Yeah, a few days before there was already, you know, rumors that something was happening
and sure enough, on the 12th of March, hundreds of German warplanes flew overhead and they
dropped thousands of leaflets. I picked one up, it says, the Nationales, the
Nationales, and that was the end of our carefree existence. My birthday was four days later,
March 16, I was 16 years old. So I went back to school with our other classmates. The new
teacher comes in the door and suddenly we saw him, this is a Jewish class. So he turned
around and went out and they sent us home and that was the end of my formal schooling,
which means that I had only nine and a half years of schooling, which is one thing I will
never forgive the Nazis that would they did to me. I should have had, and later on I found
that to be a big obstacle to career because you always have to have a diploma, something
to show that you've done, even though I had skills that were as good as anything.
Oh yeah, we had a club and they picked me as the boys, as cashier because from the country
they thought this guy is honest, he's not going to steal the money. So I had the problem
of giving back all the duties, the fees to all these boys. I found them eventually and
I gave them back all the money. So a few days I traveled home by suitcase in the train and
I looked out the window and all the farmhouses had those red flags with the swastika, the
white circle, you know, and I got more and more apprehensive. This is not a good sign.
So back home life was more or less normal. Our neighbors told us, you don't have to worry,
nothing's going to happen to you. In May they took our store away from us and in another
month or two all the Jews were told to assemble in one of these empty stores at a park in
one of those former Louisville stores. They were two tall young Gestapo agents from Germany,
a very strong accent who were sitting at the desk and they were interviewing everybody.
It's not interviewing, it's more like interrogating. You know, these were lousy Jews after all,
you know, they don't have to be too polite. So the four of us stood before the tall young
Gestapo agent with a very strong German accent and showed our documents high much shine.
And my father tried to be smart and said, we're not Austrians, we're Hungarians, which in
a sense was true, but with that he says, ah, you're Hungarians. I gave you four days to
leave the country or your whole family will end up in a concentration camp. I think he
mentioned Dachau, I'm not sure. You know, that was frightening news. So we went home.
By that time he already sold some of our furniture and because we knew that we couldn't stay
and we sold whatever was left very cheap to the neighbors. They took advantage, you know,
and we hired a truck, an open truck and put our umczuk skut, the truck and traveled to
Vienna where we found a flat. Well, what happened is the Polish Jew Herschel
green spawn shot from the road in Paris, the German embassy and that was when Kristallnacht
happened. But the Nazis were prepared. That was just an opportunity that presented itself
because they was all organized. There was a knock on the door and two men barged in
the four of us with our landlady, an old Jewish lady. We had to all get out right away, couldn't
take any luggage or extra clothing and they sealed the apartment. They put us in a taxi
and I had to pay for the taxi and they took us to a police station and they released us
pretty soon except for the father. They stayed all night and with other men they made them
do exercises and then they came out in the morning. So we couldn't go back into our apartment.
All our belongings were there. So we went to some friends. I don't remember how we found
them and then we slept on the floor. We all slept on the floor. It was nicer to take
us in. I think the name was Stroisler. I believe it was the editor and publisher of the Neue
Freie Presse. And when we were in Vienna, we lived there for about a year. Our relatives
from Hungary sent us packages, food packages and father made lists. You see a page after
a page. He put down the date. I should have read it. December. Leber, Speck, Salami, Bekari,
Panietes, Putte and so on and so on. It goes on and on. Just about every day, suddenly
came from all the different relatives. It just goes on and on. Page after page. On the
left side is letters. On the right side is all the food they sent us. They were so affectionate,
so loving, so concerned about us. And of course the cruel paradox is that they're the ones
that got killed. And we're the ones that got away with our lives. And I feel sort of guilty.
They really tried to help us. They came to visit several times with pictures. Well, I
guess it happens to many others. When you know it happens to yourself, it becomes very
personal and you always care about it with you.
