How did you do that?
    Yom Kippur, I remember it well.
    We never eat, nobody eat of the Kommando.
    Nobody-- we send all the barrels back.
    Because we used to work, and we was going to the Kommando.
    The men was going the other side.
    And some Yiddish says, it's [NON-ENGLISH],,
    or there is Yom Kippur.
    They used to tell us, and talk in Yiddish.
    And so they say erev Yom Kippur.
    So when we went to the lager, we eat good.
    The next day we went to work, Yom Kippur,
    but we don't eat nothing.
    And this other girl says, where is god now?
    Why he doesn't forgive us?
    I said god is up.
    One day he'll forgive us.
    Many times I remember.
    I remember real well.
    All the holidays we knew when they was coming.
    Because when we was going to work,
    the men was going on the other side.
    And they used to tell us when is Yom Kippur, when is Pesach,
    when is Sukkot, when is [NON-ENGLISH],,
    or the Tu BiShvat, all the holidays.
    I don't know how they knew it, but they
    used to tell us for all the holidays.
    Did you know any of the other ethnic groups?
    Did you see any of the gypsies in the camp?
    Any of the--
    And did you see any gypsies?
    Oh, no.
    Ukrainians, Russians, and yeah, there was a lot of Ukrainians.
    I don't think any gypsies I saw in my lager,
    but Ukrainians, they was very mean.
    They were very-- non-Jewish, not Jewish, and the Russians.
    There was very barbarian.
    They stealing the bread from our beds.
    Because those, there was a civil prisoners, war prisoners.
    We were not war prisoners.
    They took us like slaves over there.
    And there used to come packages to them, German too, non-Jewish
    German, there was prisoners.
    Because they was against Hitler, put him
    into concentration camp.
    Yeah, I met a lot of them, very barbarian, the Ukrainians.
    Strong women, very strong.
    Did you ever see the camp orchestra?
    The orchestra of the camp?
    Many times.
    Many times.
    Can you describe what you saw?
    Well first of all, when we used to go to the Kommando,
    right away, they say sing.
    They want us to sing.
    [NON-ENGLISH],, sing, sing, sing, Greek.
    So we used to sing wherever we sing Greek songs, French songs,
    Spanish songs.
    We used to sing.
    And then going to work, and coming back, and yeah,
    [NON-ENGLISH] was a lot of them.
    It was a lager over there in Auschwitz.
    It was a big building.
    We can't go in that one.
    It was only for the women.
    They took them over there to make a--
    they used to sterilize the women.
    And there was make an experiment, the doctors.
    And a lot of women, they survived, a few.
    They survived that.
    In that Kommando, they never let us go in there.
    One thing I want to tell you everything
    was clean, very clean, very clean.
    Even though you had no soap?
    Even though you had no soap?
    No soap, we washed.
    The soap they give us once a week, a bar of soap, you know?
    But the soap, it was so small.
    It was not a big bar, you know?
    So to wash our hands, our face, our necks, but they give us.
    So we used to sell bread and take soap.
    So that's why we can have extra soap to wash.
    Or you give you coffee.
    You don't drink your coffee, you sell the coffee.
    You take a bar of soap.
    That's where you make the organization.
    You sell your bread, you sell your piece of salami.
    They give you whatever you want, make exchange.
    In other Kommandos, my sister used to work
    in the [NON-ENGLISH] Kommando.
    She had extra clothes to change, and underwear.
    And she gave it to me.
    But she was very clean, my sister.
    Even at the camp, when we sat down in the--
    you remember those beds you saw in books, don't you?
    They're shelves, beds, with the straw.
    Why don't you describe them?
    Those windows, with the underwear they give us,
    she cut it my sister, the half.
    And she made me a handkerchief.
    She made me handkerchief.
    And she cleaned the windows.
    She was so clean, my sister, very clean.
    The beds, did you have blankets?
    No, blanket one.
    One blanket?
    One blanket.
    And there was in each section of the barrack,
    it was a stove, a wooden stove.
    Did you have pillows?
    Pillows, no.
    No.
    No pillows.
    Did you have mattresses?
    The mattress was a straw mattress.
    A straw mattress.
    How many layers of barracks?
    The bottom one, two, three.
    I was in the middle.
    How many women, three people.
    Three people.
    Or four, it depends on how wide they are.
    Some was a little bit wider.
    And then you yourself organize.
    If you want to sell a piece of bread,
    you sell a piece of bread to the Ukrainian, to the Russian,
    they give you a sheet, or they give you a pillow
    so that you make yourself.
    Did people steal these?
    No.
    Those they was even more advantaged,
    because they was prisoners.
    They treat them better then they treat us.
    My sister, the one she's in Israel, she survived with me,
    she was sick in Birkenau.
    She was very sick, throwing up and diarrhea.
    They put him in the bottom-- bottom of the shelf.
    When you put them in the bottom, it's like you are dead,
    and they put you in crematorium.
    My sister and I, the other one, the one she--
    they took her to crematorium.
    We took every day our soup, and bring it to her,
    to eat the soup, the bread.
    And we only with the coffee and the salami.
    Sometime we use salami and bread.
    And I divide the bread, mine with my sister,
    and we give one portion of bread to my other,
    the one she was sick.
    So she can really get stronger.
    And she became stronger.
    The other one died.
    And she survived, thank god.
    You do whatever you can, you do just to survive.
    But the night before we was free, we were sitting,
    five, six girls, seven girls.
    We were singing.
    And a little girl, her name was Alegre,
    she was from Kastoria, from Greece.
    She was so weak.
    Early in the morning, die.
    She never saw the freedom.
    Like her, many others.
    Why do you think you survived?
    What did I survive?
    Why?
    Why?
    Well, I'll tell you why.
    I guess I have to tell the world that it happened.
    It happened that.
    It's true what Hitler did to all the Jewish people.
    It's not only me, what I survive.
    Thank god there survived a handful of people, not
    too many, not too many, just a handful compared
    to what he took, Hitler.
    And the people that survived, it's just a handful.
    And the ones that survived, they're
    proud to say that this happened, and I hope god
    that it don't happen again.
    What do you have to say to people
    who say it never happened?
    Someday, they'll go through it themselves,
    and they can believe what happened, what is true.
    It happened.
    Believe me, it happened.
    Nobody says lies.
    It shows it's not only the number
    they show, there's so many, many, many things they're
    showing, the people.
    There are so many proofs that happened.
    All the families, they took them.
    Where are they now?
    Where are they?
    They took so many people, not only from Greece, from all
    over.
    From Poland, from Russia, from Germany, Hungarian, Romania,
    Yugoslavia--
    where are those people?
    They don't die in two years like this or three years.
    Whoever says it don't happen is crazy.
    He really is crazy.
    That makes me very, very mad, very
    upset, makes me sick inside.
    Because I went through the hell, and he's going to tell me
    it don't happen.
    I hope god it happens to him.
    Oh, will you show your number, please?
    I can tell you my number, 39028.
    Tell us how they did that.
    Oh honey, that's tattoo.
    And then they took it, and they put it on with a needle,
    and they put it.
    The delta here is because you're Jewish.
    To the non-Jewish they put only number.
    They don't put the delta.
    But delta is Greek.
    I should say, the triangle.
    OK?
    The triangle, they put it because you are Jewish.
    The half star of the Jewish star.
    But to the non-Jewish, the put plain number.
    Did it hurt when they did that?
    In that minute, when you have fear
    and you worry what happened to the family, what's going to be,
    you don't feel they punch and pinch you.
    You don't feel it.
    My son, I tell you that, one second.
    My son, when he was three years old, I told you.
    He says to me, mama, why have you got that number?
    I say, sweetheart, I forget daddy's telephone number.
    I put it here and I can't forget it.
    OK.
    He was four years old.
    He says to me, mama, why don't we got grandma?
    Everybody got grandma.
    Why I don't?
    I say, sweetheart, grandma, they took them away.
    I said, let me tell you.
    Sit down close to me, padre.
    Padre means father.
    Sit down here.
    Sit down to me.
    I said to him, sweetheart, it was a very mean man.
    His name is Hitler.
    He took my father, my mother, my sisters, my brothers.
    They kill them.
    And they put on a number.
    And I was over there, I say, three years.
    Where mama?
    I say, someplace.
    I show you one day.
    He says, I'm going to take a plane one day when I grow up.
    I'll go and kill all the Germans.
    Fine.
    I used to go on the bus.
    I used to go here in the United States in the bus.
    He says, look what she put that.
    Why are you putting that here?
    I says, it's my social security number.
    I'm not giving an example.
    They are so ignorant, they don't know, they don't read?
    And I say it's my social security number.
    You know?
    Now, my little boy, Jeremy, he say to me.
    Now he knows what's happened to me.
    He knows now the whole story.
    But always you got dirty your arm, grandma.
    Clean it.
    I said, I don't got enough soap.
    I'll clean it tomorrow, honey.
    No I'll take.
    It I'll take it.
    I'll clean it.
    I say, you can't clean it.
    And then I told him what happened.
    Now he knows the story.
    There are a lot of funny things, a lot of curious people.
    Why they put the number there?
    I said, where do you want me to put the number, here?
    Even if they put it here, I say, I
    was going to say I'm proud I'm Jewish.
    When they ask me, you got an accent.
    I say I'm Greek, but I'm Jewish Greek.
    I'm proud that I'm Jewish because I
    went through the hell, and I hide anymore I'm Jewish.
    Believe me.
    I said if Hitler put it in here, the number,
    I was still going to leave it over there, I say.
    How do you feel about the Germans?
    I want to be honest with you.
    I don't want to hear the name of Germany.
    Anybody who says it's German, I think all the Germans,
    maybe they are good and they are bad in every country.
    But they done so harm to my family, to everybody.
    And I don't want to--
    I don't care for them.
    You say I hate them?
    I hate them, yes.
    I hate them, I really do, so much antisemitism,
    so much hatred.
    I met a lot of German people.
    I talk to them nice and I'm polite.
    But I can be friendly.
    I can't.
    It's impossible.
    I can be.
    I can be fine on there.
    I hate them.
    Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so.
    I don't think so.
    I want to tell you something.
    When the boat was coming to the United States,
    why didn't you let the boat come in?
    Another antisemitism tragedy.
    All the people were killed, too many things.
    Too many.
    Everybody knew what was going on.
    Whoever says to me, we don't know nothing
    in the United States.
    They're lying.
    They knew what was going on in Europe.
    They knew it.
    That was not a secret.
    My gosh, from one country to another, he was going,
    and he was taking all the Jewish people.
    They don't know what's happened.
    They knew it.
    Thank god you live in a free country.
    You can talk and say, and if the President of the United States
    talks to me, and said to me, I'll tell him too.
    I'm an American citizen.
    I vote.
    I have the right to talk.
    Thank you.
    It's true, honest to god.

    Overview

    Interviewee
    Alegre Tevet
    Interviewer
    James Pennebaker
    Alan Griffin
    Date
    interview:  1992 January 30

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    2 videocassettes (VHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Tevet, Alegre.

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Provenance
    James Pennebaker and Alan Griffin of the Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies conducted the interview with Alegre Tevet on January 30, 1992. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch received the tapes of the interview from the Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies on July 10, 1992. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the interview by transfer from the Oral History branch in February 1995.
    Record last modified:
    2024-01-25 11:43:59
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn506619

    Additional Resources

    Transcripts (2)
    Summary (English)

    Download & Licensing

    In-Person Research

    Contact Us

    Also in Oral history interviews of the Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies

    Contains interviews with 31 Holocaust survivors in the Dallas, TX area

    Date: 1985-1992

    Oral history interview with Helen Biderman

    Oral history interview with Helen Biderman

    Oral History

    Helen Biderman (née Prengler), born April 21, 1928 in Luków, Poland, describes her four brothers; her parents; growing up in Poland; the chaos of the beginning of the war; the roundup of Jews by the German Army on October 5 and the subsequent execution near a church; the deportations from Luków; going with her family to a nearby town; being forced to live with several families; the winter of 1940; her parents hiding while she stayed with an aunt; being moved to a ghetto with the other Jews; hiding with her family in an underground space during the deportations; being discovered by a Polish fireman hiding in various places; staying for seven to eight weeks in her grandfather's underground bunker with 17 members of her family; hiding with a German woman who owned a brick factory; being found by the Germans and the death of her younger brother; life in the ghetto from the end of 1942 to May 2, 1943; the attempt by some Jews to form a resistance group; falling ill with typhus; being attacked by a German Shepherd; hiding outside the ghetto; her parents reopening their business and staying until April 1945; moving to Katowice, Poland for a year then going to Munich, Germany for three years; her family getting papers to move to the United States; getting married and living in New Orleans, LA; how the Holocaust brought her family closer together; and her feelings about Germans.

    Oral history interview with Max Biderman

    Oral history interview with Max Biderman

    Oral History

    Max Biderman, born February 11, 1917 in Luków, Poland, describes his family; growing up in Poland; the beginning of the war; his family hiding during the roundups; the execution of Jews by the German Army; being caught with two of his brothers and forced to walk to Siedlce, Poland, where they were put in jail; being marched to a town 20 kilometers away and escaping with one of his brothers; returning home and hearing of the deportations to Treblinka; the creation of a ghetto in 1942 during the New Year; hiding during a deportation and the death of one of his brothers; living in the ghetto; working in a German factory; avoiding another deportation by hiding in the woods; contracting typhoid; witnessing the shooting of one of his brothers; being hidden by a Polish couple; hiding with several other Jewish boys; being hidden by a Polish farmer named Bronkevitch; defending themselves against a group of 40 armed men (possibly the Armia Krajowa); hiding in the forest; his group taking revenge on a farmer who denounced hidden Jews; reading newspapers; the arrival of the Russian Army; returning to Luków; finding the Prengler family (he later married Helen Prengler, RG-50.045*0001); going to Brest-Litovsk (Brześć Litewski), Poland after the war; going to Katowice, Poland then Munich, Germany; immigrating to the United States in September 1949; his children and grandchildren; not sharing his story with his children until recently; visiting Poland in 1984 and showing his children where he hid; the importance and danger of having a gun during the occupation; and testifying against a war criminal.

    Oral history interview with Ala Danziger

    Oral history interview with Ala Danziger

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Martin Donald

    Oral history interview with Martin Donald

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Bela Einhorn

    Oral history interview with Bela Einhorn

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Marie Fauss

    Oral history interview with Marie Fauss

    Oral History

    Marie Fauss (née Lucet Marie Selek), born August 25, 1925 at Pont-à-Mousson, France, describes her Catholic mother and Jewish father; visiting the synagogue with her father when she was four years old; her education; beginning college when she was 12 years old; her father reading Mein Kampf and warning her of Hitler’s intentions; her family’s Jewish and Catholic friends; her father deciding she should attend Catholic church; the invasion of Poland; the scarcity of coal; being out of college in July 1940; being warned by an Italian of the impending invasion; her fear of the Germans; fleeing with an Italian family south on minor roads; seeing an exodus of people moving south as they arrive in Nancy, France; being in Nancy during a bombardment; the German restrictions during the occupation; the taking of a census; the round ups and deportations; rumors about concentration camps; taking in other refugees; collaborators; becoming silent and withdrawn; being required to take German at school; being interrogated six times and having their house searched by the Germans; being beaten by interrogators; her belief that the mayor betrayed her to the Germans; being told to report to the town square to be sent to a work camp; being taken to a farm that produced food for a concentration camp in Lorraine; being taken out of the camp after three months with the help of her father; contracting tuberculosis; the arrival of American troops in September 1944; the Germans burning the college and hospital; how the war affected her; and getting married in 1945.

    Oral history interview with Max Glauben

    Oral history interview with Max Glauben

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Bela Goldberg

    Oral history interview with Bela Goldberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Henry Goldberg

    Oral history interview with Henry Goldberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Alli Itzkowitz

    Oral history interview with Alli Itzkowitz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Mike Jacobs

    Oral history interview with Mike Jacobs

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Miriam Joseph

    Oral history interview with Miriam Joseph

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Abram Kozolchyk

    Oral history interview with Abram Kozolchyk

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Leo Laufer

    Oral history interview with Leo Laufer

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Helen Neuberg

    Oral history interview with Helen Neuberg

    Oral History

    Helen Neuberg (née Chaja Miemacher), born December 12, 1926 in Ostrowice, Poland (possibly Ostrowiec in powiat sokołowski), describes her Orthodox family; growing up Jewish and her interactions with Gentiles; the German invasion; the restrictions placed on Jews; people being killed for breaking the curfew; her experiences in the ghetto; hiding during the deportation of her family, all of whom perished in Treblinka; witnessing acts of brutality and cruelty; obtaining false papers; moving to Warsaw, Poland; finding work as a waitress in Stuttgart, Germany, where she lived in fear of discovery; being aided by a Jewish American solider after the war, who assisted her in finding relatives in North America; meeting her husband, who was a survivor of concentration camps, in a displaced persons camp; and immigrating to the United States with her child and husband.

    Oral history interview with Jack Oran

    Oral history interview with Jack Oran

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sol Prengler

    Oral history interview with Sol Prengler

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lori Price

    Oral history interview with Lori Price

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Ann Salfield

    Oral history interview with Ann Salfield

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rosalie Schiff

    Oral history interview with Rosalie Schiff

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with William Schiff

    Oral history interview with William Schiff

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Jack Stein

    Oral history interview with Jack Stein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Erica Stein

    Oral history interview with Erica Stein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Manya Wozobski

    Oral history interview with Manya Wozobski

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Greta Zetley

    Oral history interview with Greta Zetley

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Leon Zetley

    Oral history interview with Leon Zetley

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with James Hirsch

    Oral history interview with James Hirsch

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Zohn Milam

    Oral history interview with Zohn Milam

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Eva Nanasi

    Oral history interview with Eva Nanasi

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with William Schiff

    Oral history interview with William Schiff

    Oral History

    View All 31 Items in the Collection