- My name is Bela Einhorn.
- My maiden name is Rozef.
- I lived in Vilna.
- I came to the United States.
- Well, can I tell them now?
- I came to United States in 1949.
- Before I came to United States, I was in Vilna.
- I went to school there.
- After school, in 1939, the Germans came.
- No, the Polish war was there.
- And I was there too.
- And then later, in two years, when they lost the war,
- the Polish army, so then came the Lithuanian.
- And then I was working for them.
- And then came the Germans.
- And then I was working for them, cleaning windows,
- cleaning house.
- And that's what I did.
- After that, I went--
- I don't know what to say then.
- Let's go back to Vilna.
- Yeah.
- And--
- In Vilna I went to school when I was a young girl.
- I went to school.
- I went in a Jewish public school for seven years.
- And then when I finished that school, I went for a few years
- in Polish public school.
- Then my father died.
- So our aunt raised us.
- We were three children.
- I had a brother and a sister.
- Until she couldn't take care of us,
- so we went-- it's like here.
- What do-- like here is a community center, you know?
- There was a kehilla.
- And they helped us out.
- Later on, I went--
- I was trying to have a trade.
- And a lady took me in, and she taught me gloves.
- I was a glove maker.
- And when I was working for factories,
- I bought a sewing machine and I worked there.
- Later on, I went--
- my sister, she said I was doing all right.
- So she liked the job too, and I taught her.
- And we lived there together in a room.
- And we were both working for a factory.
- Later on, when the Germans came--
- so it was-- we were--
- all of a sudden, people say that the Germans are coming.
- And they were taking everybody away.
- So we were hiding.
- This is 1939?
- This was in 1942.
- '42?
- Yeah.
- And it was one ghetto.
- And from that ghetto they liquidated.
- And they had another ghetto.
- So we were hiding again.
- We went in, in the other ghetto.
- And there my sister was working for the Jewish people.
- You know?
- It was the police and everything.
- And all of a sudden, I was laying in bed,
- I heard people are crying.
- And she was the first one what they took her away
- to the concentration camps.
- Later--
- Did they come to-- they come to your house?
- No, it was in the-- they came in the ghetto.
- Into the ghetto.
- Whenever-- yeah.
- And there was a German police.
- And they were-- everybody, they were taken, taken away.
- They made in the right side, you see,
- in the right side they were--
- no, they were taking everybody.
- Then when we left, this was in 1943, in July.
- This I remember good.
- And we were taken to Riga, Kaiserwald.
- We were working there.
- And they took us in a train, like animals.
- And people were crying and everything.
- Later, when that-- when it came closer to the destination,
- some people they killed.
- Some people-- no, they took people, the older people,
- the younger people-- the older people right,
- or the younger people right--
- I don't remember that-- left.
- The same thing is with children.
- So I was young, so they took me to a labor camp.
- I worked there.
- It is like here, I was working with a shovel.
- What do you call this?
- A shovel, yeah.
- Shovel, but earth--
- Digging?
- Digging.
- Digging ditches or whatever, you know?
- We went in a big room, and they were-- they lived there.
- And there was people who took care of the cooking.
- And we went in the morning.
- About 3, 4 o'clock they woke us up.
- We went to Appell.
- An Appell is-- you know what it is, an Appell?
- They were counting us.
- The-- the führer, you know, the leader, he was counting us.
- And then we used to go around 4 or 5 o'clock,
- in the cold weather and the hot weather.
- We went there to work.
- We did digging ditches.
- Later on, they transferred us to a factory.
- Like here is Texas instruments.
- There I worked inside.
- And people, you know, it was--
- we were hungry.
- We were sick.
- You know, we woke up early, very early.
- And it was very bad.
- You know, we were looking the time when we can get free.
- Then, when it came later, we heard that the people,
- that the Germans lost the war.
- But still they took us.
- We were working and they want to kill us.
- So we heard that the war is going to be over soon,
- in a day or two.
- So we ran away.
- I ran away with a girl.
- And we were hiding in Torun.
- So we went-- we want to look where can we hide.
- So we heard talking German.
- So we ran away again.
- And then we saw a Polish man.
- And we asked him if he can hide us.
- He hide us on the--
- what do you call this?
- On top on the roof, what do you call this?
- In the attic.
- Attic.
- Yeah.
- And they gave us food and everything.
- But later on-- it was a day or two,
- and later on they called the Germans and they told us--
- or told them about us.
- And they took away people, and they killed them.
- Me and my friend, we ran away, like I told you.
- We wore wooden shoes, and we climbed over a wooden fence,
- just straight wood.
- I don't know how we did it, just anxious to leave.
- And we hided again.
- And then we saw another man.
- And we asked him if he can hide us.
- So he said, OK.
- So he hide us in a garage.
- There was-- we were 10 people at one table, sitting down.
- We didn't have what-- and it was snow.
- So he was afraid.
- He brought us food.
- He was afraid that people, the Germans will see footsteps.
- But he figured how to do it that they couldn't recognize.
- And we were staying there.
- And then he came over and he said we are free.
- So we ran wild in the houses to take-- to take away because.
- We wore clothes with stripes, clothes.
- So we took some clothes to change.
- And that's what we did.
- And then the Russian came.
- They, the Russian, they freed us.
- And we had trouble with the Russian too.
- You know?
- One night they came, and they got drunk,
- and they raped people.
- And we hided.
- And we went through a lot.
- Then after it was free, everything, and we
- could do something, so we went.
- They send us to Austria, Bindermichl.
- There, on the way, I met my husband.
- It was in 1946.
- We got free in 1945.
- There we went-- we wanted to go to Israel.
- But later, my cousin--
- you know, after I got married, my cousin
- wanted to go to United States.
- He said, I want to go, not stay to die,
- but just come to the United States.
- So my husband asked him if he can
- write a letter to the cousins--
- they are here in Dallas--
- to send us paper too.
- We want to come to United States too.
- They did.
- And they send us papers.
- And we came here in 1949.
- And here, when we came here, we didn't know--
- we couldn't speak a word.
- My husband find out in the yellow pages about gloves,
- making.
- And I found a-- he found a lady what
- is working for the gloves, just alteration.
- She used to work for Neiman Marcus and Vogue.
- And she said God send me over there to her.
- She was so happy.
- And I was walking there.
- And I didn't know where to go, what kind of bus to take.
- So my husband had to take me, take me to the job.
- And he had to go walking by himself again.
- He has to take another bus for him.
- And he picked me up.
- And that's the way what I worked until I got pregnant
- with my son.
- So I worked until nine months.
- And then I was a housewife and working.
- OK.
- Let's-- let's go back and pick up your life again in Vilna.
- And tell us what you remember about that city
- and what life was like then.
- Vilna was a beautiful city.
- And I'll tell you.
- See, like I told you before, I went to school,
- I finished school, and then I was working.
- And I lived with my sister, and I was working all the time
- until the war broke out.
- You went to school for 14 years there?
- No.
- I didn't went to school for 14.
- I went for seven in a Jewish public school.
- And then I went for two years in a-- you know,
- I remember they used to say the prayers,
- and I didn't want to say the prayers.
- So I said in Jewish something.
- But they don't know.
- I didn't say the prayers there.
- And like I said, I couldn't go on.
- I would like to go.
- I wanted to go to school longer.
- But I couldn't.
- I didn't have, you know, the money to pay.
- Like I told you before, I had some girls
- what they went in college.
- And they had to--
- to make some hand--
- you know, to sew.
- So I did it for them because I wanted
- to buy books and go to school.
- And then, when I remember how we studied before the exams,
- it was--
- I liked school.
- I wish it would be in United States.
- I would be, today, somebody.
- Anyway--
- You're a very determined young woman.
- Yeah, I liked school, even here.
- When I came here, and I had to--
- I was studying a little for the citizenship papers.
- When I came, the judge asked me--
- after me, my husband has to go in.
- He said, does your husband know so good like you?
- He was surprised, you know.
- I read, and I wrote, you know.
- And I talked a little.
- So he was very happy.
- And I was very happy to become a United States citizen.
- This is the best part of my life.
- Let's go back to a more painful part.
- How did you first realize that the Germans were coming
- and that life was going to take a difficult turn for you?
- It was very bad.
- You know, like I told you before, see,
- I was laying in bed, and my sister was--
- somebody from the family has to work.
- If not, they would put you in jail or something,
- the Jewish police.
- You know, it was a Jewish ghetto.
- But you have to go to work for the Germans.
- All of a sudden, she was the first one.
- We heard the saying that everybody--
- one from the family, they have to-- they surrounded
- and take them away.
- And I asked-- my sister didn't feel good,
- and I said, don't go to work today.
- She said, no.
- If not, they will arrest me.
- You know?
- And she didn't listen.
- Later, whoever went to work, they didn't come back.
- Instead to work, they took them.
- They transport them someplace else.
- And to the brigadier, you know, my sister
- send a letter in the ghetto.
- And she said she was silly what she didn't listen to me.
- And she offered him everything, but she couldn't come back.
- Since then, she-- whoever--
- they transferred everybody from one place to another.
- So she volunteered because maybe she will find me.
- And that's a one time when we--
- they [INAUDIBLE] us from--
- where was it?
- From-- you know, from our camp.
- And it's supposed to come Hungarian people.
- And I was chosen to be transferred, you know?
- And there was two sisters.
- and they asked me if-- because one sister
- they wanted to transfer, the other one they want to leave.
- And they wanted to go, both.
- I said, if they select me, maybe it's my luck to go.
- And you know what happened?
- When they took us, transferred someplace,
- they killed all the young girls from Bucharest.
- So that was luck.
- Yeah, it was luck.
- I said, if they chose me, I don't want to--
- I want to go.
- And that's what-- we went there to Riga.
- You know?
- Were you aware of any resistance in Vilna?
- Well, I'll tell you.
- There were partisan, you know, a few.
- But they couldn't-- it's not too many.
- They couldn't do anything.
- But we just knew that, you know, that they
- killed because they brought the clothes back to ghetto.
- So when you-- even when they took us with the--
- took us by train, they treat us like animals.
- And then from the train on, they did
- again, you know, to the right and the left.
- The younger they sent to work, to a labor camp or what other--
- to Auschwitz or wherever.
- And the older people and children they killed.
- Who explained to you, when you were a young girl in Vilna,
- what was happening?
- How did they--
- Nobody explained.
- We didn't know then.
- See, at the beginning it was the Polish war, and they lost it.
- And then came the Lithuanian for a while.
- And later came the Germans.
- Right.
- So it was just something that you were aware of.
- But nobody--
- We were aware, but we didn't know nothing about this.
- Later on, when they took the people
- and they killed, so we heard rumors, you know?
- And you know, while we were going there,
- they took us to Riga.
- So everybody, you know, Jewish always
- with a pekeleh, with a package, you know, clothes.
- And I remember, I was carrying-- we made two new coats
- for me and my sister.
- So I took the coat for her.
- And it's so silly.
- When we came there, they took us naked.
- All the things they took away.
- So I was--
- I put away the coat, not to make dirty.
- Isn't it silly something?
- And they took away everything.
- And they gave us their clothes, the stripes.
- You know, the striped dresses with the--
- And yeah, they shaved us, the head.
- We couldn't recognize each other.
- What are your first memories of Riga?
- That was your first-- the first transit you had to take.
- At the Riga Kaiserwald, we were going.
- We were walking there with a shovel.
- And later on, we were transferred,
- like I said, like a Texas Instrument or whatever.
- And later, they-- when it was closer that they're losing
- the war, they still took us.
- And we were walking.
- And then what I told you, we ran away.
- Yeah.
- Do you remember what you thought when you first got off
- the train and saw that camp?
- We thought they're terrible.
- We thought that we're going to be killed.
- Yeah.
- Sure.
- And what did people tell you at the time, the other people that
- were in the camp?
- Everybody who was in the train, nervous.
- Yeah.
- It's OK to slow down and take your time.
- I eat-- I talk fast and eat fast.
- That's OK.
- So I have to slow down.
- Sure.
- So that's what it is.
- Everybody was-- we were so shocked,
- we didn't know what happened because when they took us,
- they said they're going to send us to a labor camp.
- But they shot people.
- They killed them.
- Whoever could run away or hide or something was alive.
- You saw them shoot people, or you
- heard that they shot people?
- I didn't see, but I heard.
- Yeah, I didn't see it.
- So what else is new?
- What went on in the factory?
- Apparently you worked in the factory a lot.
- In the factory, I was lucky because I was working inside,
- and it was warm, you know.
- I was cleaning the--
- I don't know what you call the something for the--
- I know now, this is like Texas Instrument.
- It was a-- it has to be a--
- it was a secret.
- See?
- But I was working there until the war came to an end.
- And that's what I told you, we ran away.
- And then when we came there-- we ran away,
- we came to Bromberg, Torun.
- And that's what we had the Polish people were
- throwing rocks in the windows.
- We were afraid to be there too.
- So you know, wherever a Jew is is terrible.
- They're doing something to them.
- So we went through a lot.
- And then, you know, when we came together,
- when the people came from Auschwitz, whoever got free,
- so I met somebody from the ghetto.
- And she said that she saw that my sister was
- on the other side, you know?
- And they killed her.
- They burned her.
- You know, when they put the people in the oven?
- You know, it's terrible.
- And I have always nightmares, scary.
- What are your nightmares about?
- About the Germans.
- I run away, and I hide.
- Can you describe one for us?
- That's what I'm describing.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, like we go away, like we're walking.
- And then the Germans take us there.
- And we are in a building, you know?
- We run away, and they stay there with shotguns and kill.
- It's the same thing before it happened--
- always nightmares.
- So that's something that's with you all the time then?
- Oh, yes.
- Yeah.
- Yes.
- It's very bad.
- When you were-- go ahead, Peter.
- Did you feel lucky to be in the labor camp?
- I was lucky.
- Yeah.
- Did you feel lucky at the time?
- At the time, I was lucky.
- Yeah.
- Because I had a little money, which I hide it
- in my shoes in the lining.
- Before you went to the camp.
- Before they took us from the ghetto.
- We knew that they're going--
- they're going-- because another thing, you see?
- They didn't take-- you had to have a paper.
- It calls in Jewish, it came--
- [NON-ENGLISH].
- It's something that you can go to work.
- You know?
- And I had-- and my sister lost her papers before.
- And she was so--
- I thought she's getting crazy because she said that they
- going to kill her right away.
- But later on, she found it.
- You know?
- And what did you ask me?
- Well, about getting to the camp, you felt lucky.
- Yeah, I felt lucky because I was in a labor camp.
- I wasn't working.
- When I would be in Auschwitz, like I said,
- I don't have a number here.
- And maybe I would be killed like my sister
- because whoever was a little sick,
- they took them on the other side.
- That's what people tell me from Auschwitz.
- I wasn't there.
- And they killed them.
- They burned them.
- They-- you know.
- But I was in a labor camp.
- And I just worked hard because in the cold, in the--
- you know, one time a German came up when I was digging the--
- you know, the ground.
- So he came over, and I was scared.
- And I hurt myself.
- I think I have here a little thing from the shovel.
- It was bleeding.
- And we had very bad with them, you know.
- I don't know what to tell you.
- No.
- Do you think it was hard-- was working and living
- harder in the labor camp than it was in the-- when the Germans
- were controlling the camps?
- It was worse because, you know--
- In the camp it was worse.
- In the camp, yeah.
- It was better than in Auschwitz.
- Yeah.
- You know?
- It was better because we came--
- we were in the warm, in the house.
- You know, the thing is what we woke up very early.
- They woke us up about 4 o'clock or more.
- Every day?
- Every day.
- And you have to stand the Appell.
- Appell is we go to the hall, and they count the people
- because some people, they run away.
- They cut the wires.
- And some of them they caught.
- So I don't have to tell you what they did to them.
- So it's so long hours, you know, when it's in the cold.
- And we didn't have enough to eat.
- They gave us-- in the evening, they
- gave us a piece of bread and something, a little soup.
- And that's all what it was.
- You have to live, to be with them.
- But I was, like I said, I had a little money.
- And we met there Polish people.
- So they brought us some potatoes or bread.
- We had to hide.
- But when you came in to the Appell, they used to check you.
- Sometimes they took away.
- Sometimes you hide it that they couldn't find.
- So you know, and the people who was working in inside,
- they cleaned, they cooked, you know.
- So they cooked for me potatoes or something,
- for other one too.
- So even the leader, when they checked us for the Appell,
- I was hiding in the back my bowl with potatoes.
- You know?
- I didn't have too bad about food, you know.
- But people had very bad, you know.
- If I wouldn't have a few, the money a little,
- I would be starving to death because people were
- eating grass and everything.
- How can you live with one piece of bread?
- You know, sometimes people ate just one--
- I give you and example.
- Tonight, they gave you the amount of bread and soup.
- So they want at least to feel one day to feel not hungry.
- So they ate, but they stayed until tomorrow.
- I didn't do that.
- I did little by little, to have just a little bite.
- And this was terrible.
- So other people saved their food?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- And hide it.
- And they stole from each other because, you know,
- hunger can do anything.
- And we had to-- you know, they didn't-- we didn't have
- restrooms inside.
- We had outside.
- We had to go even to wash ourselves outside, cold water,
- you know.
- One time, I had the--
- I had the striped dress, and I had a white, you know, scarf.
- So I made a little white thing to look better.
- So one time, it was time for supper.
- And the lady who is the leader, she called me.
- And they thought they're going-- she's
- going to kill me or something.
- She's going to put me to-- so I came over.
- And everybody was looking.
- They were afraid.
- And I don't have to tell you how I was.
- Then she said, how do you keep clean
- your scarf and your dress?
- I came over every night, I washed it, and I dried it,
- and I put under when I put to sleep.
- It was like ironed.
- But I was scared to death.
- They thought, because they selected people
- to send it to kill, you know.
- And she asked me, but I was very scared.
- But thank god, that's what it was.
- So we went through a lot of things, you know?
- It was important to you to stay looking good
- while you were in the camp?
- Well, I was clean.
- I was a crazy thing, you know.
- If you have one slip, you have one dress,
- you have to be clean.
- You have to see.
- If not, you know they had--
- excuse me-- lice and other things.
- I don't want that.
- But she noticed this.
- And from so many people, she called me.
- So--
- Did other friends-- did you have other friends in the camp?
- Oh, well, we were.
- Sure, we had together.
- You know, I slept on the bunch--
- you know, what they call them, bunk beds?
- Bunk beds?
- Close to each other, and downstairs and upstairs.
- Sure, we knew everybody.
- We went together.
- I mean, we worked together.
- We came back in the room together.
- So--
- Did you ever have anything like a party in the--
- Well, you had sometimes entertainment, a little,
- you know, when he was in a good mood, the leader.
- So it was people who can sing a little,
- with comedy or something.
- Was something like that.
- Not often, but it was sometimes.
- Did you do anything like that?
- I didn't do anything.
- I was mad.
- Mad?
- Angry with what we-- you know.
- What kind of life is this?
- It's terrible.
- But comparing what people went through someplace else,
- it was easier in a labor camp.
- But we went through plenty.
- I don't know how we could do it.
- But we said when we were going to be free,
- we're just going to have one dress--
- everything one, you know.
- Now it's different.
- How did you do it?
- I mean, here is a little girl who was 14, 15 years old.
- It's something-- something like that, 17 or 18,
- I don't remember exactly.
- Both of her parents were dead.
- Yeah.
- Well, like I said, I suffered a little before everything
- because I was by myself.
- And I had a brother.
- He was older.
- And he was, Glęboka.
- It was also-- it was not far from Vilna, you know.
- So he just fell in, in a ditch, and he got sick.
- And he got sick, and he died.
- All of a sudden came a--
- what do you call this, a wire?
- You know, where-- to call--
- what do you call this?
- To tell us that he died.
- So my sister, she was older.
- I was the youngest.
- So she went there.
- He was then 25 years old.
- And this was nothing to do with the Germans.
- It was before the war, you know.
- So then I just was with my sister.
- That's all what we had.
- And you have to make a living.
- And when I was-- when the lady was
- teaching me to make the gloves, I
- had to help her out, the house.
- And I have to help out with our son.
- You know, the little boy?
- He didn't want to eat.
- I had to force him.
- You know, it wasn't an easy--
- even before the war, you know?
- So we had to--
- I went through a lot before and then after.
- Do you think that your pre-war experience helped you
- in any way get through when it was really very difficult?
- I don't know.
- Yeah, it helped a little because I went through a lot.
- You know?
- Even here, I went through a lot here since 1980.
- Yeah.
- And they killed my husband.
- I went through a lot.
- And then I got sick and had surgery.
- And I went to the hospital.
- Even United States, I went through, since 1982.
- So they say I'm a survivor.
- Like my children say, Mother, you are tough.
- Well, you do the best you can.
- Did you feel you were stronger than the others
- back in the camp because of your background?
- Well, I don't know what I--
- I don't think if I felt. You know, I was young.
- I was stronger.
- And I did the best I could to survive.
- Some people that were in the labor
- camps and the concentration camps
- talk about that it was every man for himself.
- And other people talk about how everyone
- was helping each other.
- How did you experience that?
- Well, like I said, I have a girl what I lived with her close to,
- you know, on the bunk.
- And we tried to help each other, something.
- But some of them, they were closer, some of them not.
- You know, everybody, like I told you,
- they stole some food, you know, when they were hungry.
- And it was sometimes everybody for himself.
- But sometimes you were there what--
- you had somebody what you were closer,
- and you can talk to them.
- And we went through a lot together.
- Do you remember anything about your religion and the way
- that you were thinking about your religion
- when you were in camps?
- Yeah, the religion, when I was--
- when my father died and after, they told you
- that they went to, like here is a kehilla.
- You know what is a kehilla?
- Like here is a community center.
- So they couldn't help us too much.
- So a other family took me in.
- And they were very religious.
- That's what I'm not now.
- So they were-- he was reading the Torah.
- Everything is starting till 3, 4 o'clock in the morning,
- you know?
- I was there.
- And that's what I became as a little religious, you know.
- But I was religious because of them.
- And I always liked the Jewish faith.
- When I was in school I liked it.
- Like I said, I liked Hebrew.
- One time a girl didn't know how to translate from Hebrew
- to Jewish, and I showed her by finger,
- and they send me out from the room.
- No.
- So--
- This was in the school?
- This was in school.
- Yeah, in the Jewish school.
- During the camps, were you aware of people
- being aware of the holidays and--
- No.
- In the camps, no.
- You didn't know what day it was?
- No.
- No.
- No, we didn't.
- No.
- Did you know?
- No.
- No?
- Didn't know.
- What about back in the ghetto?
- In the ghetto is--
- I don't remember special, but I don't think so, no holidays.
- We were looking just to survive, you know.
- We weren't too long in the ghetto
- because the first one, the first ghetto
- where I lived, they liquidated.
- And they killed the people.
- And some people they hided, and they went to the other ghetto.
- And when they decided, in 1943, in July, when I told you,
- they decided to liquidate the other ghetto,
- then when they took us to labor camps.
- Do you remember any Hanukkah that you had back as a child?
- Hanukkah, I remember when I was--
- that's what I said.
- I was upbringing-- I was brought up
- in a religious home, and the couple, you know.
- But sure.
- How did you celebrate Hanukkah then?
- Well, I'll tell you.
- I don't remember.
- No?
- No.
- I was very young.
- And when the war came, and I don't remember this.
- No.
- I remember in--
- Remember any of the holidays that you celebrated
- with the religious families?
- Not in Poland, I don't remember.
- I don't remember.
- Because I always was with somebody, in somebody's house,
- you know.
- I stayed with this couple.
- I stayed with that couple, you know.
- So I always--
- I was-- I had a room and board, you know.
- That's what it is.
- So all the time--
- sure, if it was before the war, sure we celebrated.
- Shabbos was Shabbos, you know, and Hanukkah was Hanukkah.
- And Shabbos was very--
- you know, it wasn't like here.
- You know, they called--
- How would you say--
- They-- it wasn't the store opens.
- It was a-- you go to shul.
- They had a shul every little--
- very close.
- And you prayed.
- Sure, it was a different life in Europe in general.
- It's not even like in the United States, holidays.
- You looked forward to Sabbath every week?
- Yeah.
- Listen, I am religious.
- I keep a kosher home.
- But I'm not too strict.
- Like, I'll give you-- you will laugh at me.
- I drive.
- I go in the car with you, but I don't drive on Shabbos.
- They laugh at me.
- Everybody has their customs and ceremonies, you know.
- I said it's better to make--
- to have one sin, you know, than two.
- See, at one time my husband was sick.
- It was on a Saturday.
- And I had to go to the drugstore.
- And it was so hot, summer.
- And it was Saturday, I didn't drive.
- So I walked to pick up the medicine.
- I came out, it was so hot, and I didn't do it.
- So-- and this is until now.
- They left at me because I don't drive on Saturday,
- but I drive with somebody else.
- You know, like I said.
- Or Yom Kippur, you know, Rosh ha-Shana,
- I don't go to shul because I don't want to ride on--
- I never rode on Rosh ha-Shana.
- Yom Kippur, I sleep in somebody's house.
- They don't have to feed me.
- I don't eat anything.
- So that's what for years, since I'm in the United States.
- I start fasting when I was 12 years old.
- 12?
- Yeah, maybe younger.
- Because I came out from the religious people.
- But I'm doing little by little.
- But I'm not very religious, like I said, but a kosher home,
- whatever I can do the best.
- How did your ideas and your thinking about religion
- change as a result of the war?
- I'll tell you.
- I was a little girl then.
- And I don't know how it changed.
- But one thing, I was mad.
- When they killed my husband, you know, I thought to myself,
- what is the use.
- I keep kosher.
- I buy kosher meat.
- I keep kosher.
- I see people who eat ham and everything,
- and they have a better life.
- And they have their husbands, and they have their fathers
- and everything.
- I was angry.
- And I said, why should I do it?
- But I couldn't.
- I still do it.
- Your life, as we were talking before the interview,
- has had tragedy and pain recently.
- Yeah.
- And so can, you know, still, even in 1980--
- Yeah, it's going to be the 16th.
- --you find yourself having to struggle.
- Yeah, the 16 of 1986 going to be six years what
- they killed my husband.
- He was a good father and a good husband and a good man.
- And he didn't deserve--
- I think a 14-year-old colored boy stabbed him to death.
- So yeah, I don't have to tell you what I went through.
- Thank god for my children.
- Didn't have them, I would be in a--
- in terror.
- Not even-- a few times, I thought what should I do?
- I couldn't lay down.
- I couldn't sit.
- I just was so nervous.
- I said what's the use?
- But then I thought, no.
- If I go through terror, what's going to be with the children.
- So I tried to myself, control yourself, you know,
- something like that.
- So it was hard.
- But you do the best you can.
- That's all.
- When your husband was killed, Bela,
- did you find yourself thinking more about your experience
- during the war?
- Did that bring all of that back, the sadness?
- Well, the thing is, there, because we lived--
- we went through so much in concentration camp
- and everything.
- And when we came to the United States
- and we worked hard to make a living,
- we raised two good children.
- And one works for Neiman Marcus.
- He's now in New York.
- A matter of fact, he's sick.
- He has bronchitis, and I didn't sleep
- a few nights because of that.
- He couldn't speak even.
- I have one son who is in Cleveland, Ohio.
- And-- I forgot the question.
- About how when your husband was killed,
- did that bring all of your war experience back to you?
- Yeah.
- What i want to say-- yeah, because we came here,
- we came to New York from Europe, from Austria.
- And we were there about two weeks.
- I was working even by the gloves.
- And we want-- before I get, I had the family,
- and we wanted to stay there, but we
- couldn't find our apartment or a room with kitchen privilege.
- And my husband couldn't find a job.
- So we wrote a letter to my cousins, who brought us
- to the United States.
- And we asked him if we can come to Dallas.
- He said Dallas is a good city.
- And if you want to work, you will find a job.
- So we came here.
- It was on a Friday.
- On Monday, we went to work for a belt factory.
- The cousins came to us, and they gave us $10, one cousin $5
- and the other $5.
- And we had to go out to eat.
- We couldn't read.
- We didn't know what to do.
- And I eat kosher, I didn't know what to eat there.
- We couldn't read the menu.
- So we did what we could.
- And that's what it is.
- And we worked hard and wanted to establish something.
- So he wanted to retire and everything,
- and they killed him.
- So it was a big shock because, if he would be sick--
- you know, sometimes people--
- everybody has to die.
- But to take somebody's life, when
- he was so friendly with all the colored people, the children.
- You know, we had on East Grand, we had the store,
- close to Penney's.
- And everybody loved him.
- And I was-- Tuesday and Wednesday I was off.
- I had to do in the house, cook, clean something.
- So somebody in the--
- around 4 o'clock, they called me up that my husband was stabbed.
- And I was so confused, I didn't know what to do.
- I didn't ask if it's bad or that.
- Then they called me again.
- And then I said.
- He said he doesn't think if it's bad.
- And the emergency came.
- And they took him to the hospital.
- So I called my son.
- I couldn't find him.
- So I asked a friend to take me there to the hospital.
- And when I came there, they said he is in the operating room,
- and he will be in the recovery.
- And they showed me which room he's going to be.
- So I went there.
- And I was putting away something, my coat.
- And then-- you know, a pastor, you know, a Christian--
- Chaplain?
- A chaplain came.
- He said, are you Mrs. Einhorn?
- I said, yes.
- I said, is something wrong?
- He said, no, if something happens, something like that,
- come, we will talk to the--
- he took him-- he took me in, in the room.
- And he said the doctor will come soon.
- And when the doctor came, and he said,
- we did everything we could, but we couldn't help him.
- You know, I don't have--
- some people faint.
- But I couldn't talk.
- I couldn't turn my tongue.
- It was so--
- I couldn't move the tongue.
- I thought-- it was terrible.
- And then I had to call my son.
- So a friend brought him.
- And it was such a shock.
- Here, a few hours before, I could talk to him.
- And here he was gone.
- Why?
- So I don't have to tell you what I went through with this.
- So everything adds up--
- before the war, during the war, after the war.
- But we are happy we came to the United States.
- We made a nice living.
- And that's what it is.
- And he hoped for the--
- He wanted to move to Israel.
- We were, in 1973.
- But I said I don't want to go through again
- what I went before, you know, with the fighting,
- with the killing.
- Maybe if I want--
- was-- maybe we went to Israel, maybe he would be alive.
- I don't know what.
- But that's what it is.
- Do you have peace in your life now?
- Peace?
- What do you mean peace?
- Do you think that there's more pain and more
- suffering for you still?
- Yeah, for me still.
- Yeah.
- The only thing is, thank god for my children.
- If not them, I would-- and I have friends, you know.
- If not, I would--
- they say, everybody, I'm tough.
- But when I cry, nobody sees.
- So when you're alone, sometimes it's really painful?
- Yeah, very.
- Very.
- But you know, the children, they cannot be with you.
- They cannot sit and hold your hand.
- They have to have a life for themselves.
- But it's very bad.
- So but other ones, other people can control themselves better.
- I don't say that I feel the same way now
- than I felt six years ago.
- You know?
- But every night I dream about my husband.
- I think about him.
- You really miss him.
- Oh.
- Was a wonderful man.
- How did you meet him back in--
- I met him in Austria, on the camp.
- We went-- we were in-- they transferred us to--
- after they freed us, they sent us to Austria.
- We got married in Austria.
- And we went on a honeymoon.
- We went to Bad Gastein.
- You know, on the--
- the chair, the electric chair?
- I was scared to death, but I was afraid to tell him.
- On the chair lift?
- Yeah.
- Oy, I was so scared.
- When I looked down, I said my goodness.
- Yeah.
- We just have a couple of more minutes.
- Yeah.
- What's the one thing that you want
- to tell the world about Bela Einhorn and your experience?
- To remember what we had-- to remember the Holocaust
- shouldn't happen again.
- Do you have some scare that that could happen again?
- I hope not.
- I hope not.
- But my husband used to say-- he was reading a lot,
- and he said, you know, that we have a lot of antisemitism
- here.
- You know.
- And that's why I want to go to Israel.
- But who knows?
- Nobody knows what's going to be.
- But this is the only thing, to remember the Holocaust.
- And we have to try not to happen again, to let happen again.
- [SIGHS]
- Well?
- Let's stop here.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Overview
- Interviewee
- Bela Einhorn
- Interviewer
- James Pennebaker
Alan Griffin - Date
-
interview:
1985 December 14
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
1 videocassette (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
- Einhorn, Bela.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
Dallas Holocaust Museum, Center for Education and Tolerance
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- James Pennebaker and Alan Griffin of the Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies conducted the interview with Bela Einhorn on December 14, 1985. 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 17, 1991. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the interview by transfer from the Oral History branch in February 1995.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 08:09:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn506596
Additional Resources
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- This record is digitized but cannot be downloaded online.
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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
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Oral history interview with Max Biderman
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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
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Oral history interview with Martin Donald
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Oral history interview with Marie Fauss
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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.
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Oral history interview with Bela Goldberg
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Oral history interview with Henry Goldberg
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Oral history interview with Alli Itzkowitz
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Oral history interview with Mike Jacobs
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Oral history interview with Helen Neuberg
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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
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Oral history interview with Sol Prengler
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Oral history interview with Lori Price
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Oral history interview with Ann Salfield
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Oral history interview with Rosalie Schiff
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Oral history interview with William Schiff
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