- So we're today, November 23, 1998, 10:30 in the morning,
- in Beit Yitzhak and speaking to Manka Alterova
- about her experience, and especially
- her musical experience, in Terezin ghetto.
- Manka, maybe first you could tell us when you were born
- and where.
- I was born at the beginning of '23, 1923,
- on a small village in what was then Czechoslovakia,
- and now is Czech Republic.
- And all the surrounding have been Czech people, village
- people, and we have been the only Jewish family
- in all the villages around.
- What was the name of the village?
- Suchdol.
- And the nearest town to Suchdol, Kutna Hora,
- means Suchdol belongs to Kutna Hora.
- And as far as I remember, I always sang.
- When I was four years old, I could hold a tune, already.
- Which, I don't know which is--
- And when I was five years old, they put me on the stage
- in the village.
- It was some kind of Cabaret or Sylvester, or something.
- I don't remember which one.
- And I had to sing a song that you have also in Hebrew.
- This is the-- no, it remind me--
- [HUMMING]
- [NON-ENGLISH]
- [HUMMING]
- There is the--
- [HUMMING]
- [NON-ENGLISH]
- As anyway, I had to sing it.
- And played the movements, at the age of five.
- Which was very easy for me.
- Mostly the movement.
- So I make my eyes like this, and I sing like this.
- I am the little daughter.
- And then, I had to show how short my shirt is.
- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
- And then I had to weep like this.
- It was very successful.
- I was five years old, of course.
- And then, it's cool--
- I got always, because of this one, or perhaps,
- I got always the main part in the play.
- And when it sometimes didn't happen,
- I was very insulted, because it was my part.
- And so it went on, and I liked to sing anywhere.
- I used-- when I was 12 years old, or 13,
- I sang in the synagogue for the Simchas Torah, as a soloist,
- in front of the huge congregation.
- And I got presents and everything.
- And two months afterwards, they wanted me in the church.
- So I sang in the church.
- It was the same to me.
- I mean, I didn't mind.
- And so it was.
- The love of singing I shared with my big brother,
- who was six years older, and who always
- wanted to be opera singer.
- But of course, mother said, do you want to be a comedian?
- No.
- So she didn't-- it was not included in the list
- of professions for a son.
- But he sang much more better than me.
- And we used to sing together a lot of songs.
- And mostly, this political cabarets, the political songs
- of the two--
- [NON-ENGLISH]
- Yes, [NON-ENGLISH].
- And these are--
- I think they had at least 150 songs or more.
- And we knew them all by heart.
- And with him, I also did develop, so to say,
- rhythms and things.
- And then, I had my best friend-- a girl from the village--
- we used to go out in the evenings and sit on the walls,
- or behind fences, you know, and sing the whole time.
- After some time, a few boys came together,
- and with harmonica and guitar.
- And we used to sing at night.
- And then, I also developed singing the second voice, which
- you need to.
- So it was very important to me, singing.
- And then, I had to leave the village
- and went away to school.
- And all the party fell apart, and I
- didn't have any friends left.
- And I didn't want to have any friends later.
- And then, in the ghetto, yes, I remember
- that when I went on the train to ghetto,
- it was after three days of quarantine in a school.
- And all the people were crying, and embracing
- their children, and everything.
- And they were so unhappy they are leaving
- their flats, and everything.
- I was so happy, because I was, after a terrible period
- of time, I was held by Gestapo for months.
- And I had house arrest, and I was held in a cell.
- And my parents they took away.
- And it was a terrible time for me.
- I would think much worse than the ghetto.
- So when I last--
- when I at last was on the train to ghetto,
- where only Jews have been, I mean,
- I was so happy to be with Jews, and leave the village behind,
- that I sang the whole time--
- on the train, I was singing, what came to my head.
- So this is my story.
- Nothing at all.
- When was it that you went to Terezin?
- I went at the beginning of June '42.
- And for a long time, I didn't think--
- I didn't think of--
- I wasn't happy, and everything.
- But as it-- you know, as the culture life began in ghetto,
- it began very slowly and very quiet.
- So the Germans couldn't hear, and could notice that we try,
- or--
- So they have been mostly lectures.
- Then people started singing.
- And I remember, the first singing I did was
- at [NON-ENGLISH],, in the music by Smetana,
- which is called [NON-ENGLISH]--
- it means, it's some symphonic poem, called [NON-ENGLISH]..
- And there, I was in the choir.
- And but I don't remember [NON-ENGLISH],, how it looked,
- or something.
- And after some time, I had to stop.
- I was working in the kitchen.
- And working in the kitchen is automatically--
- this was one of the most difficult jobs in ghetto,
- but one of the most--
- how do you say it--
- everybody wanted to work in the kitchen.
- I was very happy when I succeeded
- to be taken into the kitchen.
- But I worked many hours a day.
- I was very tired.
- And mostly, the chefs didn't let us go to make music,
- you know, to participate, because they
- have been afraid we were not to work harder.
- So there was always the danger they will throw me out
- of the kitchen.
- So I stopped with the Smetana music.
- And then, much later on, Schwenk called for me.
- I don't know until now, from whom he knew about me.
- I don't-- I never had any official musical education.
- I played violin for three years.
- But nowadays, what I accomplished during the three
- years, a child in Israel would accomplish in three months,
- I mean.
- The teacher, himself, was like Antonin Dvorak once
- was, a kapellmeister on a village,
- so how much did you know about theories?
- And so this was my education.
- Nothing in the school.
- At school, in a private school before the ghetto,
- I started piano for less than a year.
- And it was also--
- I wouldn't say it was on a good level.
- And so, I don't have any education.
- Of course, it was just a lot of singing.
- And then, in the ghetto, when Schwenk called for me,
- he didn't tell me where he knows,
- from where he knows about me.
- And I didn't ask him.
- I was in heaven when he asked me to come,
- because Schwenk, for us, was like a God.
- Nothing was better than Schwenk.
- We sometimes heard the songs from the German cabarets,
- and everything, but he didn't speak to us
- so much as his songs.
- His songs have been in the style of the Muscovites, and very--
- the political songs--
- and the cabaret songs have been like the time
- that we were used to it.
- And more like--
- I don't know-- like--
- no, it has been spoke of.
- The couple of the German songs?
- Yes.
- Brecht?
- Brecht-- like Brecht a little bit.
- You know?
- So this was wonderful for us.
- And after I have been with the rehearsal at Schwenk
- for three, four times, he gave me
- only some 10 minutes or something, even less,
- my chef heard about it--
- my kitchen chef heard about it.
- He called me, and he told me, or it will be Schwenk
- or it will be the kitchen.
- You are not going.
- And I stopped going.
- And the other girl got the part.
- It was the part, the main part, in the Last Cyclist.
- Oh, the Last Cyclist.
- Cyclist.
- And the destiny wanted that she was later with me
- in the concentration camps.
- And I hated her.
- What's the name of the girl who replaced you?
- You see her-- I am today--
- no, I know, Nita Petschau.
- Nita Petschau, she sang with--
- I think she must have sang with him before.
- With Schwenk?
- Yes, Nita Petschau.
- Could you, Manka, say something about,
- even though it was short, but you
- said you had two or three rehearsals.
- Did he play?
- Did you read from the music?
- Did he play it for you?
- How did the rehearsal go?
- No, no, no, he told me, stand by me,
- and I will play it for you twice, and start to catch up.
- And he played it from the beginning with me, as a--
- I'm tired today.
- And then, in the middle of the song, there is a monologue.
- And he played on the whole--
- as a background music.
- The song is very short, very simple.
- And one part is singing, one part is only the background.
- And one part is two sentences he put on the end,
- or it must have seemed to him too short,
- or suddenly he got some inspiration.
- The melody is almost non-existent.
- And but it was a very sentimental song.
- It must have been about a woman that remembers her friend,
- or husband, and somebody, long after he went away.
- I think that the words are the most important in the song.
- Did he have the words written down?
- Yes, he gave me the words, written down.
- I read them at the beginning.
- But I was catching very quickly, and I knew the song
- well after twice.
- And it's very simple.
- And then, I stopped coming.
- And then, much later on, at '44 or so, I--
- no, no, before it was perhaps before,
- when the [NON-ENGLISH] started?
- '43.
- '43, so--
- No, [NON-ENGLISH] must have been '44, before the actual visit
- of the Red Cross?
- Yes.
- And the [NON-ENGLISH],, some one, a young man approached me,
- his name was Pepik Roubicek.
- I never heard of him after the war.
- And once I heard that he was a survivor,
- he was living after the war, he approached me, and told me,
- I heard from somebody that you are singing.
- And would you like to sing my song in the cafe of Terezin?
- Of course, of course, I only sing.
- And the only place I was singing in ghetto
- was during my work in the kitchen.
- As I worked very hard, I was always singing.
- It helped me.
- And I said, yes, OK.
- So he wrote a song for me--
- which is not-- still shorter.
- I remember only two verses.
- And it is such a blue song--
- such a very, like Zarah Leander such a song.
- And then, he asked me if I knew another one.
- And I saw--
- I think the cafe, another one--
- it was a Czech jest song.
- It must have been American, perhaps.
- Perhaps you heard about it.
- The words mean, I am building the--
- Stairway to paradise.
- Stairway?
- Stair castles?
- To paradise.
- To paradise.
- Gershwin.
- Gershwin.
- No, no, no, no--
- [HUMMING]
- It was, no, no--
- it's just--
- You remember the Pizmon?
- Yes.
- [HUMMING]
- How would you call it?
- Sky castles?
- Skyscraper?
- No, no, no, no, no, no, I am building illusions.
- Castles in the sky.
- The castles in the sky.
- I'm in the sky, and I'm dreaming about--
- we will be living there alone under the sky, and be happy.
- Is it not White Christmas?
- No, no-- it must be some.
- Can you sing it, even in Czech?
- I can, yes, but I don't know today.
- Yes, it was such a song--
- I used to sing it in Israel afterwards, also,
- in the chevra.
- There are some words I missed there.
- But it was a success.
- And then, I think, I had the third song also in Czech,
- but this fell out of my memory-- about rain.
- I only know it was a song about rain.
- Rain, it's raining, an umbrella, something?
- And I don't know anything about it.
- [SPEAKING CZECH]
- No, no.
- Ask it again.
- Do you remember the song that Roubicek wrote for you?
- Yes, yes, yes.
- But it's very, very short.
- Maybe sing it.
- They write for you only short songs?
- Yes, I don't know why.
- Only perhaps I remember only part of it.
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- And then, again, I had some sentence to say,
- and he played on the piano.
- And the words are--
- tomorrow will be a new day, will come
- a new day, where everybody will be happy.
- Tomorrow, I am whispering to myself, tomorrow,
- during the whole day.
- This is the first part.
- The second-- they are nice words--
- and the second part is tomorrow, before the sunrise rises,
- it will be my last--
- [NON-ENGLISH]-- last grieving.
- No, sadness, sadness, it will be my last sadness.
- Tomorrow, tomorrow, the last one is, tomorrow--
- Ah, tomorrow, I am whispering to myself, tomorrow
- for during the whole day.
- The words are nice, but it's very short.
- And then, he played, and I said something.
- I don't know what.
- Would you say the name of the song is "Tomorrow"?
- Tomorrow, yes.
- Tomorrow?
- And this is a Schwenk song?
- Oh, this is--
- The Rubiczek song.
- Which it was a known composer?
- No, he used to play.
- I don't know where.
- But his song is know there?
- People loved it?
- I don't know.
- Not many young people heard the song.
- Why?
- In this cafe, mostly old people came to listen.
- They wanted to show that the old people have a place where they
- have coffee, [NON-ENGLISH] coffee.
- Do you think there's a flavor of a tango?
- Would you say so?
- No, this-- Tomorrow?
- No-- [HUMMING]
- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
- [HUMMING]
- Like schlepping with the music, schlepping.
- How much more schlepping, it was better.
- He wanted to show somehow the atmosphere in the ghetto.
- And the words, if you use words that the Germans didn't pass,
- you couldn't had them.
- It was not allowed.
- But in these words are nothing against the Germans--
- and no ghetto, no nothing, only tomorrow.
- So they passed.
- Oh that's interesting, something I hadn't heard.
- Did the Germans demand to see and have
- somebody translate the text?
- Yes, I think so, because the Last Cyclist, they didn't pass.
- And he had to remake it.
- So what did he do?
- He didn't remake it--
- he just put another title.
- And the title was, instead of Last Cyclist, The Same
- but Otherwise.
- And they ate it, the Germans, and they ate it.
- The Same but Otherwise.
- I didn't know.
- I knew there were two cabarets--
- but I didn't know the Last Cyclist, and The Same
- but Otherwise, but I didn't know it's two different--
- it's the same cabaret.
- Yes, it's the same cabaret.
- I didn't see it at last.
- I don't know why.
- You could imagine that somebody would
- translate for them not exactly.
- They would make it sort of [NON-ENGLISH]..
- I don't know if somebody was so--
- This is the same?
- This is the poster, The Same but Otherwise, right?
- Am I right?
- Yes, this is the original--
- original placard.
- Let's continue about Schwenk, about the umbrella song.
- Do you remember the words?
- No, no, no, I have no idea.
- I only know it has something to do-- song that I remember.
- [HUMMING]
- No, no, this was not-- it was a schlager.
- It was a schlager, some kind of--
- I'm walking in the train.
- This one you know?
- This one, I heard.
- I heard it, yes.
- So it's different race maybe.
- This is different, yes.
- Yeah for the [NON-ENGLISH].
- This is also original.
- And you know who did it, the placard, the poster?
- It's beautiful.
- Beautiful.
- Beautiful, for them.
- I can tell it's a [NON-ENGLISH].
- Beautiful, beautiful.
- No, it's not written who did it.
- Yes, he must be-- he didn't sign it or something?
- No.
- Very nice.
- They have been good graphics, and painters, and everything.
- Let's go on about Schwenk.
- So did you, I mean, you had to go back to work in the kitchen.
- I think in the evening it's better with me.
- Yeah.
- I have-- I take cortisone, and that's why.
- I am blocked completely.
- I think maybe Manka remembers this song of the rain,
- about the rain, that she sang?
- Yeah, but I can't remember.
- I'm trying for 50 years to remember, 60 years.
- I can't remember.
- Even the melody?
- No, it's something that I--
- perhaps it will-- best guess, it will come to me.
- Yeah, any other Schwenk songs which come to mind?
- No, not with me.
- We used to sing the march, and we
- used to sing another song that we knew half of it.
- You were there in '44?
- Yes.
- You were aware of the cabaret carousel?
- I heard the cabaret carousel, but I didn't go to see it.
- You didn't go see it.
- I must-- if you would give me the songs,
- I'm sure I remember something of it.
- This was so important to us--
- the singing.
- You remember Martin Roman?
- Me?
- Martin?
- Roman.
- No, he was a German, no?
- A German?
- But he was there, he did-- he wrote that kind of stuff.
- Did you ever hear any jazz played,
- the Ghetto Swingers, for example,
- outside, in the staatskapelle?
- In the cafe, in the cafe, the Ghetto Swingers
- have been playing in other times.
- The piano was for them and for us, also--
- Fritz Weiss, and--
- Quintet?
- Quintet of chess.
- Yes, sometimes I came too early, so I heard
- them practice or something.
- They'd be wonderful.
- Yeah, tell us something that I think is--
- tell us what was the atmosphere like in these cabaret,
- making music in the coffeehouse, for such a maybe even
- grotesque kind of audience?
- Old people?
- We see the drawings of Fritter, which
- show the real psychological misery in their eyes.
- Not the drawings of--
- who's the-- Spies.
- I forgot his name, from Holland, which are very elegant, which
- it wasn't like it.
- What was the real atmosphere like?
- How was the audience reacting?
- I tell you, when I came--
- when I first came--
- when I first sing at the cafe, and I saw people coming,
- I imagined I will sing for people of my age--
- my age, people, young people, chevra, as you see.
- And then, I saw the people coming, started coming,
- and they have been all like this,
- they just wanted to sit down.
- And have been in-- and be in four walls that
- are not so cold, and getting something hot to drink.
- And I was a little bit--
- of course, I was not shocked, but I was disappointed.
- And then, when I was singing the second time,
- I told myself, I have to bring a little bit out of themselves.
- So I look at them, and I make movements in my hands,
- and I smiled.
- And when I saw some of the reaction--
- So they started reacting.
- They didn't listen to the song, they saw me.
- I mean, and it was interesting.
- There have been some that slumped into a sleep, you know,
- immediately.
- But there were some that make like this with their feet,
- and enjoy themselves a little bit.
- Of course, they knew the purpose--
- they knew why they had to be there,
- because the people that had to work for the Germans
- didn't have time to sit in the cafe.
- And the Germans didn't want them to.
- So they played the audience.
- It was there-- it had been in the program.
- Programmed to be an audience.
- So this was the atmosphere.
- I didn't mind so much, because the main thing was to sing.
- And he was a good accompanist on the piano, this Rubiczek.
- And this was--
- Only Rubiczek accompanied you?
- Yes, he, himself, himself.
- Only him?
- Only him.
- On the piano, he was accordionist,
- but he accompanied me on the piano.
- And it must have been the only piano in ghetto, I think.
- I don't know if it was--
- Legal, or upright?
- I don't remember.
- But it couldn't be, because they couldn't schlep me
- from place to place.
- And the cafe was on the corner of the main square.
- It was just one--
- over one single house, was the kommandatura,
- which I never knew.
- I came there, I didn't know that I'm so near the SS, there.
- Now, after the war, when I came to Terezin,
- they told me this house was the cafe, and this was some shop,
- and this was the kommandatura.
- Yes, it was legal, of course.
- The pictures that we know, excuse
- me, the pictures and the photographs also, and drawings,
- you see there was a fence.
- That the Jews couldn't walk in the street,
- they had a fence on the sidewalk.
- The Jews had to go on the sidewalk.
- They could cross the street.
- No, in the beginning-- yes, when I came to the ghetto,
- the ghetto was closed.
- Nobody was allowed to go on the street.
- I don't remember any parting of the road, or something.
- We were forbidden to go in the street-- only with permission.
- At the beginning, they chose me to be a--
- I belonged to the ghetto [NON-ENGLISH]..
- I was a guard.
- I had something on my sleeve, and--
- GW?
- Something, GW, or something.
- And I was standing in the front, in the entrance
- to the public building, so the military building,
- letting people all pass when they have papers, or not pass.
- It was very, very strict at this time, ghetto.
- And because of that, because I was a guard,
- I had a permission to go each fortnight to see my brother,
- because I could walk on the street.
- I had to have the permission, but I got it, because
- of the work, of my profession.
- But other people didn't.
- But there have been few people going on the street.
- I can imagine, as you say, they had to be on the side.
- Because at that time, the Germans
- roamed the streets a lot.
- They walked alone on the streets,
- and with guns like this in the hands, and everything,
- played with it.
- I had an impression they were looking for some adventures.
- And we have been very much afraid to pass,
- or to meet somebody, sing like this on the empty streets.
- But after a few months, it must have been less than three
- months, they opened the ghetto.
- Because of the Jewish elders, because of the plan
- to make an order in ghetto.
- And suddenly, we could go out and roam the streets.
- At that time, the Germans didn't walk around so much.
- Perhaps they put the--
- if something happened, they would
- have put the blame on the Jews.
- I mean, because they was the responsible for us.
- Did the Germans ever come to hear any of these performances?
- No, in the cafe, no, never.
- And I, for a long time, we all have
- been imagining they didn't know about it, because it was high
- up under the roofs, mostly.
- But then, later, much later, we learned they knew all about it.
- And it played-- it played into their hands, so to say.
- Then, they must have planned the [NON-ENGLISH]..
- I think they didn't think about it before.
- Yeah, can you tell us something-- and maybe
- this one scene, about the Black Jim song?
- The Black Jim, why do we have extra wagons for the White
- gentlemen?
- [HUMMING]
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- This, I don't know the rhythm.
- Perhaps it was said and not sang.
- I don't know.
- This is only-- but in between, if I heard it, I would have--
- perhaps I would remember.
- Try again.
- Hmm?
- Try it again.
- Forget about all this--
- [SPEAKING CZECH]
- No, I don't know--
- if I heard it, I would remember.
- No, perhaps I will remember.
- It was everything with him is such a monotony.
- I think it was on purpose, perhaps,
- to show the atmosphere, the darkness,
- the darkness of history.
- It shouldn't be gay and pleasant,
- and something like this.
- You think it was different from his Prague songs?
- Because he was active in the liberated theater.
- And there, the influence was Jezek.
- He was influenced by Jezek--
- everybody was influenced by Jezek.
- I don't know, but about the song I think for Schwenk,
- I wasn't supposed to sing for Schwenk.
- Now, two years ago, you know about the film that the-- no?
- Makarova?
- Makarova-- and Sibylla.
- And Sibylla.
- Billy Ann Schoeneman-- I never saw it.
- I knew about it, I never saw it.
- Good for you.
- Good for you.
- All my friends said it was terrible.
- And but I was in it.
- And I liked it.
- I mean, it was very light.
- There was no--
- Billy was not interested in the history.
- She knew the history of the ghetto.
- She was not interested in the history.
- She was interested about us.
- When we come nowadays into this town, how do we react?
- How-- you understand?
- He wanted everything on the light side of things.
- She never wanted sad stories, or tragic stories, or no--
- how would you say it?
- She didn't want anything heavy.
- I don't know why, that's why she called it One Day in Terezin.
- but she was supposed to do it now, the name now,
- because people that came to see it,
- they didn't know the Terezin as they knew it.
- And they thought that it was too trivial to--
- So we didn't know why she wants it like this.
- But the young people that saw the film,
- I was in Cinematheque when it was first shown,
- and they have been invited--
- many, many teachers have been invited.
- And all the young teachers of Israel, they loved it.
- And all the old women that had been in Terezin,
- didn't like it.
- Understand?
- Because they felt it was a false picture?
- Yes, yes-- because they saw there was nothing from Terezin,
- I mean.
- So I can't explain it.
- I'm not a psychologist.
- Film in Terezin, and nothing of Terezin?
- A talent.
- Huh?
- It was filmed in Terezin, partly,
- without conveying really--
- What it was about.
- She had a feeling that all people know about the Terezin
- as it was, perhaps.
- That there is enough documentation about the Terezin
- that has been.
- There a few sad songs in it, also.
- I mean, there is a lullaby that one of very good actors
- in Czech Republic sang--
- the lullaby is beautiful.
- The song of--
- Of Gideon Klein?
- No, it was lullaby by also Schwenk.
- Oh, Schwenk lullaby?
- Oh, yes, this here.
- It is a beautiful lullaby.
- I don't even know-- do you remember the name of it?
- Yes, it is here.
- Lullaby--
- Is this the music for that?
- I don't know the music--
- [NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
- I can bring it.
- I can fix it for you.
- The MAN lives in the Czech Republic.
- He sings it in the film.
- And he's a good actor, and he sings it beautifully.
- Also, the words are very nice.
- And it's very nice.
- He says here, one of the sentences
- here is, the day changes into the night.
- And the year are rolling.
- Once, perhaps, you will open your sleepy eyes--
- how I translate it straight away--
- and you wouldn't-- and you will not want to sleep.
- All the sadness will go away.
- And you will only remember the day--
- the time it was.
- Not even in the--
- not even in the dream.
- You will laugh-- you will laugh.
- Everything which was said, doesn't long--
- doesn't long-- doesn't stay long--
- Oh, it doesn't last?
- Doesn't-- yes.
- And it will be again good.
- And in time, will be good again.
- It's beautiful.
- Do you remember the melody at all?
- [HUMMING]
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- I don't know.
- [CZECH]
- It's very difficult to sing.
- They are half-tones in it.
- It's difficult to sing.
- But in the film, it's sung well?
- Yes, he was singing it well.
- He was singing it in the ghetto, I think.
- His name is Ludwig Elias.
- That has been--
- Ludwig?
- Ludwig Elias.
- Like Elias, they are Elias, he's Elias.
- They changed it from the Czech, Elias, the same thing.
- Ludwig Elias.
- And that's in [NON-ENGLISH].
- Yes, in [NON-ENGLISH].
- And he lives Morova, in the part of Czech Republic.
- The Lucas are her best friends.
- Do you know Pavel Lucas?
- No.
- Pavel Lucas organizes always in [NON-ENGLISH] the concerts from
- the Friendship Israel and Czech Republic.
- I can make it a--
- What's the name?
- Pavel?
- Pavel Lucas.
- He is living here in the village.
- And Eve's his best friend.
- Where does Elias live?
- What's the name of his town?
- I can--
- Afterwards, I would like that.
- I will call him.
- And what was the context that this lullaby was sung?
- Was it in a show?
- I don't know.
- He will know.
- Let me go to another subject.
- It's not really another subject, but did you, with your kitchen
- work, and all of that, but still,
- did you go to any performances as an audience,
- as part of audience?
- Very, very few ones.
- I don't even remember.
- I knew the songs from the street,
- from the others that's singing, you know.
- I don't really remember contents of the shows.
- Did you hear it--
- I must have gone-- of course, I must have gone.
- Did you hear a piano recital?
- Did you hear a chamber music concert?
- Yes, we heard the concerts, but which ones, I don't remember.
- I didn't even saw the [NON-ENGLISH],,
- which was very important.
- Perhaps I didn't get tickets, or something, you know.
- It was sold out.
- It was so funny, too, these tickets
- in ghetto, without money, and everything.
- Did you know about Gideon Klein?
- I knew about Gideon Klein, I didn't meet him personally.
- He was like somebody very famous.
- Yeah, they spoke of him like he was some kind of God.
- [NON-ENGLISH].
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yes, and then, the German cabaret, we also
- heard about the songs of the German cabarets.
- But we-- I didn't so much wanted to go.
- I was always, always so tired.
- I slept already on the way home.
- It was very hard.
- Later, I discovered, that I was put down as a hard worker.
- I was in the first category-- it must
- have been the reason that they kept me
- in ghetto for such a long time.
- I was doing a man's work.
- This book, there was a song that you told me about,
- "Ballad for an Empty Belly, Shrinks."
- Do you remember, it's written--
- I also only know one sentence of it, or something.
- This is-- at the beginning, it must-- it was such a melody,
- almost a talking, and not without a melody.
- It's about a-- it's such a ballad, you know, from a town,
- from a street, such a dark street, and everything.
- Ballad about the hungry stomach, or belly, more hungry belly.
- And there, as somebody stays on the streets,
- and all people that are passing saw him singing.
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- It must have been already my--
- now, this was not the original.
- [CZECH]
- I can't sing something that I'm not sure of.
- It must--
- It's something.
- You can make it up.
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- I knew the melody--
- [CZECH],, I'm selling a hungry belly.
- Please buy--
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- Come here, what would you give for that?
- And like this, it goes ON.
- It's very nice.
- If I will be once rich, I will elect--
- I will let people eat, even the dresses I will buy them.
- [LAUGHTER]
- It's very nice.
- It's very nice.
- It's very good, written down, the words.
- It's got written--
- Written?
- Yes, it must be-- it must have written with Schwenk.
- It is rhymed?
- Schwenk, this is Schwenk.
- It is rhymed?
- It must be such, again, such a slow, schlepping melody,
- that you don't have to know how to sing.
- Oh, yes, if it's got [NON-ENGLISH]..
- Yes, yes-- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH].
- It has--
- But it doesn't have written a meter--
- [NON-ENGLISH].
- What do you mean, [NON-ENGLISH]?
- Yes, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH].
- Yes, yes.
- No, no, no--
- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH].
- It ends without the rhyme.
- So Mr. [NON-ENGLISH],, what are you ready to give?
- And then it starts again.
- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
- Could you read it a little from the beginning?
- With how you feel the rhyme, even if--
- you sang it.
- What you sang, you remembered the little bit that you sang?
- I think when I saw it later, I put my own--
- [NON-ENGLISH]
- Yes-- like this--
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- Something like this, again.
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- It was, again, quick.
- It's [SPEAKING CZECH].
- It changes to be slow, and again, such a quick one.
- Again, it goes slowly--
- this is the pain, it makes it--
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- Now, it is said, in the belly, the belly, [SPEAKING CZECH]
- If I will be once rich, I will give to him-- the belly says.
- It's very nice.
- They have been such so original.
- And it was so difficult in this situation to be creative,
- and to think of things.
- I wonder where-- I mean, the words are by--
- he writes here, Josef Valic.
- I don't know who he was, [NON-ENGLISH]..
- I have no idea.
- No idea.
- I suppose that it was somebody in Terezin.
- The words-- all words of Schwenk have been beautiful.
- I think even much better than the melody,
- because the melody is such a--
- and it's not always the same one.
- It's not always the same one.
- This is beautiful.
- He used some pseudonym, sometimes.
- Yes, maybe it's his name.
- It could be just he gave himself another name.
- Perhaps this, I don't know.
- Somebody that made research on Schwenk.
- He called himself Franticek Schmolnek, Peter Klitz.
- Right, you have here songs and monologues by Peter Klitz--
- but maybe this song was a little bit dangerous.
- And he wanted to be on the safe side.
- Perhaps, perhaps.
- I don't know.
- I don't know the reason.
- But I know that.
- It's beautiful.
- I think it's his song.
- And here, again, and the [NON-ENGLISH] and the pain is
- going up.
- It broke-- it broke the beautiful dream of my eyes.
- And even on Sunday, there is just a day.
- And hunger-- [NON-ENGLISH],, these are very, very,
- very poor, how you call it, what is it if you are very poor?
- You know, [NON-ENGLISH].
- And several suffering, [NON-ENGLISH] suffering,
- a suffering goes up.
- And here, it's again, at the end,
- if sometimes in our street, suddenly will be quiet,
- a sad voice will be trembling and asking,
- I'm selling a lot of [NON-ENGLISH] again,
- I'm selling my hungry belly, as in the beginning.
- But this time, only I'm selling--
- yes.
- It's very nice.
- You sooner-- you sooner sell your hands, your feet,
- your fist, even a heart, even a heart, you change for bread.
- Know what it means?
- The girls went to the boys for a piece of bread.
- But a belly, everything has his own one.
- Or a healthy one, or a sick one.
- And yes, and that last word--
- and brain is not necessary, and brain is not necessary.
- Isn't it beautiful?
- I don't know this.
- I think it's like philosophy.
- It's like--
- [NON-ENGLISH]
- Much, much--
- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
- In science is the belief--
- it's the believing.
- In science is believing.
- You know, the--
- I don't know.
- This is something-- this is such a humor.
- This must be somebody very young that did it.
- There have been also young boys that made songs.
- And the people were--
- The people were wondering, how Stephenson's, with the glass
- of beer, developed the locomotive?
- And he was interested in [NON-ENGLISH],, in--
- no, [NON-ENGLISH]?
- Speed.
- Speed, because before that, only [NON-ENGLISH]----
- there was only such--
- that people went-- no--
- like the one that is in Jerusalem, near the mill.
- No, how do you call it?
- These carriages that when before carts?
- [NON-ENGLISH]
- [NON-ENGLISH]
- Yes, [NON-ENGLISH],, because they liked--
- [NON-ENGLISH]---- no, how did you say?
- Speed.
- Speed, because before, they only had this [NON-ENGLISH]----
- Hearse?
- They forgot, and by the first--
- by the first ride, they cried.
- This is more like a child--
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- It is wonderful, [SINGING IN CZECH],,
- it is wonderful.
- Everything you have to try--
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- This is too wild.
- This is not poetic, or something.
- It is more humorous, more--
- Fun time.
- Yes, also on trains and everything.
- The train, the train, even it came to Greenwich.
- It's such a salad of--
- it doesn't have a melody that some thought.
- But it's very long.
- [LAUGHS] It's such a mishmash, such a salad.
- This is not important.
- Is there any other--
- This is beautiful.
- These are the five floors.
- This you know.
- And this-- who was singing it?
- Wasn't it Nita Petschau that took my song?
- I think she was singing it.
- I'm also-- I'm almost sure that the one that
- got after me the song, she sung it beautifully, I think.
- Who is that?
- Who sang it?
- Nita Petschau, the one that was with me later in the camps.
- We used to sing it every part, the same melody,
- because it was easy to remember.
- But Billy found the documents about this song,
- and the first had another melody.
- And then, the refrain, and again, another melody.
- So in the film, when they sing it--
- I don't want to lose it--
- in the film-- in the film, this is a beautiful song.
- You know the song.
- And the words also in Hebrew.
- Five stairs.
- Five steps?
- This is beautiful.
- So we sang it like this every time the same.
- But she discovered the original melody, which I don't know it.
- I heard it the first time in the film.
- But everybody I know knows it as I do, I know it.
- The whole-- and this is really such a Brecht song.
- It's beautiful.
- We all sang it.
- [SINGING IN CZECH] You know, so you don't need--
- Yeah, it's one that we have this manuscript.
- Who sang it for you?
- No, I've never heard it sung, I just played it on the piano.
- [HUMMING]
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
- You know, what, if you feel it, sing the whole song, would you?
- Had a better day today.
- You have a good day.
- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
- [SINGING IN CZECH]
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- But say it-- say again what you're singing now.
- This is a song of--
- it must be-- I don't remember.
- It is about a woman that remembers her husband or lover,
- and after a long time, the first part she sings.
- It's, again, a very simple melody.
- Then she says a sentence while the piano was playing,
- and then at the end, she-- suddenly two sentences that
- doesn't relate to her remembering.
- It goes like this.
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- You sang the whole song?
- Yes.
- This I--
- We'll write-- we'll write it down.
- This-- I sing the whole song.
- [CROSS TALK] piano.
- Only the--
- Do you have another song?
- Only the [INAUDIBLE].
- That's fantastic.
- Thank you.
- This is a nice-- this is the one that--
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- No, no, no.
- No?
- I-- it could be that it had another part or something.
- I know only this one.
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- But it's so poetic.
- It's so-- it shows the situation as she remembers him.
- And he was a matter-of-fact man, and she was a dreamer.
- And it is like this.
- Because there was a lot of love in the ghetto,
- a lot of sex in the ghetto, which is not--
- not always love, of course, because people didn't
- know what will be tomorrow.
- They didn't know what-- how will they get up the next morning.
- So--
- When did you leave the ghetto?
- Very late, in October '44, to Auschwitz of course.
- And I had a very bad time.
- My story's a very heavy one.
- The students always ask me, why did you survive?
- Why not somebody else?
- I don't know.
- It must lie in the character of people, of single people.
- I always-- I never--
- I never want it all.
- I never dreamed about what would be.
- I only always wanted the next morning.
- You know?
- Mm-hm.
- I couldn't stand it.
- The people-- after Auschwitz, I was in Bergen-Bergen,
- and it was so cold, the north of Germany, and no work.
- You should know that no work is the biggest punishment that
- can be because the day never ends,
- and the women try to huddle like this together, and speak
- about cooking, and about the house.
- I had such a living room, and my curtains,
- and how do you do this sauce, this Rotev.
- If I put a little bit of--
- And I couldn't stand it.
- I never, never sat with them.
- I always ran out into the cold, and I roamed the camp.
- And I always wanted to find something
- that could be put into my mouth, even living, anything, just
- something that could be eaten.
- And--
- What do you mean with living?
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- But like what?
- No, I-- like what?
- I don't know.
- I dreamed about something.
- You're joking.
- I think the most astonishing--
- the most astonishing fact [INAUDIBLE] maybe one
- of the few people, maybe the only one,
- that she finished Odyssea, I would call it,
- might call it like that, in Theresienstadt.
- The last station--
- Yes.
- --is back in Theresienstadt.
- I am one of the very few--
- I think it's the only--
- No, there have been few transport,
- but they took them on the way somewhere.
- Yes, I-- it's like a detective story.
- It's written-- it's--
- Interesting.
- I didn't know this.
- Now, I-- we have been in Bergen-Bergen
- in the winter of '44, the whole winter.
- I just want to tell you that to be in Bergen-Belsen
- it's to go away.
- It's a big accomplishment because after the war, the--
- how do you call it?
- The expert--
- Researchers?
- Researchers-- they said that in Bergen-Bergen you
- could last mostly six weeks.
- There was almost nothing to eat.
- And we came out.
- They brought us for work.
- She didn't understand.
- How could we work?
- We couldn't walk.
- It was the last part.
- And we went to the center of Germany,
- and we worked in a factory.
- And when the war started, the Americans started coming.
- They had to transport us to the East.
- The Russians have been more far away than the Americans
- in Germany, so to take us to the East
- and to look for an extermination camp to put us-- to pass us on.
- To see the shooting or how they will finish us--
- it's not important.
- And then even the SS are free.
- The SS have been mostly women and mostly 16 years
- old, even less, young girls.
- SS-- very cruel and very sadistic.
- I have never saw such behavior with the SS men
- because the SS men will not handle the Jews.
- This is under his--
- under his-- he's too-- a coward.
- So these girls have been-- they learned.
- They will learn this since the age of 12.
- They still lived it.
- They were still very ambitious.
- So they had been cruel.
- And they took us on the train, and the train always
- stopped because there had been no [SPEAKING HEBREW]..
- Bombed.
- Bombed out.
- The war was already above us, and the train was made of wood.
- And we knew we were done because it
- was-- the most probable thing was that we will get burned
- in the train together with the German soldier, which
- couldn't go out because it was closed from outside.
- And so we went, and then stopped, and then
- went back, and then on another--
- --track.
- --track, and again stopped, and it took weeks.
- We didn't know what's going on outside.
- We have been lying.
- We couldn't stand already on the feet.
- We had been lying one on the other
- because it was without any food, without any water for weeks.
- And I-- I still had a little bit of energy
- because I was schlepping the dead women
- to one corner of the train so we won't be together with them.
- Because of my profession in Bergen-Bergen I told you,
- I was working with the bodies for another soup.
- And so I was the expert with the corpses,
- and so I schlepped them to one part.
- And we were lying on the other part.
- And each night there was some women that I could--
- I had to schlep them.
- And we went to some part of Germany
- very near the Czech border to the East,
- and then the highest officer, the SS--
- he didn't know what to do.
- Even they didn't have what to eat.
- So he left the train to see--
- to look for orders, and he took a car that was standing there
- and went away.
- And he put the reigns, the government, to his lover.
- She was 15.
- And she was a stupid girl, and at this point,
- she opened the train.
- She opened the train.
- It's running?
- No?
- Mm-hm.
- Oh, wait.
- She opened the train and wanted to register us.
- So she opened the train and let us threw out
- the bodies and then come out, and some--
- few of us had to--
- have the clean-- had to clean the train.
- And at this point, one of the Czech women,
- who was much older than us-- she was--
- she must have been some 37 or 36.
- She was the only one that could approach
- the SS because she made--
- each day, she made lists of girls that went to the factory,
- so she had contact with us.
- She approached her and told her, we all
- know we are going to die, and it's not important to us.
- It's not important if they shoot us
- or if we die every night here.
- But perhaps you can put the end of it.
- It's not so far away.
- Over the frontier is a extermination camp
- called Theresienstadt.
- And perhaps you have a phone or such a field phone.
- And the SS-- she was so-- she was so frightened.
- She didn't know what to do with all this.
- Responsibility so she tried on the field phone,
- and she got Terezin.
- And I think-- this is my version.
- I don't know.
- I-- I didn't have proof.
- The people told me afterwards that in Theresienstadt the Irka
- Fugli was a young engineer that was responsible
- for heating, not for the Jews' heating, for the--
- they choose him for the Germans.
- He was in the Office of the Germans,
- and he took up the phone--
- picked up the phone.
- And he told her in a very good German, yes, bring them all up.
- We will finish them off.
- Because she asked, is this the vernichtungslager?
- Yes.
- And so we came after a long time to Terezin,
- and it was the first--
- it was the first time, the people of Terezin
- saw people like us.
- And they were frightened.
- They didn't open the train for hours.
- They didn't know what to do.
- It was such a chaos, in such a-- did
- you know that Alisa Schiller was one of them that
- were in that-- that was in the Theresienstadt when we came?
- And they have been so frightened because we--
- I stood on the corpses, and there was a little opening,
- so a few of them.
- And our faces have been not human.
- We didn't have-- the scalps, the hairless heads.
- And the eyes inside, and the bones outside.
- And we didn't look like--
- people thought that we are some kind of animal.
- They bring some animals in, but they didn't know which one.
- The first thing they did--
- they closed the children in the houses.
- There have been children--
- only the children from the half-Jews,
- from the mixed marriages.
- They closed the children in.
- Then they called all the physicians and the nurses,
- and they started making soup.
- And they brought the soup to the train, not the people--
- --to the soup.
- --to the soup.
- Because they didn't want to touch us.
- They want to-- they didn't know what to do.
- And the physicians said it's very dangerous, of course.
- Then at last they opened the train.
- You know how they'd open the wagons.
- And nobody comes out.
- So the called, come out, come out.
- You are in good hands.
- Nothing will happen to you.
- We knew that nothing will, we Czech girls.
- There have been at least hundreds of Greek girls
- and Italian girls.
- I have part of the list here, only part,
- with names and everything.
- And they were crazy.
- They didn't know what they saw.
- They are going to the gases, to the gas chambers.
- So then somebody shouted from inside, we can't walk.
- So they brought four young men with a blanket
- and hold the blanket, and we rolled into the blanket
- somehow.
- And they put us on grass.
- There was a piece--
- there where the-- where the [NON-ENGLISH] are ending.
- You know the space?
- You know the place where they are ending?
- Hamburg, in--
- Hamburg, yes.
- There it was a little lawn.
- They put us on the lawn in rows, and then they physicians
- started coming from one to the other
- if she was still alive, and asking her name,
- and if she's ill, sick.
- And I was perhaps very much responsible
- because I passed the typhus on this train to many girls.
- And in my second life, it was already--
- I passed it because I died before,
- and then I came back again.
- This is something that the children never understand
- that I-- that I become again.
- I was proclaimed dead and almost buried, yes.
- Only once?
- Yes.
- No, I-- and then they--
- and then they-- we told them about-- that
- we have typhus and everything.
- And at least 100 Greek girls disappeared.
- They have been so afraid.
- They disappeared.
- Then they saw from afar that they are giving soup.
- They felt it.
- They somehow came back and stormed
- this barrel, such a barrel.
- In Theresienstadt, it was such that you could move.
- They jumped on the barrel, and overturned it,
- and they lied and licked the grass.
- The soup.
- The soup-- it was terrible.
- We didn't want the soup.
- We knew we are home.
- With, the Czech girls--
- we have been so quiet because we knew they will help us,
- they will-- we are home.
- And we didn't see any soldiers, any SS.
- And then all the girls with the typhus or post-typhus--
- they put us in the [NON-ENGLISH],, in a big hole.
- And there I spent another six weeks in the quarantine,
- and I didn't know during this time what's
- going on in the ghetto.
- But what was interesting, after such--
- after a fortnight, I could stand on my feet.
- I was lying in a bed with a white blanket,
- and they gave me soup, how much I wanted.
- And once they brought me an egg--
- I don't know where from--
- some girl friend of mine.
- And they gave me milk even.
- I was--
- An egg, egg they brought you.
- She saw an egg someplace.
- I don't know where.
- And milk they gave me and everything,
- and I thought I'm in heaven.
- And after a fortnight, I could stand on my feet.
- Then they waited me with all the food inside.
- I had 36 kilo, which is, in English,
- I don't know how much pounds.
- Not very much.
- Yes, it's some 60 pounds or something like that.
- And that was it.
- I roamed the ghetto afterwards like in a dream.
- I didn't-- there have been some soldiers,
- but I didn't get it in.
- I-- some Russians, and some English, and some--
- like I didn't--
- I didn't took it in.
- I couldn't-- I wasn't able to-- was not able to understand
- what's going on.
- I met a girlfriend, a few, and one gave me my old dresses.
- It's still there.
- And like this-- there was a day that I came to some--
- You had your old dresses back?
- Yes, but--
- The dresses--
- --one I took, and it was too big.
- But I took it on.
- This is even before the transport.
- Yes, yes, yes.
- It was my-- because my brother make the valise for me.
- I was in prison at the time, and I went to Auschwitz
- straight from prison.
- So he made my valises, and he put something inside.
- And this is like this.
- And they told us, it's the end of the war, go.
- This was all, of course, after May 8.
- Yes, and this was one day that I saw people going to a table,
- so I also went to this table.
- And a man stood there, and he gave me
- this little piece of paper.
- I still have it, this red [NON-ENGLISH]..
- And I said, you can go.
- Where to go?
- Where do I go?
- Where do you-- where you want, where you want.
- You go where you want.
- Just go.
- But I don't know where I'm supposed to go.
- So he looked at me like this, and I think,
- it's the end of the war.
- You can go wherever you want.
- The end of the war?
- It took some time.
- And then I started going-- like I never remember which way I
- went out of the Terezin.
- And I would so much like to know.
- I don't know.
- I went like a pencil, like this.
- I went through the fields and everything,
- so this is already the story after the war.
- And eventually you got back to Prague.
- Yes, I-- and I came back to my village and everything.
- [PLACE NAME]?
- It was a very difficult time.
- I should only tell you one thing--
- the time after the war is not less
- terrible than during the war.
- There have been people that made it after the war.
- I remember that the whole world danced and sang, and never
- will be another war and everything.
- And Manka Alter was hungry.
- Manka Freund at the time was hungry.
- I was hungry.
- I was ill.
- I had nobody.
- It was a terrible time.
- I can't tell you how terrible.
- I had nowhere to go.
- I went, in Prague, each day some 2 kilometers to a place
- that they give soup.
- You understand?
- It was difficult. It was difficult.
- All of your family--
- My brother came back.
- Your brother came back.
- My brother came back, and they took him to a military service
- as he came from Auschwitz.
- He spent a year as a soldier.
- Imagine.
- So I didn't know where he is, and he didn't know
- how I'm going, how I'm doing.
- But the meeting between you--
- It was very--
- --and your brother-- it's something that I cannot forget.
- Yes, this is like in an operetta.
- She didn't know he's alive.
- Yes.
- I thought he's-- somebody told me he's dead.
- Yes, there are stories, hundreds of stories.
- But this one, this one, please, for us
- because this is the most beautiful story.
- She was sure--
- About my brother?
- Yes.
- It was not sad.
- It's something like--
- I came to my village, and there have been a family inside.
- And I couldn't through throw them out because Jews--
- normally, when they came to the houses,
- they threw the people out.
- I couldn't because it was a family.
- They suffered from the Nazis.
- They gave them the Jewish house instead of their.
- And I was suffering there.
- I saw them sleeping in the beds of my parents,
- and the same cover was on the beds.
- And they took-- the Germans took the furniture out but not
- all of it.
- And I couldn't stand it.
- And they gave me food.
- They gave me food each day.
- But I always-- after I ate, I stole the bread on the table.
- They asked me why I steal the bread.
- How I-- I put it in this blouse.
- And once, I was so fed-up, I was so down,
- I decided to go in some other village
- where I knew that the son must have come back.
- And I go with--
- I came to him, and he opened already the shop.
- He was already a boss.
- He stayed in Terezin the whole time.
- He made a wonderful living there.
- He worked at a goy.
- He was the only--
- blacksmith, is it?
- Mm-hm.
- Blacksmith you say.
- Blacksmith.
- In ghetto, he treated the horses from the SS,
- and the boss, the goy boss, brought him good things
- from outside and everything.
- He came.
- He looked wonderful.
- He brought a lot of things from the ghetto home.
- And he's sitting on the bed, and I'm sitting on the other bed,
- telling him how terrible it is, that I don't want to stay,
- I don't know what to do, and I'm fed up.
- And I speak about my brother, that he
- died, that somebody told me exactly in the Revier
- how he died.
- And I said to this chaber--
- I said, sometimes I see him as if he's
- standing in front of me.
- Now I see him.
- He is standing in front of me, and I don't know what to do.
- And he make like this, just a movement,
- and then suddenly he jumps up and runs to the opening
- and embraces my brother.
- He was standing in the door.
- And I looked.
- I couldn't believe it.
- I didn't know what's happening.
- Then they came apart, and I see my brother.
- And I make like this.
- I came to him, and he--
- suddenly, I opened my eyes.
- He didn't come to me.
- He stand in front--
- in the middle of the room and make like this from all sides
- and says, how's my jacket?
- He stole some chicken on the way.
- So this was the big comeback.
- He was half a year on the way, half a year.
- Did he come to Israel after all?
- No, he couldn't.
- After I left, he-- they closed that frontier.
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- [SPEAKING HEBREW] 26.
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- George in English.
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- It's your part of the story.
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- No, no, [HEBREW].
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
- No, no, no, toda.
- [SPEAKING HEBREW]
There is no transcript available for this track
Overview
- Interviewee
- Manka Alterova
- Date
-
interview:
1998 November 23
- Geography
-
creation:
Israel
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Emilie Berendsen Bloch, Benjamin Bloch, and Ariel Bloch
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
3 sound cassettes.
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
- Alterova, Manka.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Emilie Berendsen Bloch, Benjamin Bloch, and Ariel Bloch donated the archive of Professor David Bloch to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:37:27
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn558998
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Also in Professor David Bloch collection
Archive of Professor David Bloch, musicologist, founder and director of the Terezin Music Memorial Project, and Israeli institute devoted to the documentation and study of music and music making at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the former Czechoslovakia and at other localities under German occupation during the Second World War.
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