SB: Took a shower and, and, slept. Ruheta...quiet in the evening, we went out, for a walk.
Normally it was quiet in the room.
The next morning the man made us breakfast, not the woman.
What I imagine: The wife came home and asked him: "What happened there with the people?"
"Look out," he said, "totally normal."
The woman saw that we were normal people.
Then she went to...spoke and talked and conversed and asked.
The woman is antisemite. Why? She is antisemite. Who never saw a Jew in her entire life.
She believed: "God forbid. Three Jews! Why have they come to my house. What is happening in my house?"
But she saw that it was totally normal.
I was once in Todtnau.
Yes, that was in the 1980s. An older woman...very friendly woman...was speaking with me.
Then she asked me...
She asked me, I had told her that I was in the camps and so on.
Not uh, why. Just that I was in the camps.
She asks me: "Tell me, after all that happened in Gemrany with the Jews,
how could you come to Germany and speak to the Germans?"
I asked her: "Listen, I am not a Nazi."
I am a, a person. I don't hate the German people.
I can't hate you and I can't hate your daughter. They didn't do anything bad to me.
I only hate those that did something, did something. But I can't hate the entire German people.
I was also in Austria...was a...I don't remember, no doubt you know his name.
He looked for all the Germans, the criminals. His office was in Vienna. Do you know who that was?
IV: Wiesenthal.
SB: Wiesenthal...Wiesenthal. Held a talk with an Austrian.
And he said to him: "Listen, I cannot be friends with you. Because...all were not.
I can't say that everyone was a Nazi. But in every family someone was a Nazi.
And you uh...You...after the Nazis you want to do something bad...how can I?
He says: No, you are wrong. I am not searching for Nazis, I know who were Nazis...many Nazis.
I am looking for the criminals. Not the Nazis.
And that is the difference.
IV: I wanted to know something else...You were in Waging here in '47.
SB:Yes.
IV: How did it happen that you went to Israel. How did you make that decision? Was it by chance?
Uh, how did it continue.
SB: You see...
IV: Because you must have asked yourself: "What am I going to do?"
SB: You see, it was like this: When we were still in Poland...
There was antisemitism in Poland...very very strong.
I, as a boy, a child, I didn't know what Palestine was.
But the Poles always said: "Żydzi do Palestyny" - "Jews to Palestine."
The youth...the Jewish youth in Poland were already in the Zionist Party before the war.
They were party people and they aimed to go to Palestine. To leave Poland and come to Palestine.
And in every house there was a can from Keren Kayemeth.
Keren Kayemeth, that was from...in Palestine, people who had bought land from the Arabs.
So in our house there was a blue-white...our flag is blue-white.
And the can was blue-white. And every day...every time the father and in every house put money in it.
From time to time someone would come and take the money out. And it was sent to...back then to Palestine. And...
And then it was '37, '35, when it began, there were many from Germany, from Austria, left for Palestine.
Many German Jews, left for Palestine. And the youth, the Polish youth also went to Palestine.
The British limited the uh...how many Jews could enter...because the Arabs were against them.
So the British restricted. Then before the war they...it was called Alija Bet.
Leftists uh, leftists they ...uh. uh.
Bought ships and took people to Palestine without permission from the British.
That was before the war.
After the war, our plan was still Palestine. We could go to America.
We could go to Canada, to Australia.
There was a commission in Föhrenwald...When I was in Föhrenwald someone said:
"Do you want to go to Palestine. Where, where to you want to go?
We said to Palestine.
When I went to bid farewell to my girlfriend in Waging...
and said I was leaving for Palestine, her mother said to me:
"Salek, stay here. Palestine is always war, always, always, always. Stay here."
I answered her. "Miss Christel, I want to go home. I've had enough.
I don't want to go to America, I don't want to go to Canada, I don't want to go to Australia, I want...
I want...I have in Palestine...For us Eretz Israel...I want to go home."
Then we decided.
Came again with a ship to Palestine.
One day before Palestine an airplane...English...saw that it was a ship...not legal.
is next...after two hours two cruise ships...large ships...grabbed us and dragged us to Haifa.
We arrived in Haifa...before Haifa, the British came on to the ship.
And us...took us from our ship to the ...to the British ship brought us to Cypern.
And then it was...1500 people a month were allowed to come to Palestine officially.
Then 750 came from Europe and 750 came from Cypern.
We came to Cypern and from Cypern was...lots of ships.
Which ship arrived today, were you the first, later, later...
Many ships came before us. We were 14 months in Cypern.
In the camp with barbed wire, without water, without electricity, without anything, living in barracks...metal barracks.
That was...summer...it was in summer, sheet metal in summer...The climate in Cypern was the same as in Israel.
It was very bad. And the winter, it rained. Just imagine, the rain falling on the sheet metal.
But we were young, the aim was...to get to Palestine.
And we got to Palestine, it was very hard.
Palestine back then was a desert. There was nothing.
And then the war began...'48, of course we went to the army, all three.
And Roma is...he got married, was released from the military for a year and a few months.
But I was two years, a full two years in the military.
And released from the military after two years. I got married.
Lived with my mother-in-law and two brother-in-laws in two rooms.
It was very hard. It was not, we were not hungry, there was enough bread.
But besides bread...butter and milk and uh, eggs and meat, that was all on cards.
There was not...tomatoes, potatoes..was not enough for the people.
Because then came....we are speaking of refugees...Arab refugees.
We had more refugees.
Came to us in Israel from Tunisia, from Morocco, from Libya, from Iraq, from Teheran.
From all these countries they came to Israel. They left everything behind. But...
It was very hard. The people didn't have an apartment,
In winter they...summer they slept in barracks or there ...from, from...
In the winter there was rain...they just slept in the water.
But slowly, slowly, the government had all...we got help. That was right.
The help came for...it wasn't stolen. The help came for the people.
All that, the entire aid that came to Israel...houses were built and villages built.
People are in villages...they have never...no idea from, from village, life in a village and uh...
Slowly we uh...
Did everything. And now we can afford to export.
Everything. We have more than we need.
IV: What was it like for you, now, to come to Flossenbürg and see it again.
SB: That is difficult to explain. That is difficult to explain. One thing I knew...I wanted to see it again.
How, how it looks.
Well Flossenbürg was the third camp that I had seen. I was...in Dachau and I was in Mauthausen.
I was in Mauthausen alone.
But I was in Dachau with my daughter, with her husband and my grandchildren.
It was very hard. It was very hard and the one, Mosche, my grandchild...
After he was outside of Dachau, he started to cry so hard. We were not able to comfort him. Ah...
It is hard that...you see...many of us travel to Auschwitz.
Were you in Auschwitz? Yes.
When you go to Auschwitz and see the hair with the glasses and the shoes.
That is all...with the suitcases, with the names of people. That is horrible.
But, ok...I can't say don't forg...for me it is not forgotten...I do not forget.
In 1982 I
I traveled with a member of my cooperative. He was my uh member.
He knew me as member and was...who I am, what I am. But right...
As we were travelling he asked me: "Tell me, from what kind of family do you come?"
I said: "See, my father was an orthodox..and uh"
I explained to him about my home, how it was, what happened.
He asks me: "So today do you still remember your family and what happened?"
I said to him: "Alex, you know what? Today more than in '45, 1945."
In 1944 it was very hard for me, but I had...I was a child, a boy.
And maybe, maybe I didn't know...exactly how it was.
Maybe. Uh..
But now more...Now when I clear my thoughts...
I never forget...never forget, that is not possible.
But today when I, today...and I explain...the people went to the train station.
They went from the station into the train and drove to the extermination camp.
Without water, in the month of August, in the heat. In every car...
Maximum filled...I don't say 100, I don't say 120, but maximum of people how many people can fit into a wagon.
Not sitting, not sleeping. I don't know how long the people traveled before they arrived in the camp.
What happened it ...it is not...to be discussed. But this time....
I told him, listen, we were liberated. Across from us was a woman, Frau Blättler. was a dentist.
Frau Blättler was...was very fond of us, you could say. She had great respect for us.
Rosch ha Schana, that is our new year.
Our new year is not on the first of January, our new year is now...in our new year.
So uh, that is September 30 is our new year.
We told the woman that it is our new year.
The woman said: "You know what? I didn't...I can't.. no possibility...
But if you bring me the products, I will make you a good supper."
We said: "Ok, Thank you."
So we brought uh, not me, we brought."
It was one room...everyone lived together. It was one room, I lived in this room.
In the second room...was a large room, she had a table and all the food.
I dressed up for the supper and I entered the room
And I saw the table with the white table cloth, with plates and food on the table. And I looked at it...
And couldn't go in.
I couldn't go in.
Then the brother came: "Salek, come in." I couldn't, didn't go in.
I didn't eat the supper. I couldn't.
That was after the liberation, uh four, five months. Just couldn't.
That is my past.
IV: Thank you.
SB: I thank you for listening.
And I thank you for doing this because it is very important.
It is very important for everyone. It is very important for us Jews. And it is important for Germany.
And not only for Germany. For everyone.
Sadly after the war many were ....hundreds, thousands of people died.
Was in Biafra and was in Africa and here and there. Was in, in Yugoslavia.
That shouldn't be. That has to be prevented.
And the youth have to make sure that what happened back then never never happens again. Thank you.
IV: End.