Others had been deported to auschwitz, and so i certainly knew if not firsthand, at least i had an understanding for what had gone on during the war. I will say this, that i always i really did think the nazis capable, i knew the mentality and i did think them capable of doing the things which in fact they did, and they did do, nothing truly surprised me. I merely didnt know the details. I also always knew that it would come to a war even as a young boy, the signs of it were there and in the turmoil of that world and the quest for revenge that d rubenstein. Get our complete schedule at cspan. Org. In 1945, 70 years ago, allied forces liberated the nadsy concentration camps. Tot tonight well hear holocaust stories from those who lived them. These interviews are part of the oral History Collection at the youre nighted States Holocaust Memorial Museum in washington, d. C. Next, gerda klein talks about how the 1939 german invasion of poland drastically changed her life. She recalls being sent to a jewish ghetto, her experiences in jewish camps and being forced on a death march in 1945. This oral history is almost two hours. I was born on may 8, 1924. In the most southern western part of poland in a town called belitz. It was in the province of sellsia at the foothill of the mountain range. Would you tell me about your parents and about your family as a young girl, as a child. In retrospect my parents seem absolutely saintly and everything seems marvelous. I know it couldnt possibly be that way, i know it must have rained at times but my memories is very vivid and i cherish it very much and i dont see why i should change. This is perfection which i remember. I had one older brother who was five years older than i. His name was arthur. My parents name were julius and helena weismann. We lived in an old large home outside of town. It was a huge garden. Many fruit trees and flowers and wonderful thing for children to roam in. I had ten cats, all black. And i knew all their names and now you know my children now my grand children are used to me to recite the names of my cats. My brother had two dogs. I used to love swimming in summer, skiing in winter. And by and large i had a marvelous childhood. What about school . I went to Public School first. And then only until the war broke out and to catholic school. It was a private girls school. However, we had a rabbi come giving us jewish instructions. It was about i would say a quarter up to my class were jewish. And that was the thing to do. I really liked school very much. I pretended i didnt. Of course, you know, when the war came, that was the end of my formal education. Tell us what happened. Well, i guess the danger signals were flying very high in the summer of 1939. By and large i must say it was ignored by my family. I was away with my mother in a place called krinitsla. I really remember my very first incident which is a great deal of fear. My mother and i went to a concert, and i remember the setting quite vividly. There were flowers around. Im not very musical but something on that day i remember, the crowd of people sitting there and flowers and it was very warm. A day of one of those golden days of summer as i see it now. And suddenly, a young man came running up to the podium and pushed the conductor aside and he said how can you all sit here, listening to music when danger is coming. He pointed to the hills which separated us from czechoslovakia which had been occupied by the nazis. And he said monsters are coming from there. Why dont you go home and take up arms and so i remember moving closer to my mother and saying shouldnt we go home . And but pretty soon police came and arrested the man because he was an agitator for disturbing the peace. And i still remember that sudden fear, that really was my first memory of something impending, but we stayed perhaps another week i dont remember exactly how long. However, on the way home we saw stations a lot of baggage which was labels war zone. And when we came home, my father had his arm in a sling. And my mother naturally was terribly concerned and he suffered a slight heart attack. And unfortunately things were moving very fast, that must have been very perhaps the third week in august we receive a telegram from my uncle in turkey my brother only had one brother and he lived in turkey and he sent us a telegram saying we should get out, that we had visas in the embassy in the war zone, but my mother said were not going to tell papa about the telegram. Papa is ill and should not be tell us what happened next. What did you do, once you realized it was friday morning. And i remember it very well. I was 15 you see. It was friday morning when we heard a lot of planes and people run into the streets and german planes. We run out, saw planes with swastika flying over, it was a frightening thing and a lot of activity started then. They were building trenches and you know, my mother tried to keep the windows closed until my fathers bedroom. My father was quite ill. And that night there were lots of refugees on the streets, you know. People running away and there was shooting. I remember one man was carrying a goat on his back. His only possession, a small goat. And people with wheel barrows and carts. My brother had a girlfriend and apparently her family called and said that they are going to flee into the interior of poland, suggested to take my brother and me along. And my father insisted that it should be my brothers decision. I was considered too young to make a decision. My brother was 19 at the time. My brother said no, were not going to go. Well stay together, you need us, father was ill. And that was a terrible shock because my father to me was sort of center of my universe, you know. Papa decreed something he would do anything and that he should suddenly ask us, particularly my brother, to make the decision. A tremendous decision. I remember it was a terrible shock. And was a very turbulent night. And then it ceased in the morning. And my father said to me that i should go and apparently he wanted to talk to my mother and brother that i should not be around. He says i should call the family to see what everyone is doing. My fathers brothers and so on. I went downstairs and there was no answer. No one answered anywhere. And you know, i remember suddenly like you were you were left in a world, all the homes that i remembered and the phones ringing. And there was no answer whatsoever. And i came up my father said no one answers. I said no. I knew it was a wonderful saturday. Everything was cut off. We had no electricity, no light. It was a beautiful september day, flowers outside. And my parents were joking, my father got dressed and came downstairs and we were sitting together. Really the last beautiful day. And then in the evening the shelling. And my brother went out to let his dog in and when he came back he had a hole in his trouser. And he said they were shooting from the rooftops. The germans were coming. But we went to the basement with some other people, you know. And it was morning, i dont remember those hours too well. But what i remember most vividly is my mother called, said we should come. She had prepared some breakfast. And we came upstairs and we sat down, and sudden ly was tremendous roar, roar of motorcycles. And it was a motorcycle with nazis, one on the side car and one sitting there, and my brother had just he had taken it out of his pocket, and i saw his hand, and it was 9 10 in the morning. And i remember everybody just sat there totally stunned. And then we heard running, more cars and motorcycles were coming. And people shouting heil hitler and we saw from the house across the street, flag, swastika flying. I think that was the most enormous shock. Our neighbors, friends. And they knew it and this very first hour. And to me and of course you know, can only see it in retrospect. Many times. One of the things sort of changed suddenly, i remember. A coal fell out from the grate of the fireplace and it went on the carpet and the carpet was sort of smoldering. No one paid attention to it. I remember once it happened before how upset my mother was. No one paid attention. Tiny things that suddenly changed everything. Shortly thereafter, more and more trucks of soldiers were coming and the voices grew more hoors people shouting heil hitler and i saw a childhood friend of mine carrying white roses to the soldiers and somebody giving the soldiers schnupps and flowers. I remember starting to cry. He said keep quiet, you know. You cant do that. He took me up to bed said dont make a sound. And it was in the morning, i mean you know, the whole day sort of many feelings. Try to remember. Over the years. But one of the worst things happened that afternoon. The mother of the child friend of mine she lives in israel, esther bergmann. Her mother came, and she asked for my father was and she said she knew he was ill but said to my brother, no mention on the streets because they rounded up all the men that they could find and they locked in the temple and set the temple aflame. And then she sort of went out by the back door and i think that was truly the first impact what happened. What happened over the next few days . I couldnt tell you day by day, you know. People came, our neighbors came, jewish neighbors came. One thing, yes. A neighbor, you know, see, the home which we lived in, not only was my brother born there but my mother had been born there. A family home. Our grandmother lived with us fortunately blessedly for her she die add year before the war broke out. She never faced that. A woman came and she asked where our flag was, the polish flag. Red and white. And then my mother said why. She said we had to make a german flag out of it. And my mother pretended to look for it in all places she knew she wouldnt find it you know. And then the woman left, and she said she will be back later maybe my father can help look for it. And i think that became very clear that we better produce it because she wanted it for our protection and she said all you have to do is you know, keep the red flag and cut the round circle from the white and put the swastika on. She did it and then she said she wanted to look hes very strong he should hang it up. He could not be found to do it so the woman struggled to hang the flag up and she sort of said to my mother, if the flag is not displayed from here, will be pretty obvious who you are. And i remember we couldnt look out of the window to see that flying. We had some other People Living in our home as well who were not jewish and some were. Of course this was the part which was german speaking, before the war was austria and later on one of the first things that became they called it were deutsche. Where so we were unfortunately not too far from auschwitz. And that became which was allegedly self ruled but it wasnt, you know. But we immediately became under the same rules as germany. So the people who was mostly german speaking people, you see, and people were shouting heil hitler, thank you for the liberation, like that. Because they thought you know, the austrian empire was coming back with france joseph, elizabeth and was part of under poland for only 20 years, so i think there was a lot of perhaps misguided feeling on behalf of the people. Maybe not so much pro nazi at that point but all that changed. What were the next few months . What happened to you and your family and how did things change . That i can unfortunately tell you. Fairly soon, an order came that all young men between i think 16 and 50, my father at that point was about 50. Since he was ill, he did not have to register for a transport. My brother was 19. And of course every day you know, you know that england and france declared war, right away that happened sunday. We were occupied sunday morning, sunday afternoon england and france declared war on germany. Then you know, most of the family had fled, our family. However, my fathers sister who had been separated from her husband and daughter in one of the planes which were bombed came back with her son david and she found her apartment occupied by other people. She came to stay with us. David was about my brothers age. And david and also my brother went to register to whatever they were going to do. They said they would be in some sort of labor battalion to build up what was destroyed. The day was the 19th of october. In which my brother left. Anyw anyway, i tell you one thing. My mother refused to make his bed for months, she wanted to keep the imprint of his head in the pillow. Things got worse from daytoday. You know. We didnt hear from my brother for a long, long time. And when we finally did, which i believe was months later, he was blessedly in the russian occupied zone. What apparently happened was that they were brought into the interior of poland. I dont know exactly what location. Pursued by bullets those good swimmers went across. He was a very good swimmer. And he was in lembeck, which was occupied by the russians, and he worked there. My brother was trained in chemistry. And he worked in some sort of a factory making jam or whatever. It was one of the greatest marvelous moments in the bleakness of our existence to hear that arthur was alive. I really i have to refresh my memory in looking at some of the things i have written after the war which i have clear knowledge as far as dates are concerned. But i know that probably was a few months later that we were to move into the basement of our home. It was very wet there and there was no electricity there. And my fathers condition really deteriorated quite a bit. He suddenly looked very old. My mother, who up to that point you see because my we lived with my grandmother, was rather pampered and you know, given to be very easily discouraged and upset about Little Things like table cloths didnt iron properly or the lace was wrong or something. Showed incredible strength and fortitude. As a matter of fact she was the one who did not cry when my brother left. And my father wept, the first time, was reversal of roles you see. And i think to me a very devastating thing to see my father hec i never saw my father helpless before. So we lived in the basement. Learned new skills. I saw my mother bringing in old called lamp, i learned to clean the krim knee of the lamp. We had gas to get illumination. We had no light. Pretty soon of course you know, we exhausted our funds because we had no money. Everything was frozen. My father didnt earn anything. And things were hard to come by but where we lived you know, there were vegetables and things obtainable. Our neighbors was wonderful to us. She lived across the street and she would go and get vegetables and bring things to us. But my mother was always a wonderful woman. She could do wonderful things with her hands so we sort of that we would be knitting and i learned to knit before the war but i wasnt particularly interested in that you know. I was more of a tom boy running around with cats and climbing trees. I settled down. And we would start knitting sweaters for people. My mother really had a wonderful reputation. She could embroider things. She did marvelous things. We would be able to get cans. We couldnt use the lamp too often. Because not petroleum was available. We got a ration card with the name jew and there was little to eat. And so, my mother and i would knit for as long as the light would allow. My father would read to us. Really, this is how my father was wonderful, i went to polish schools though my first language was germp, spoke german at home. I would come home i would switch to german. But i couldnt read or write german. You know. I spoke it but my my first language. My father unearthed my mothers books and started teaching me to read and write german. My father would read to us and we would let the candle go down and take the wax and my mother made little wicks and put the candle on again. And we would knit. We got i remember clearly, for knitting a sweater, intricate sweater, first i would knit the sleeves and my mother do the intricate work. We would get 35 marks. It was 30 marks if you could buy food on ration was fine. But we had to start buying on the black market. So i would say roughly a loaf of bread would cost 30 marks. Knit nitting a sweater we would be able to buy a loaf of bread. And this is how things went. Then started to be sent away. Every so often a cart would come announcing that as a matter of fact the first one came when we had not heard from arthur and i remember at that point my mother sort of must have suffered a nervous breakdown. At least a momentary lapse because i remember she was totally out of things. She was calling for arthur, she was in bed. My father was up with her, my father told me to go and to pack. We were supposed to leave. My father brought three suit cases and told me to pack some things. And word got around in the community that we were selling things. Everybody i mean all the jews, what they were doing. And people started to come, my father said whatever anybody gives you take. He stayed with my mother. And then word got around that if i dont remember the exact amount, but say kilo gold or something, might have been less, more, i dont remember. If that would be given, then you could stay. Everybody scurry to give whatever jewelry. That was another ruse the germans did in order to get the valuables which people were holding. And apparently they got whatever was needed for that purpose. Because then a note came to say we could stay. And that would happen roughly every six, seven months. Again, i dont know exactly that. But shortly thereafter we got you know, my mother seemed to bounce back and became her strong self. And from that time on i would say until the very end my mother was absolutely a tower of strength. Looking back now my mother was a very young woman at the time. She was 41 when the war broke out. Of course to me she was an old woman. To a 15yearold girl, you know. My father was 10 years older. Than my mother. So the existence from this is how we survived the first three years, 1939, to the spring of 1942. The very, very early spring it would have been march perhaps, when the order came that we had to move to the jewish ghetto which was a shabby remote part of our town, quite far away from where we had lived. Of course it was actually in belits, where twin cities. And we lived in belits and that was in beala way out, very old cemetery. Where we had to move. And as i told you, my garden held most of my wonderful childhood memories. And fairly soon i would say probably early 1940, there was a sign on it said no jews permitted in the garden. So we naturally did not go. But on the morning in which we were forced to leave our home, i jumped over the fence and went to the garden. And i ran around. I remember it was the first violets where we had the first violets were there. Which i had picked and i remember sort of climbing the branch of a tree where you used to sit and pretend what it would be like if nothing had happened. You know. I would go in, my parents would be at breakfast, my brother would be going to school. And so on. You know, even so, i always firmly believed that ill go back through all of the years, looking back now, i realize that i must have had a premonition because i remember that i sort of started imagining what my garden would look in all seasons and i knew i would not see it. But i dont know if i sorted out not see it for a period of time or if it would be finality in it. I dont