Oral history interview with Rose Jacoby and Alex Jacoby
Transcript
- Anyway, you want me to tell the story
- how it was at home before?
- Like I told you, we were six children
- and like middle class family, I would
- say, pretty religious family.
- And actually, the problems we saw in 1942, when--
- they were taking the families from Slovakia.
- See, our part was Hungary at the time.
- A lot of these families, especially the young ones,
- came over to Hungary because they didn't bother us yet.
- And it so happened that my father was helping try to--
- they asked all the families when these people
- came, escaped from Slovakia, to help them until they would
- make some papers for them.
- And they would go up to Budapest.
- And there it was much easier to get lost.
- It was a bigger city.
- My oldest sister, she was quite a few years older than I was.
- And she would-- some of her other friends--
- escort them on the train.
- They would set up couples so it didn't
- look so obvious to Budapest.
- And there, on Gentile papers, the underground was working.
- And these people would sort of get lost in the crowd.
- That's how my older sister was able to go up to Budapest.
- And she lived there during the war.
- She was lucky to get away with it.
- Then how was it in '42?
- Well, when all this was going on, we saw the trouble coming.
- We didn't really know exactly what
- happens to these people that were taken away
- from Slovakia because you never heard from them.
- But then it was just Passover '44.
- It was the middle of Passover, actually.
- My mother was complaining, we can't even put the dishes away.
- All of a sudden, the Germans came, knock on the door.
- Everybody out.
- Take whatever you can carry.
- And they lined us all up.
- My second sister, the one lives in Cleveland
- now, she escaped through the window
- because she had at that time a boyfriend
- who said he was going to hide her someplace.
- Non-Jewish boyfriend?
- No, no, he was Jewish, but he was very active.
- But anyway, she got caught a few days later,
- and they brought her back.
- They put us into a ghetto sort of.
- It was the brick factory.
- And there they put us up, all the families.
- You can imagine.
- We were there for about four weeks.
- After four weeks, they put us on these--
- Cattle cars.
- --cattle cars and transported us,
- which we didn't know where we going.
- But it was Auschwitz.
- Well, one incident, I have to tell you,
- during this time, they used to have
- these checkpoints in my city, when we still were free.
- My father had a beard, sort of.
- One day he came home, and he was all--
- Shaved.
- Shaved.
- But not only that they shaved.
- First, they were pulling on it, so he had to-- he
- was all bloody, his face.
- He came home.
- On the street corners, they would take all these guys,
- and they would just pull their beards and shave them off.
- Well, anyway, we arrived to Auschwitz-- actually Birkenau.
- That was part of Auschwitz.
- There was the selection.
- We didn't know what's what.
- Like I said, I ended up with my sister.
- And we were put into these barracks.
- There were already a lot of these--
- women separate and men separate--
- a lot of these girls that were there since 1942.
- And when they were registering us and asked my name,
- these were the girls.
- These were Jewish girls also, but they
- were put to work there.
- When I said my name, Bindiger, which is a very unusual name,
- they said, gee, you must have a cousin here from Bardejov,
- which was a Slovak town.
- I said, oh, sure.
- Could she come and see me?
- You get very happy to know somebody.
- And she came that evening.
- And then we were talking to her.
- Her name was Martha.
- I said, tell me.
- When are we going to see our parents?
- She takes one look at us, and she says,
- do you see those chimneys?
- Take one good look.
- That's where they're going to fly out.
- They put it just like this.
- And I says, how can you talk like that?
- And anyway, we were there only a few days in Auschwitz.
- And then they took us to another camp,
- which was in Poland, near Krakow, called Plaszow.
- And we were there doing some work, whatever.
- I was still with my sister for about three months.
- And then they were liquidating that camp.
- So then they said, well, they're going
- to take us back to Auschwitz.
- But you know what that means?
- Once they bring you back from another camp, that's it.
- You knew that at that point?
- This is what they were saying.
- So there is nothing you can do.
- They take you, you go, right?
- In the meantime, I mean, it's very hard
- to say the way they put you to work.
- And if you didn't work, they were just beating.
- Well, all those things are--
- don't talk about it.
- When they took us back to Auschwitz
- and they didn't put us into the gas chambers,
- that was just a miracle.
- And next day, we found out that before they brought us,
- they took a bunch of people from this camp.
- There were a lot of Czech people there.
- And they got rid of them.
- They gassed those people.
- For some reason, they saved us and put us into that camp.
- So then we were in Auschwitz till end of January.
- This was '44.
- And by then the Russians were coming close.
- And some people, I think, were lucky in there.
- They were somehow hiding or something.
- But they took us from there to a camp, Bergen-Belsen,
- which was another very--
- Oh, I forgot to tell you about when we
- were separated from my sister.
- This was in Auschwitz.
- From factories, these Germans used to come.
- And they said, we need 200 workers.
- So they would line us up.
- And they would select.
- Of course, you had no clothes on.
- You had to walk through.
- And all these German soldiers would stand there.
- And that time Mengele was there.
- You must have heard Mengele, right?
- I was very, very skinny.
- And I had--
- I guess from malnutrition I had rashes.
- They put me out of the line.
- And somehow I snuck back to the line.
- I figured maybe next time--
- I went to the back of the line, and I'm walking down again.
- So you knew that being out of the line meant that--
- Being out of the line, again, meant that they might just
- get away with you.
- Do away with you, I should say.
- He recognized me.
- And he beat me up, took me out.
- And he used these German words, whatever, [SPEAKING GERMAN],,
- whatever.
- And I was very weak, so I just fell all over myself.
- Then I was out of the line.
- But again, for some reason, I was so lucky.
- Instead of putting--
- I think they didn't gas by then anyone because they were--
- I think they stopped gassing by then.
- They put me into an infirmary.
- And that's how I remained in Auschwitz.
- And I was separated from my sister.
- And we were there till end of January.
- And then they took us to Bergen-Belsen.
- And from Bergen-Belsen, they took us again to--
- I don't even remember these camps.
- One was called Rochlice.
- One was called Krasnice.
- As the Russians came closer, they always moved us away.
- And on the end, when the end was nearing--
- this was already April 1945--
- instead of keeping us in a camp, we
- would be on the march for four weeks.
- And of course, a lot of people were very weak.
- And if they fell, they would just shoot them.
- And at night, we used to sneak out and go to the garbage cans
- and pick potato shells, whatever.
- And this was going on till May 1945.
- All of a sudden, one night, we wake up.
- We were in these stalls.
- And they said, there are no Germans around.
- What's going on?
- They ran away and they left us because the Russians
- were coming.
- And, well, that was the end.
- The Russians came.
- But let me tell you, that wasn't the greatest either.
- No.
- We would have been happy to be liberated by the Americans.
- What happened with the Russians?
- What happened with the Russians?
- They were just very rough.
- And we would just go on our own.
- We had to fend for ourselves.
- But the Americans, when they liberated,
- they would try to bring food and if you were sick, right?
- So we were trying to see how we could get home.
- There were no trains, so you hopped on one of these, again,
- the cattle cars.
- Whichever way it was going, we went.
- Just to get away.
- And little by little, we ended up in Budapest.
- And from Budapest, I wanted to find out
- about my sister, the one who was there.
- But there was no way I could know where to find her.
- This would be Etta?
- Etta, yeah.
- From Budapest, we took another train.
- And it took us to Miskolc.
- That's a city in Hungary.
- And we were sitting on the train platform.
- And I see this young woman, nicely dressed,
- with a boy taking a walk.
- And I recognized her.
- It was my sister's friend because they were three friends
- that stayed in Budapest.
- All Jewish?
- Yes.
- Yes.
- Two of them were seamstresses.
- And they worked in this place, as a matter of fact,
- for this woman whose husband was a big Nazi.
- But she didn't know that they were Jewish.
- And her husband was away in the wartime.
- So this was my happy reunion when I met my sister's friend.
- And she didn't recognize me.
- But I recognized her.
- And of course, she took me.
- They lived at that time in Miskolc.
- So she took you to your sister?
- Yeah, right, of course.
- What was that like, seeing her?
- [LAUGHS] I can't imagine to tell you what that was like.
- Of course, they asked me the first night,
- what would you like to eat?
- And the food I asked for was just too heavy for my stomach,
- and I got so sick from it.
- I also forgot to tell you.
- Once, I was shot here in my ankle.
- And this was very--
- at the end already, it was--
- so they have to put me into the hospital
- because it was all infected in this area.
- They shot you?
- Well, it just hit me there.
- When they were shooting, you were there.
- All over it went.
- I don't know.
- That's about all.
- Do you remember when you first realized
- that your parents and the two siblings were dead?
- Well, like I told you, when we came to that first night, when
- I asked these girls that were there since 1942, when I said,
- when are we going to visit?
- And they said, visit?
- You look at the chimney.
- Right.
- So then you realized.
- Because they went to the other line?
- Right.
- Said, you're not going to see them anymore.
- They're flying out of the chimney.
- What was it like in the camps for you?
- Well, which way what was it like?
- Just in general.
- It was just a plain nightmare.
- Many times I said, gee--
- I said, I'm probably dead, and this is just hell.
- This is what it is in hell.
- You know?
- Till this day, I don't think there is a day that something
- doesn't cross my mind.
- Some memories?
- Right, some memories.
- You do something, and it just brings back the memories.
- I have many daydreams.
- I mean, I'll get very--
- days when I'm just so depressed.
- I don't know what you want.
- What is bothering me?
- I should be happy.
- I'm still very lucky.
- We have two wonderful children.
- Of course, we worked very hard to make sure they
- get the right education.
- And thank God, they turned out well,
- which not everybody is so lucky.
- My sister in Cleveland, one of her--
- she had a cerebral palsy child.
- And she's-- really affected her mentally,
- especially this time of the year.
- You can't talk to her.
- What is it about this time of the year?
- Well, this time of the year is very bad
- because this is when everything happened.
- It happened around Passover when they took us.
- Of course, we were also liberated at this time
- of the year, in May.
- But the mind remembers the bad things more than anybody.
- No, not always.
- But even we were liberated, it wasn't really good.
- That time, you really found out the real truth,
- that how many people you lost, all my cousins
- or a lot of families.
- And you had nowhere to go.
- You were all alone with nothing.
- Where do you start?
- How do you make a life?
- It was very difficult.
- What did you do?
- Well, what did we do?
- I know at one time I--
- well, first I had to get to myself.
- And my older sister, she was a little--
- because she didn't go through all this
- that we did and she helped me.
- We went back, and we just started all over again.
- It was difficult. And came out here to the United States.
- I met him here.
- You met him here?
- Yeah.
- When did you come here?
- In '47.
- Did you know people here?
- Oh, yes.
- I had an uncle here.
- And actually, he sent me papers.
- I guess he wasn't very well-to-do.
- And he only sent papers for one of us.
- And I decided that I should come.
- It wasn't easy to come here either, because they
- weren't very helpful, my uncle.
- They passed away since then.
- But then I had a friend here who took me in.
- And I learned to do sewing.
- So I started to make a living, little by little.
- And then we got married.
- That was in '51.
- And I got settled.
- What's the worst memories for you?
- Well, the worst memories--
- I guess when I was separated from my sister.
- That was one of them.
- And when we came to realize that I'm not
- going to see my parents again.
- I mean, they were young people in their 40s.
- And that's about all.
- That was pretty bad.
- There were a lot of different incidents.
- If you had a piece of bread and you would put it
- under your pillow because you wanted to save it,
- you didn't have it next day.
- People were stealing from each other.
- It was pretty bad.
- And you had to stand.
- It was very cold weather there.
- And they could make you stand for hours.
- They called that the Zahlappell, when
- they were counting the people.
- Or I know once two people somehow escaped,
- and they brought them back.
- And they made you stand there.
- And you had to watch how they were shooting them down.
- I mean, they put everybody out there, and we were watching.
- Things like that, a lot of different memories.
- Horrible memories.
- You try to block out, and then somehow it
- just pops into your head.
- Some association touches it all.
- Of course, now they have all these memorials.
- We went Sunday to the--
- Madison Square Garden?
- Madison Square Garden.
- It's very hard for me one way to see that are people that care.
- Another way, it stirs up so many memories, so you don't--
- I guess it has to be done.
- I appreciate you doing this.
- And now they have the museum in Washington.
- I guess it could be very, very depressing to go through it.
- Yet, I will have to do it.
- You will go?
- Yes.
- They had all week--
- I don't know if you watch any of it on channel 13?
- I just caught little bits.
- They had a lot of it.
- I said, I shouldn't be watching this because it just upsets me.
- I can't sleep.
- But on the other hand, I just have to watch it.
- I have to look at it.
- I mean, I know I have friends.
- I said, you want to come to Madison Square Garden?
- They said, no, I can't do it.
- I can't.
- I says, that's not so terrible because that's really
- heartwarming.
- I mean, I don't know if you--
- you weren't there, were you?
- No.
- No.
- I mean, the vice president was there.
- And he was sitting through the whole thing, which was really--
- I don't know how he really feels deep down,
- but actually, you had a feeling that he was there
- and he felt it.
- He was with us.
- I think he's a good guy.
- I think he's a good guy.
- If you saw him on television now from Washington,
- I couldn't get over it, the way he
- took around this Polish woman.
- Did you hear that part?
- No, I didn't.
- She was sitting next to him, and he actually took her around.
- Oh, yeah, I mean, it was--
- They came from Poland.
- They brought her out from Poland, only to get to the--
- [CROSS TALK]
- But this woman survived, was hiding 13 people.
- From one of those 13 people, one guy married her.
- She was just a young child when she was doing this.
- She was, I don't know, 12, 14, something like that.
- So they brought her from Poland.
- She had a small speech.
- And she was sitting next to the vice president.
- He actually put his arms around her.
- And the president was there.
- And it makes you feel good, that this is a country where they
- really show that they cared.
- And I guess you have to remember what happened
- because you don't want--
- Don't want it to happen again.
- Hopefully, hopefully.
- But it's so much bad things in this world going on right now.
- So that's it.
- OK, thank you.
- I just hope that our children, our grandchildren, they
- will not have anything like this again.
- Do your children talk about it much?
- Well, my daughter is a member of the second generation.
- She's also a member of this museum.
- We never used to talk about it, but now my daughter keeps
- saying, oh, I want to make--
- I want you to talk about it.
- I want to have this later on, to tell my children about it.
- Did she tape it?
- No.
- I could send her a copy.
- I would appreciate it.
- I will.
- I will positively send a copy.
- OK, I think--
- I will send it to you, and then you can--
- I really appreciate it.
- And I really thank you very much for giving me your time.
- Thank you, Rose.
- Alex?
- You want to know my story?
- Yeah, let me--
- I'm a little bit nervous.
- [AUDIO OUT]
- I told you we were in agriculturing.
- And it happened to be about a year and a half
- before they took us they.
- I had an accident.
- I was going in school in the city of [PLACE NAME],,
- but we lived the outskirt because we
- were in agriculturing.
- The young people as of age of 13--
- the Gentile people, they were teaching
- how to shoot and those things once a week, one afternoon.
- But Jewish boys were made building
- the ditches and those things from where
- to shoot for the Gentiles.
- I had to go.
- I couldn't go for that in the city,
- but I had to go where we lived the outskirt.
- There were two Jewish boys.
- And one day comes--
- it was on a Thursday.
- Thursday afternoon you had to be.
- On Thursday, the guy comes to me.
- He was in an army uniform.
- And he started to beat me.
- And he says, you dirty Jew.
- And he says, why your father took away all the land
- from the Gentile?
- And why doesn't he give it back to them?
- I went home crying.
- I was at that time 13 years old.
- So naturally my parents got scared.
- And they took me out from the Gymnasium.
- And my older sister flew up to Budapest.
- And they put me in a Jewish agriculturing school.
- The following Thursday I shouldn't be there.
- So it happened to be some of the Gentile boys,
- when they went Thursday, they asked, where is the Jewish boy?
- They said, well, he is not here anymore.
- They said, no, they said they don't need us
- and they don't know.
- But later they found out if I'm in a different--
- I was a different school.
- I was there till the day when the Germans came into Budapest.
- It was on a Saturday.
- Then, naturally, the school didn't want
- to be responsible for children.
- So Saturday evening, they put us up on the train
- to go home everybody.
- So these out of school.
- I was home, let's say, about two and a half,
- about three months then when the Germans came into our area.
- Then they started to take the Jews together.
- It was very funny because it was a small town, like I said,
- outskirt.
- And the way news they announced in our town,
- they were going with a drum.
- And let's see, every 200 or 300 feet,
- they announce on the drum something what's new.
- And they announced this here.
- There were only about 10 families, 8, 10 families.
- And they had to announce everybody should know about it.
- We are gathering together all the Jews.
- And naturally, we tried to escape.
- My father and mother stayed home with my grandparents.
- They lived separately.
- It was the same--
- they stayed in their own-- it was a very big place because we
- had, like I say, agriculturing.
- There were all the buildings there and everything.
- And me, my-- my oldest sister was married already.
- She lived in the city.
- So my two other sisters ran away to the neighbor.
- And they hided on the attic.
- I decided to run.
- We had another farm about 25 miles away,
- that I would run out there and see what happens.
- On the way, I was running through the fields.
- I did notice that on the highway there some Germans.
- And a guy is talking to them and is showing
- that way the Jew is running.
- So they were coming through with motorcycles after me.
- But somehow I noticed that and I was running faster.
- I was already right next to the next town.
- And near each house at that time they
- had to dig a hole in case of--
- because the Russians were very close to us already.
- They were coming.
- This was the Carpathian Mountains there where I come.
- And I jumped over the fence.
- And in that ditch I was hiding.
- That's the way they passed.
- They passed through.
- So I went out on the other farm what we had.
- So I slept over overnight there.
- I mean, there was the caretakers where
- they took care of our father.
- In the morning, he tells me I can't stay there
- because he's afraid about the life of his family,
- because they announced everybody who will hide Jews,
- they will kill them.
- So naturally, the following day, I decided I'm not going home.
- I will go into the city, to run.
- And I went there.
- I didn't go to my sister, but I went there.
- And I stayed there for about a week.
- They were gathering there.
- First they were gathering from the towns who are there,
- or from the city the Jews.
- And naturally, the majority of the people, they
- put them in the brick factory.
- But some of the people they took in a different place
- in the city.
- It was a lumber yard.
- On the end-- I was separated from my family
- about two months, six weeks, something like that.
- Then somehow, I did arrange--
- I went over there to work together.
- We were between the last transport
- what they sent out from the city because my father was
- a little bit--
- he had protection because the wealthy man and through all--
- account of that.
- So they took us to Auschwitz.
- That was about by the end of May, June, something like that.
- What year was that?
- In 1944.
- In 1944.
- We went together in one of those cattle cars for days.
- We didn't know where we are going.
- We get there, and we didn't know nothing--
- the idea of what we are going to work and the family
- sticks together.
- And the people where they could work, will work.
- And the one they can't work, the older people,
- will stay with the people there.
- So naturally, it was--
- That's what they told you?
- That's what we knew about it.
- We get there early morning, traveling for four days.
- There's no place where to toilet or something [INAUDIBLE]..
- They had one [INAUDIBLE].
- That's all.
- We get there, and we go out.
- And right away, a rush early in the morning, [SPEAKING GERMAN]..
- Everybody out, out, out, out.
- And even the people were working there.
- Then I'm standing with my father.
- I did notice that my grandmother, she couldn't move.
- And they took her down already on stretchers.
- Then I'm standing with my father.
- They pulled me out from the line.
- And my father went straight.
- To the other line?
- What?
- The other line?
- Yeah, so straight to the gas chamber.
- And I [? got to stand with ?] my oldest sister had a little boy
- of six years, or five, six years--
- five years old at the time.
- And after I heard from my sisters,
- they asked, who's the little child?
- My sister said, it's mine.
- And who is that older lady?
- She's my mother.
- So the child with the mother, and they went separated.
- Did you realize at that point, though?
- No, we did not realize nothing.
- We did not realize nothing.
- We did nothing.
- And us, they took him in a different area.
- Clothes down, everything.
- And they say, keep your shoes.
- That's all.
- And all we had to go through to a shower, a regular shower.
- We were there.
- And then, on the other end, they were giving us the [? slide ?]
- clothes.
- Then we went.
- They put us in one of those bunkers.
- But we weren't there long.
- We knew something goes down already
- because the smell, especially at night, was not good.
- After four days, they were shipping us away.
- We did belong to Dachau because we got the Dachau number
- on our clothes.
- Usually the people that remained in Auschwitz,
- those got the numbers on their arms.
- We had numbers.
- We went to working.
- But we didn't go to Dachau.
- Dachau had a lot of small working lagers.
- But it was about 2,000 people.
- And they took us in one of those to work.
- So naturally, we went to work.
- We are working on a railroad, building railroad.
- At the same time, we were not far from Munich.
- So whenever the Americans were bombing Munich,
- we went to clean up and to rebuild the railroad.
- That was our job.
- But on the end, it became very bad.
- Food was-- I'm sure you know the food what they were
- giving you is only to exist.
- I had once a very bad accident, not an accident.
- What happened to me?
- That was spring when we went away.
- Already about in May, my shoes weren't very good.
- Came the [INAUDIBLE] winter in the [INAUDIBLE]..
- It was about October, September, October.
- Happened to be I had a second cousin of mine.
- He was working in the kitchen.
- And I told him, I didn't have no shoes.
- You're going to work every day in those things.
- There was a pair of shoes in the kitchen that he gave me.
- One was bigger, one was smaller.
- It didn't matter.
- He didn't know that that pair of shoes belongs to somebody else.
- And they noticed on me the shoes.
- And they said it to the Lageralteste.
- Who was the Lageralteste?
- They were German people what they were in prison
- for killing and those things.
- Those are the people, but inside they took care of us.
- Yeah.
- Right.
- Naturally, they started to beat me right away.
- And they put me--
- they had a building built down in a ditch.
- They put there the dead people.
- So they throw me in between the dead people.
- They were about five, six people there.
- I was there all night.
- And the following day, naturally, somebody
- did something.
- They used to take all the people out and they should watch
- or they shot him or they--
- the guy told me.
- Next day it will be [INAUDIBLE] for that.
- So you stayed the whole night figuring
- that was your last night?
- Yes.
- So naturally, he find out my second--
- it was actually my father's cousin.
- He find out that.
- So he went.
- And he was more friendly with those German people
- because he was there working with them in the kitchen.
- It happened to be he was working on the SS kitchen.
- So he went to him and tell him it's not my fault. He did it.
- He put the blame on himself for this.
- And then, the following day, they let me out.
- They let me out.
- And luckily, I got a pair of shoes.
- So continue going to work.
- It happened to me, what was on the good side
- once, as I'm working--
- we were working one of the railroad station, railroad
- station about 10 miles away from there for a while,
- building there.
- And because I was a youngster, they
- trusted more younger people than the older guys.
- I was 18 that time.
- The German, they were the Luftwaffe and some SS.
- So I was working on the top, helping
- to take down the wood what they're
- putting under the railroad.
- I find a big bunch of money.
- Nobody saw it.
- But you see, Germany had kind of money at that time.
- They had one for what's in Germany
- and the other money that's in the soldiers for out
- of the country and with Poland or Hungary or where they were.
- This is this kind of money.
- Somehow I sent it to that cousin of mine, of my
- [INAUDIBLE] that he was working.
- And he gave it to somebody.
- It was no use for me.
- And from that-- but he was working in the kitchen.
- So he was helping me out.
- Each time, instead of giving that soup from the top,
- he was giving me from the bottom.
- So that helped me for a while.
- It came already in January, I was very sick.
- I couldn't work anymore.
- Then they took us in another small lager camp like this.
- There was only the sick people, only the sick people.
- There again, as they take us in, whom I meet there?
- My mother's partner.
- And he stood there sometimes, so he was always
- giving me [INAUDIBLE].
- But still, those things didn't help.
- Came to the end of the year, about March, I was so weak,
- I couldn't walk anymore.
- I mean, people can imagine what fitness is.
- If you fall down, you can't get up.
- Your mind doesn't work.
- It doesn't plainly-- it doesn't work.
- And that was the last, when the Germans were
- coming-- when the Americans were coming
- because I was in Germany.
- It was occupied after by the Americans.
- They decided to liquidate the camp.
- And we're taking everybody back to their home.
- So the railroad was not fast.
- I could not walk anymore.
- So they were carrying me.
- And they were taking us on an open train.
- They were throwing up the dead people, the live people
- who couldn't walk.
- Somehow I was in the corner.
- And the way the Germans were doing it-- let's see.
- Let's see.
- There was our train.
- Next to it, they used to stop.
- It was very slowly moving.
- The train to [INAUDIBLE] was ammunition train.
- Now, they figured that the Americans
- were bombing and coming, that they will not--
- because they will see they are there from labor camp.
- But the Americans who would came are
- coming and shooting on the other train what
- they were right next to us.
- And I tell you something.
- A lot of them got killed.
- The guy next to me--
- head was cut off.
- I had a little shot here in my arm.
- People were running away at that time already,
- but I could not run--
- no strength anymore.
- They took us into Dachau.
- And they put me right away in the hospital, by the hospital.
- I could not go.
- They carried me already.
- But four days later, the American came in.
- They mentioned the Americans came in.
- But it didn't go in my mind already those things.
- Then when the Americans--
- You didn't have enough energy to think.
- When the Americans-- I'm lucky that I was sick,
- that I survived because--
- let's see.
- Me, they put me right away there where
- they started to build hospitals and those things.
- But they had to--
- I couldn't eat and drink.
- I couldn't eat.
- They had to feed me through the veins.
- Through the vein because usually,
- the people who were there who were alive,
- they started to die after because they
- came with that fat milk and those things.
- The stomach couldn't take it.
- I was there till about I felt already better.
- I was there about July.
- In July, they put us on trains and went up to Budapest.
- And from Budapest, I was there a couple days.
- I didn't know who is alive in the family.
- I didn't know nothing.
- I went back to work.
- But my sisters, they knew where I
- lived because some people came back from Dachau.
- They said that I was liberated, I'm in Dachau,
- that I was very sick.
- So every day, when the train came in,
- they were waiting for me.
- Your sisters?
- Yes.
- There's a story I want to tell you.
- When I was in Dachau, I felt better.
- Everybody was going to recover what's in the camp there.
- So in one of the attic, they went up.
- I don't know why, really.
- They had a lot of soap.
- It was soap in a big bottle, special for shaving,
- with the square, the whole square.
- I brought home one without realizing what it is.
- Then we looked at it.
- I see here, RJF.
- You know what that means?
- Yeah.
- R is for Rein, Judisch Fett.
- Pure Jewish fat.
- Yes.
- Gave it to the museum.
- It happened to be.
- And a couple years ago, we were in Washington
- at that time when they started with the--
- they were building museum and those things.
- They had the first gathering.
- First gathering.
- That time I was [CROSS TALK].
- Then they started in New York building it.
- So I gave it into the New York museum.
- How did you feel having that?
- I don't know.
- I don't know why I brought it home.
- We were still a year in how you call--
- then when I went home to Hungary,
- we left Hungary because that was under communistic--
- that is Russia now because the Carpathian Mountains,
- what they took away from Czechoslovakia.
- Actually the border was right there from Hungary.
- We didn't know to stay there or not to stay there.
- To stay there, I will say, we had land in the different--
- it wasn't really measured like in Europe and here.
- Let's see.
- I would say I figure 5,000 acres land.
- They wanted to give me back--
- only for me as a man, not the girls.
- The girls are entitled nothing in the beginning--
- 40 acres.
- Of the 5,000?
- Of the 5,000.
- These were the communists?
- That was already communists, yes.
- But the beginning wasn't so strong communism
- because they didn't know, the country, what communism is.
- It was only the beginning.
- After that, I'm sure they would have taken away that too.
- So we decided not to stay there.
- And why we decided not to stay there,
- because it happened to be--
- my sisters, when they got liberated--
- they were [INAUDIBLE].
- From Riga, they were walking them.
- And they got liberated in Warsaw, before Warsaw.
- In Warsaw, there was a lot of American flyers there
- who were shot down.
- They were imprisoned.
- My two sisters, they spoke English,
- so they started talked to the American people.
- And one of them said, we are from New York.
- My older sister remembered the business of my uncle's business
- in the city.
- It was a paper business.
- So she wrote a letter to them.
- Then my aunt wrote a letter.
- She didn't know about from me.
- They know about the three of them.
- She wrote right away a letter.
- And she said, we are not going to be happy if you are not here
- by [INAUDIBLE].
- That's the reason they started to work already.
- That's the reason, when we came out,
- we were really the first ones to come out.
- So then, when they find out, my sister wrote that I'm alive,
- I'm coming, they sent for me papers to [INAUDIBLE]..
- So your uncle brought you over?
- Oh, sure.
- That's the story of my life.
- How did the two of you meet?
- In school.
- Let me just--
- Night school.
- Night school.
- Night school?
- Yeah.
Overview
- Interviewee
- Rose Jacoby
Mr. Alex Jacoby
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
1 sound cassette (90 min.).
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
- Personal Name
- Jacoby, Rose--Interviews. Jacoby, Alex--Interviews.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the tapes of the interview from Rose and Alex Jacoby on July 27, 1993
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 08:16:43
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn510120
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