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layout: transcript |
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interviewee: agnes mandl adachi |
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rg_number: rg-50.030.0003 |
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pdf_url: https://collections.ushmm.org/oh_findingaids/rg-50.030.0003_trs_en.pdf |
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ushmm_url: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504469 |
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gender: f |
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birth_date: 1918-10-26 |
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birth_year: 1918.0 |
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place_of_birth: budapest |
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country: hungary |
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experience_group: survivor |
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ghetto(s)_encyclopedia: none |
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ghetto: none |
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camp(s)_encyclopedia: none |
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camp: none |
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non_ss_camp: none |
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region: none |
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needs_research: none |
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data_entry: cl |
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accession: none |
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revisit: none |
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tags: transcripts |
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<body><dialogue class=""><p><sentence id="1"> AGNES MANDL ADACHI November 29, 1990 </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="3">Q: Okay, we are on. </sentence><sentence id="4">Would you tell me your full name, including your maiden name please? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="7">A: Yeah. </sentence><sentence id="8">My full name now is Agnes Adachi, and my maiden name was Agnes Mandl, M- A-N-D-L. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="11">Q: Where and when were you born? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="13">A: I was born in <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>, <span class="country">Hungary</span>, in 1918, October 26. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="15">Q: Okay. </sentence><sentence id="16">Tell me -- would you tell me about your parents and your family when you were a child before the war? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="19">A: I can do that. </sentence><sentence id="20">Well, I was very lucky. </sentence><sentence id="21">I was born into a very rich family right then and up "til my six years, we were quite well to do and I went to <span class="building">private school</span> started out. </sentence><sentence id="22">And then my father lost every penny he ever had through the crash in <span class="country">America</span>. </sentence><sentence id="23">And instead of coming to <span class="country">America</span> anyhow, he took us to <span class="country">Turkey</span> where I lived for six months. </sentence><sentence id="24">And that was great experience for a little girl. </sentence><sentence id="25">That's where I saw my very first Mickey Mouse film what was still black and white and no words, but it was lovely. </sentence><sentence id="26">And it was a great experience for a little girl and we had a friend there who was once a captain on a <span class="spatial object">boat</span> and he always played with me because I wanted to be a little boy and I wanted to be on that <span class="spatial object">boat</span> and be his mate. </sentence><sentence id="27">So in the <span class="interior space">bathtub</span>, we played -- a mate. </sentence><sentence id="28">But, I turned out to be a little girl altogether. </sentence><sentence id="29">And then we came back to <span class="country">Hungary</span> and we had quite a lot of difficult times. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="41">Q: Tell us about -- I'd like to know about your family life during that period. </sentence><sentence id="42">What -- did you go to <span class="building">school</span>. </sentence><sentence id="43">Did you have friends? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="47">A: I went to <span class="building">school</span> and, and according to my mother, everybody was my friend. </sentence><sentence id="48">I was a lonely child. </sentence><sentence id="49">I was all alone and I loved to be alone, but as soon as some other kids arrived and Mommy said I used to become a leader. </sentence><sentence id="50">I don't remember that at all. </sentence><sentence id="51">I just know I always had great time when kids came and while -- as I told you before, I was six. </sentence><sentence id="52">My father was sort of a crazy man. </sentence><sentence id="53">He wanted to give anything to his child. </sentence><sentence id="54">That time back in <span class="country">Hungary</span> to get some clowns to come to the <span class="building">house</span> cost a fortune, but that's how I got the friends because the whole <span class="populated place">neighborhood</span> -- every child would come -- 50, 60 of them you know. </sentence><sentence id="55">But then all that stopped and I was alone, but I never felt lonely. </sentence><sentence id="56">I was always a great dreamer. </sentence><sentence id="57">I was always full of dreams. </sentence><sentence id="58">And since I was a little girl I like to put everything down on paper. </sentence><sentence id="59">Of course, eventually I lost them all naturally. </sentence><sentence id="60">But I was always writing. </sentence><sentence id="61">Then when it came up to <span class="building">junior high school</span>.... Well, I, | remember one thing that my father was an absolutely unreligious. </sentence><sentence id="62">He said he was agnostic. </sentence><sentence id="63">He was in the Jewish faith, but he ran away from his bar mitzvah. </sentence><sentence id="64">That much what he didn't believe in anything. </sentence><sentence id="65">And so he never taught me anything either, but my mother was a little bit more religious and she used to put on the Friday night candles. </sentence><sentence id="66">That was about as much religion as I got because my father would take me, say, "Come. </sentence><sentence id="67">Let Mommy give us a blessing." </sentence><sentence id="68">And I went without a word. </sentence><sentence id="69">Then as I grew I went to the <span class="building">synagogue</span> because I was a very pretty girl and all the boys were there on Saturday. </sentence><sentence id="70">So it was fun more than religion because I didn't know that I really should be. </sentence><sentence id="71">And then when it came to <span class="building">junior high school</span>, then my father decided to put me in a <span class="building">Reformed Church Protestant school</span>. </sentence><sentence id="72">And my mother first asked him, "Why you want her to go there?" </sentence><sentence id="73">And my father said, "Because that is the best <span class="building">school</span> in <span class="country">Hungary</span>, and she will get the best education." </sentence><sentence id="74">And I remembered he hold my hand when he took me there and there was a wonderful lady principal and she would turn to my father and said, "Mr. Mandl, why do you want your little girl to come to our <span class="building">school</span>? </sentence><sentence id="75">We have no Jewish children." </sentence><sentence id="76">And my father said, "I don't like bigots. </sentence><sentence id="77">I want my child to think for herself, and yours is the best <span class="building">school</span> in the <span class="country">country</span>." </sentence><sentence id="78">So she smiled and she looked at me, says, "Would you like to come to this <span class="building">school</span>?" </sentence><sentence id="79">And I looked her and I fall in love with her at once, I said, "Yes, I do." </sentence><sentence id="80">So then she explained to my father that a couple of children are there, but they are not allowed to come to morning services. </sentence><sentence id="81">Every morning they had a ten minute service, one prayer and two songs. </sentence><sentence id="82">And right away I picked up, "I can sing?" </sentence><sentence id="83">That was it. </sentence><sentence id="84">But the Protestant teacher, the religious teacher was a wonderful lady, another wonderful woman. </sentence><sentence id="85">She was about six foot tall with very black hair and a huge heart and I was like a half pension! </sentence><sentence id="86">in the <span class="building">school</span> until seven because both of my parents worked and she used to take me and she was the one who taught me about Judaism. </sentence><sentence id="87">And she said, "You have to learn because that was the first religion in the world. </sentence><sentence id="88">And you have to learn some Hebrew." </sentence><sentence id="89">So whatever I know, I know from her. </sentence><sentence id="90">But I was the first and then we got more children so I was there through <span class="building">junior high</span> and <span class="building">senior high</span>. </sentence><sentence id="91">And I graduated except that I wasn't there on graduation because I got scarlet fever. </sentence><sentence id="92">And I missed the graduation where I was supposed to be a hostess and that hurt me. </sentence><sentence id="93">The only little Jewish kid that could have been the hostess, she couldn't be there. </sentence><sentence id="94">But that's how life is. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="144">Q: What about, what about just being a Jewish child, a Jewish teenager in <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> at that time? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="146">A: Well, as a child I really didn't feel much because by that time my father was again quite wealthy and our <span class="building">house</span> was always open and they -- more Christians and Aristocrats came to the <span class="building">house</span>, and I never felt that I was different from anyone else. </sentence><sentence id="147">And also we traveled quite a little bit as I grew up too because we had a very big family in <span class="country">Switzerland</span>. </sentence><sentence id="148">My mother's sister went out there in 1915 I believe, and she stayed there and married there " Boarding-school student (French) and so we, we went a lot to <span class="country">Switzerland</span> and to <span class="country">Austria</span> and to <span class="country">France</span>. </sentence><sentence id="149">And I wasn't <span class="building">home</span> that much, and when I was a teenager, I started to travel on my own sort of. </sentence><sentence id="150">So in "36 I was at the -- in <span class="country">Germany</span> at the Olympic games because my very best friend -- and if you ever read my book you will read about it, how I came away from there, but I was their guest through the Olympics. </sentence><sentence id="151">And I was the lucky girl to see Jesse Owens running. </sentence><sentence id="152">Flying, not running. </sentence><sentence id="153">And I was so proud and I screamed for him. </sentence><sentence id="154">And it was a very interesting time in <span class="populated place">Berlin</span> because it was 1936, and yet during that time they didn't dare to show the Nazism as much as they really were. </sentence><sentence id="155">They didn't like the Jewish people. </sentence><sentence id="156">They didn't like Jesse Owens because he was black. </sentence><sentence id="157">They didn't like some other people because they were another color, like Japanese, but still it was not bad. </sentence><sentence id="158">And we had a wonderful time and I met a lot of young people there and we exchanged cards and I never asked them, "What religion you are?" </sentence><sentence id="159">and they didn't ask me, so I had a lovely time. </sentence><sentence id="160">Coming back from there I wanted to learn children psychology, and that send us through part of <span class="building">university</span>. </sentence><sentence id="161">It was hard to get in because then they already started with religion. </sentence><sentence id="162">"You are a Jew. </sentence><sentence id="163">We don't want you." </sentence><sentence id="164">But I managed, and I went to <span class="building">Montessori school</span>. </sentence><sentence id="165">So because of that I happened to go to <span class="country">Italy</span>, and I really had Madam Montessori" teaching me just before she died. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="188">Q: What was she like? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="190">A: She was wonderful. </sentence><sentence id="191">She was a very simple woman with a great mind and I am very sorry for today's <span class="building">Montessori schools</span> because her idea was sick children, most of them mentally retarded, to learn to do things by themselves -- to dress by themselves. </sentence><sentence id="192">And today they turned this all out. </sentence><sentence id="193">Today they have <span class="building">Montessori schools</span> where the kids have to be quiet. </sentence><sentence id="194">That is not for our children. </sentence><sentence id="195">The children have to let out. </sentence><sentence id="196">But hers was a natural thing. </sentence><sentence id="197">She didn't want the noise because it disturbed these children. </sentence><sentence id="198">And it was a most wonderful thing to see how little children help each other to close their coats or do their shoes, and I think this is not good to put over to our very healthy children the same thing. </sentence><sentence id="199">And also it's not good I found out because children learn too much and when they get to <span class="building">elementary school</span> they are bored. </sentence><sentence id="200">Because in <span class="building">Montessori school</span> most of them already learn how to write, how to count, how to do things. </sentence><sentence id="201">And it makes children very difficult to grow up. </sentence><sentence id="202">But it was a great experience to be in <span class="populated place">Rome</span>. </sentence><sentence id="203">I love <span class="populated place">Rome</span>. </sentence><sentence id="204">And she lived out in, in a not such a good <span class="populated place">neighborhood</span> either, but her whole life was the children and the teaching the sick children and the poor how to go on in this world. </sentence><sentence id="205">So I do have my Montessori diploma. </sentence><sentence id="206">And then from there I went to <span class="country">England</span> because I wanted to learn the King's English in a real good way and I did. </sentence><sentence id="207">Now, of course, I lost it all. </sentence><sentence id="208">Waited all the > Maria Montessori years where I lived in different <span class="country">countries</span>, it came off. </sentence><sentence id="209">And after <span class="country">England</span>, I came <span class="building">home</span> and that was already "39. </sentence><sentence id="210">And then I decided I wanted to go to <span class="country">Switzerland</span> again. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="234">Q: Let's, let's stop one moment. </sentence><sentence id="235">This is 1939 I believe. </sentence><sentence id="236">Things are changing. </sentence><sentence id="237">What was <span class="building">home</span> like then? </sentence><sentence id="238">What was <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> like? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="244">A: I was not <span class="building">home</span>, so I really didn't know what's going on and my parents wanted me to go out. </sentence><sentence id="245">In so far it was bad, you felt it coming. </sentence><sentence id="246">So, therefore my father used to send us out with Mommy every year because when you left <span class="country">Hungary</span> -- not just Jewish people, but anyone -- you had to get so and so much money from the <span class="building">bank</span>, not more. </sentence><sentence id="247">And then you would go somewhere and you would leave that money and you came <span class="building">home</span> earlier and you said you spent all the money, you had to come <span class="building">home</span>. </sentence><sentence id="248">So that's how we got our -- Mommy had the diamonds and the fur coats and what not since all gone out and we came right back. </sentence><sentence id="249">By that time I was a big girl so I could do it with her you know, 16, 17. </sentence><sentence id="250">And still it was quiet. </sentence><sentence id="251">You did not feel -- because there was always antisemitism in <span class="country">Hungary</span>. </sentence><sentence id="252">But yet like our Regent Horthy? </sentence><sentence id="253">who always said, "Yes, I am a antisemite, but I cannot get along without my Jews." </sentence><sentence id="254">And he didn't. </sentence><sentence id="255">Because they were helping and they -- the <span class="country">country</span> was pretty well-to-do and it was the "<span class="populated place">Little Paris</span>" as everybody called it, you know. </sentence><sentence id="256">The King who abdicated, his rendezvous were all in <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="257">He always came there. </sentence><sentence id="258">And I worked for awhile in the <span class="building">Ritz Hotel</span>, which was our best, and he came there but we had <span class="building">hotels</span> where you could not make love, so she had to have an <span class="interior space">apartment</span> and he lived in the <span class="building">Ritz</span>. </sentence><sentence id="259">Okay? </sentence><sentence id="260">But they came to <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> because that was a "Little Paris" where it was a great place. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="278">Q: Did you ever see <span class="building">Edward the Seventh</span>? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="280">A: I saw him once but that was all -- not a big deal. </sentence><sentence id="281">But I went to <span class="country">Switzerland</span> and I went to <span class="populated place">Geneva</span> because I wanted to perfect my French. </sentence><sentence id="282">I had a French mademoiselle for 14 years in the <span class="building">house</span> but you forget when you are not constantly talking. </sentence><sentence id="283">She was also from <span class="populated place">Lausanne</span>. </sentence><sentence id="284">And while I was in <span class="populated place">Geneva</span> in that -- "39 almost in September with other three students, we made an auto-stop* tour. </sentence><sentence id="285">Now today you wouldn't dare to do it. </sentence><sentence id="286">We stood on the <span class="dlf">street</span> and hold <span class="spatial object">cars</span>. </sentence><sentence id="287">We went all the way to the <span class="region">Rivera</span> and back. </sentence><sentence id="288">Was a gorgeous trip. </sentence><sentence id="289">So we were not ready for what we found when we arrived back because *39 was already fallen, but young kids don't care and we were happy and we were in <span class="country">Switzerland</span> when we came back. </sentence><sentence id="290">But there were a Zionist Congress and while these people had to have a rest, I went out to the <span class="env feature">Lake Geneva</span> to take a rest and have a swim. </sentence><sentence id="291">And one day we were out there and that was September 9, "40 -- 1939 when suddenly all the radios started to 3 Mikles Horthy 4 Hitch-hiking (French) blare that the Nazis overrun <span class="country">Poland</span>. </sentence><sentence id="292">And most of these people were from <span class="country">Poland</span>. </sentence><sentence id="293">And it was a heartbreak to see how they runned half-naked to the <span class="spatial object">phones</span> and the families were all <span class="building">home</span>. </sentence><sentence id="294">And then and there, somehow I promised myself that, as I am in a neutral <span class="country">country</span>, I'm going to try to help and see if we can make peace. </sentence><sentence id="295">And I stayed on in <span class="populated place">Geneva</span>, and my parents wanted me to stay. </sentence><sentence id="296">But the friend -- and that's a very tragic thing whom we left all our stuff, and they were Jewish -- as a matter of fact the husband was, I think, Orthodox -- he kept on saying I should go <span class="building">home</span>. </sentence><sentence id="297">After all, I'm the only child and it's crazy to stay there. "" </sentence><sentence id="298">The Germans will not come to <span class="country">Hungary</span>." </sentence><sentence id="299">And I went <span class="building">home</span> in January, 1940, middle of the war. </sentence><sentence id="300">Okay? </sentence><sentence id="301">But I found <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> still very exciting. </sentence><sentence id="302">American and British film were still shown. </sentence><sentence id="303">They didn't like people talking English. </sentence><sentence id="304">They didn't like English. </sentence><sentence id="305">But we, we did speak it. </sentence><sentence id="306">And that was the time when I taught Congressman Lantos" not wife yet.deg She was nine years old, and she was beautiful. </sentence><sentence id="307">She looked like Shirley Temple. </sentence><sentence id="308">And the two of us would walk on the <span class="dlf">street</span> talking English, good and loud so everybody can hear us. </sentence><sentence id="309">But they thought we were foreigners you know, who knows from where. </sentence><sentence id="310">And then my best friend arrived from <span class="country">Germany</span> and for a couple of weeks, it wasn't bad. </sentence><sentence id="311">From "40 to "43, you really didn't feel different like you did before. </sentence><sentence id="312">Antisemitism was there. </sentence><sentence id="313">We lived with it as best as we could. </sentence><sentence id="314">But then in March 1944 -- 1940 -- yeah, March 1944. </sentence><sentence id="315">That's right. </sentence><sentence id="316">I will never forget that day as long as I live. </sentence><sentence id="317">Early morning one of our neighbors running and said to my Father, "The <span class="building">BBCdeg</span> just announced that our Admiral Horthy is going to quit the Germans and going together with the Allied Forces and he's coming on the radio." </sentence><sentence id="318">And my father ran out and brought in the champagne and I looked at him. </sentence><sentence id="319">I said, "Poppy. </sentence><sentence id="320">Please don't drink. </sentence><sentence id="321">I don't believe it." </sentence><sentence id="322">My father said, "You are too young. </sentence><sentence id="323">You don't understand." </sentence><sentence id="324">And sure enough, Horthy came on and he went as far as to say, "And we are now the friends of the Allies," and at that moment the Germans -- the Hitler's hymn came on and they cut off his voice and I just dropped my glass. </sentence><sentence id="325">And I left to go to the <span class="building">Ritz Hotel</span> where I was working there and I also -- because I couldn't have no Montessori, nothing worked that time, so I worked in the <span class="building">hotel</span>. </sentence><sentence id="326">I wanted to become a Manageress or something. </sentence><sentence id="327">And we had a wonderful, wonderful director of that place. </sentence><sentence id="328">He was <span class="country">Yugoslavian</span>, but he spoke 16 languages perfectly. </sentence><sentence id="329">So between him and me we always talked French or English. </sentence><sentence id="330">And as soon as I arrived, the porter said, "Mr. Marentchic wants you." </sentence><sentence id="331">When I got out in the <span class="dlf">street</span>, first of all, it was full with beautiful <span class="spatial object">airplanes</span>. </sentence><sentence id="332">It was a very sunny day. </sentence><sentence id="333">And I was sure that they were the Americans and the British and I was so happy I said, "Ah, they listed to <span class="populated place">Horthy</span>, so they all here now. </sentence><sentence id="334">We are finished." </sentence><sentence id="335">And then Mr. Marentchic took me in his arm and 5 Annette Tilleman Lantos deg British Broadcasting Corporation he said, "Go <span class="building">home</span> and God bless you. </sentence><sentence id="336">Horthy was arrested, and these are not the Americans and British. </sentence><sentence id="337">These are the Russians -- these are the Germans -- excuse me, the Russians came after. </sentence><sentence id="338">So I ran <span class="building">home</span> and my father's only words were, "You were right." </sentence><sentence id="339">And funnily enough, we were not collected from our <span class="building">houses</span>. </sentence><sentence id="340">We heard that we have to put on a <span class="env feature">star</span>, so we did that. </sentence><sentence id="341">We didn't go out much on the <span class="dlf">street</span>, but we still were not restricted. </sentence><sentence id="342">Nothing! </sentence><sentence id="343">But they came in and immediately we heard that many, many, many people were taken and we still were not even touched. </sentence><sentence id="344">Nothing! </sentence><sentence id="345">Whether we were lucky, I don't know but we were in the <span class="building">house</span> until -- and it was bad because my very best friends lived very far from us and I missed them. </sentence><sentence id="346">We still had our <span class="spatial object">telephones</span>. </sentence><sentence id="347">The <span class="spatial object">radios</span> still worked. </sentence><sentence id="348">So we were watching because I had a big, big <span class="spatial object">radio</span> so you can hear the whole world and that's how we knew the news, what's coming in from all over. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="424">Q: What were the <span class="dlf">streets</span> like? </sentence><sentence id="425">What about <span class="building">school</span>? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="428">A: There were plenty food in <span class="country">Hungary</span>. </sentence><sentence id="429">Don't forget, it's an <span class="region">agricultural country</span>. </sentence><sentence id="430">Even through the whole <span class="country">Germany</span>, nobody was every hungry. </sentence><sentence id="431">Food there was plenty, and the <span class="building">shops</span> -- it was still lit up because the bombing didn't start so we had plenty of lights. </sentence><sentence id="432">But we didn't go out much. </sentence><sentence id="433">We were afraid. </sentence><sentence id="434">And you also never know what moment they ring the <span class="spatial object">bell</span> and they take you. </sentence><sentence id="435">So we sort of were prisoner of our own <span class="interior space">apartment</span>, but we were still safe -- amazingly safe. </sentence><sentence id="436">But every day there was a new announcement in tele-- in the <span class="spatial object">radio</span>. </sentence><sentence id="437">For instance, suddenly the Hungarian Nazis were -- who were worse than the Germans -- that was the <span class="building">Arrow Cross</span> -- so they -- when the Germans came in, they said, "The <span class="spatial object">Arrow Cross</span> can take over." </sentence><sentence id="438">Now what we heard -- we didn't see -- you see what was the problem was that the Jewish people in <span class="country">Hungary</span> didn't believe. </sentence><sentence id="439">We didn't believe like here they didn't believe that people are taken away to <span class="interior space">gas chambers</span>. </sentence><sentence id="440">We just didn't believe it, that anybody can put out from the <span class="interior space">apartment</span>, that anybody can be taken away. </sentence><sentence id="441">We couldn't understand it. </sentence><sentence id="442">So today when the people tell me, "Why the Americans didn't know?" </sentence><sentence id="443">But they couldn't understand it either. </sentence><sentence id="444">They were much further than we were. </sentence><sentence id="445">We were right there, and it was something -- it's impossible. </sentence><sentence id="446">But then suddenly some Czechoslovakian friends arrived. </sentence><sentence id="447">Rumanian friends came down. </sentence><sentence id="448">They took everything. </sentence><sentence id="449">But somehow they managed to come away. </sentence><sentence id="450">Then we started to realize -- started to be afraid that any moment anyone.... Letters still arrived from Europe, and I had a correspondence with a Swedish gentlemen for a long time because in a long time in <span class="country">Hungary</span> when you were a girl, who spoke lot of languages and you were a girl scout, then they asked you to be a guide for tourists. </sentence><sentence id="451">And as I spoke lot of languages, once I was a guide for a whole Swedish group. </sentence><sentence id="452">And the one Swedish man started to write. </sentence><sentence id="453">He has written for years and years. </sentence><sentence id="454">We were corresponding. </sentence><sentence id="455">I didn't think of anything. </sentence><sentence id="456">I was young and I had a lot of young men around me and all that so I just thought, "How nice. </sentence><sentence id="457">This nice Swedish man never forget a young kid. </sentence><sentence id="458">And actually he saved my life before Raoul, but I didn't know that then. </sentence><sentence id="459">So in any case one day -- that was very frightening experience -- finally, the bell rang. </sentence><sentence id="460">And I look out and there is a German soldier standing outside. </sentence><sentence id="461">And I look back at my parents. </sentence><sentence id="462">Well, we couldn't not open the <span class="dlf">door</span>, but then I looked again. </sentence><sentence id="463">I said, "Oh, my God, I know him." </sentence><sentence id="464">When I was in <span class="populated place">Berlin</span> in 1936, we exchanged cards and he happened to be one of the soldiers coming to <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="465">And my name evidently didn't mean a thing -- that a Mandl could be German. </sentence><sentence id="466">He didn't think I was Jewish. </sentence><sentence id="467">And I said to my parents, "What shall I do?" </sentence><sentence id="468">He said, "Well, you have to open the <span class="dlf">door</span>." </sentence><sentence id="469">He didn't want to come in, thank God. </sentence><sentence id="470">He just said would I show him <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>? </sentence><sentence id="471">And I was afraid if I say, "No," or, "Why he was sent here?" </sentence><sentence id="472">It was a very bad feeling so I turned around to my parents. </sentence><sentence id="473">I said, "I'm going to show him <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>." </sentence><sentence id="474">And I went out. </sentence><sentence id="475">All I heard is my father said, "Be careful." </sentence><sentence id="476">I said, "Yes." </sentence><sentence id="477">What else could I say? </sentence><sentence id="478">So I went and everything went alright for about an hour and then we came to a <span class="building">synagogue</span> and he stopped me there and he said, "You see. </sentence><sentence id="479">That's where I'm going to kill everybody." </sentence><sentence id="480">So now I didn't know whether I should open a big mouth and tell him who I am or shall I ask a question. </sentence><sentence id="481">So I quickly thought, "Maybe I'll ask a question." </sentence><sentence id="482">I said, "Did ever a Jew hurt you? </sentence><sentence id="483">Did you know any?" </sentence><sentence id="484">He said, "I never knew any." </sentence><sentence id="485">I said, "Well, then, why do you want to kill people whom you never even met." </sentence><sentence id="486">He said, "Hitler told me to do it, and I am a German." </sentence><sentence id="487">So I quickly looked at my watch and I said, "Oh, you'll have to forgive me, but I have to teach English and I forgot that the time has come. </sentence><sentence id="488">Goodbye." </sentence><sentence id="489">And he let me go and I run. </sentence><sentence id="490">I never saw him again. </sentence><sentence id="491">I have no idea what happened to him. </sentence><sentence id="492">But it was a close call. </sentence><sentence id="493">Yeah, because I really didn't know how to behave. </sentence><sentence id="494">So then we were all always frightened and then suddenly these two French gentlemen arrived with a note who send them from <span class="populated place">Paris</span>. </sentence><sentence id="495">The two French men arrived and they're not supposed to say it, but they said they were <span class="building">French Underground</span> and could we put them up in our <span class="building">house</span>. </sentence><sentence id="496">Dad said we'd be delighted, but they were in and out and sometimes we didn't see them for weeks. </sentence><sentence id="497">And they were wonderful. </sentence><sentence id="498">One was a peasant and one was a very learned young man. </sentence><sentence id="499">One was a Jew, one was a Christian. </sentence><sentence id="500">And they came to <span class="country">Hungary</span> and one of them fall in love with my wonderful girlfriend. </sentence><sentence id="501">He was unmarried. </sentence><sentence id="502">But they went in and out and they did wonderful things. </sentence><sentence id="503">I guess they were couriers between <span class="populated place">Rumania</span> and <span class="country">Hungary</span> for the Allies and for <span class="country">France</span> and it's a very exciting time you know. </sentence><sentence id="504">Frightening, but when you're young, all you can think, "I have to survive. </sentence><sentence id="505">I have to survive." </sentence><sentence id="506">So now in the midst of all this, then came this announcement. </sentence><sentence id="507">The first day was that any couples mixed marriages have to separate at once or the Christian party is becoming a Jew and being killed. </sentence><sentence id="508">Well, within a half an hour, there were thousands of suicides. </sentence><sentence id="509">It's a very easy way to kill people. </sentence><sentence id="510">And then they reversed it and they said we changed our minds, but by that time thousands of people died. </sentence><sentence id="511">Thank God, my aunt and uncle called. </sentence><sentence id="512">My uncle was a grandson of a Unitarian bishop and he was a newspaper man and it was a wonderful marriage. </sentence><sentence id="513">And they called and they said they're going to commit suicide. </sentence><sentence id="514">I said, "No, you're not Uncle. </sentence><sentence id="515">Why don't you get some false papers and just disappear." </sentence><sentence id="516">Said, "I never thought of this." </sentence><sentence id="517">I said, "Well, then think." </sentence><sentence id="518">And they survived. </sentence><sentence id="519">He died after the war, natural death, both of them. </sentence><sentence id="520">But many of them didn't make it. </sentence><sentence id="521">Then came the announcement that anyone who not having the Jewish religion can be saved. </sentence><sentence id="522">They just talked you know. </sentence><sentence id="523">It was -- nothing was now, but we loved to believe everything because we wanted to live. </sentence><sentence id="524">So in my house-- </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="625">Q: Excuse me. </sentence><sentence id="626">Excuse me. </sentence><sentence id="627">Not having the Jewish religion. </sentence><sentence id="628">You mean if you convert? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="633">A: If you change, if you converting to another religion, then you're not counted. </sentence><sentence id="634">But was a lie, of course, you see. </sentence><sentence id="635">But we wanted to believe. </sentence><sentence id="636">So who arrived to my <span class="building">house</span>? </sentence><sentence id="637">By that time we had a wonderful new principal in my former <span class="building">school</span> who became later on the Protestant Bishop of <span class="country">Hungary</span> and he had six daughters and I was more in his <span class="building">house</span>. </sentence><sentence id="638">I was the seventh child, and he came to our <span class="building">house</span> and he looked at my father, who was the same age, but he called him "Uncle." </sentence><sentence id="639">He says, "Let me baptize that child. </sentence><sentence id="640">She's my seventh daughter, and she knows as much about our religion as we do, and I want her to live." </sentence><sentence id="641">And my father said, "Yes." </sentence><sentence id="642">So we went to his tiny little <span class="building">church</span>, and my father started to drive. </sentence><sentence id="643">And Pastor Berecky" said, "Uncle Arnold, stop crying. </sentence><sentence id="644">I have full of Jews down in that <span class="interior space">basement</span>. </sentence><sentence id="645">If the Germans find out, we all be killed." </sentence><sentence id="646">And he baptized me more with his tears than with water. </sentence><sentence id="647">He cried so bitterly, and he hold me in his arms. </sentence><sentence id="648">And it was wonderful. </sentence><sentence id="649">And then he looked at me, says, "Child, you do what you want after the war. </sentence><sentence id="650">If you want to be a Jew again, go back to Judaism. </sentence><sentence id="651">But you are my child, my seventh daughter. </sentence><sentence id="652">So it was a very emotional and very great thing and we went <span class="building">home</span> and all his Jews were saved, I guess, who were down in the <span class="interior space">basement</span>. </sentence><sentence id="653">And they made me out original papers and they signed for it. </sentence><sentence id="654">You know my birth and all that, that I was born as a Protestant. </sentence><sentence id="655">And I took all these papers with grace. </sentence><sentence id="656">What else can you do? </sentence><sentence id="657">And then the next miracle happened. </sentence><sentence id="658">By that time I used to write a lot of poems. </sentence><sentence id="659">I did that as a little child too. </sentence><sentence id="660">And we had one wonderful newspaper and I send him one what I wrote during the war. </sentence><sentence id="661">And suddenly I got two little letters in the mail that morning. </sentence><sentence id="662">One was handwritten from the editor of this <span class="building">newspaper</span> and he very clearly just said "Dear Madam...." Oh, that time I wrote under an assumed name and it was ""Rolopa" -- what meant "<span class="populated place">Rome</span>, <span class="populated place">London</span>, <span class="populated place">Paris</span>," and I took the first three names and that what it was. </sentence><sentence id="663">So he addressed it to "Madam Rolopa," and he said that, "I loved your poem but unfortunately the censor would not allow me to publish it. </sentence><sentence id="664">But I keep it with all my souvenirs." </sentence><sentence id="665">And I screamed and my mother was just in the <span class="interior space">bathroom</span>, "Why you screaming?" </sentence><sentence id="666">I said, "Mommy, Mommy. </sentence><sentence id="667">Can you imagine. </sentence><sentence id="668">Handwritten and he kept my poem! </sentence><sentence id="669">That's better than if they publish it." </sentence><sentence id="670">And I was -- I have his letter still. </sentence><sentence id="671">1 was very proud. </sentence><sentence id="672">The second letter was a very -- with little white letters, but within the back it said <span class="building">Swedish Embassy</span>, <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="673">And I said, "What does 7 <span class="populated place">Albert Berecky</span> the <span class="building">Swedish Embassy</span> want from me?" </sentence><sentence id="674">And I opened it up and they said, "Could you please come to the <span class="building">Embassy</span>?" </sentence><sentence id="675">And I was dumfounded. " </sentence><sentence id="676">Why, why -- what do they want from me? </sentence><sentence id="677">And how do I get there?" </sentence><sentence id="678">Because by that time you couldn't really get to any <span class="building">foreign embassies</span> without probably being arrested on the <span class="dlf">street</span> with my yellow star. </sentence><sentence id="679">So my cousin that time dated a very wonderful Christian boy and he said, "Well, what's the problem? </sentence><sentence id="680">I'll take you." </sentence><sentence id="681">I said, "How?" </sentence><sentence id="682">He said, "Leave it to me?" </sentence><sentence id="683">And he arrived in a huge big black <span class="spatial object">Mercedes Benz</span>, and he had the German flag on the front and he pushed me in there. </sentence><sentence id="684">And he said, "Now, you're in. </sentence><sentence id="685">We can go." </sentence><sentence id="686">And he took me up. </sentence><sentence id="687">Nobody stopped us. </sentence><sentence id="688">How would they dare-- [Technical conversation] </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="748">Q: Okay. </sentence><sentence id="749">Now we're on tape. </sentence><sentence id="750">Now let's start with the story about the <span class="spatial object">car</span>. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="754">A: Okay. </sentence><sentence id="755">So my cousin had a boyfriend who was a Christian and he said, "It's no problem. </sentence><sentence id="756">I'll take you up to the <span class="building">Embassy</span>." </sentence><sentence id="757">And he arrived with a huge black <span class="spatial object">Mercedes Benz</span>. </sentence><sentence id="758">He had the Nazi flag on it, and he had a Nazi uniform, and he was very rough with me. </sentence><sentence id="759">He pushed me into the <span class="spatial object">car</span> and when I was in he said, "So now, we can relax and I'll take you." </sentence><sentence id="760">So nobody stopped us and I went. </sentence><sentence id="761">And then we arrived up there, it was -- first, you know it was very funny. </sentence><sentence id="762">I, I walked in and there was the Minister Danielsson." </sentence><sentence id="763">He was the Ambassador then and he looked up and said, "Who is that Nazi?" </sentence><sentence id="764">I said, "He is not a Nazi. </sentence><sentence id="765">He just brought me up here." </sentence><sentence id="766">He says, "Clever," you know, "but you never know." </sentence><sentence id="767">Anyhow, he and the Hungarian First Secretary, whose name was Mr. Mezey" -- he was then the Secretary there -- they needed somebody who speaks Hungarian. </sentence><sentence id="768">And they took me in and they told me first that they want to tell me the story about the wonderful Danish king who stood up for the Germans. </sentence><sentence id="769">He said that, "I don't know any Jews. </sentence><sentence id="770">I only know Danes." </sentence><sentence id="771">And he put on a yellow arm band and I was so stunned because we didn't know all this, you know. </sentence><sentence id="772">And after he told me that story then he told me about King Gustav the Fifth,!deg the Swedish King, who had told all the people in <span class="country">Sweden</span> -- and he blew that up as big as this, you know, on the <span class="dlf">walls</span> all over <span class="country">Sweden</span> -- "Anyone who has family, friends, business associates in <span class="country">Hungary</span>, would they come to the <span class="building">Foreign Department</span> and we will help." </sentence><sentence id="773">And I said, "Yeah, but why do you call me?" </sentence><sentence id="774">And he says, "That's my point now. </sentence><sentence id="775">You have a fiance." </sentence><sentence id="776">And I looked at him. </sentence><sentence id="777">I says, "I have a what?" </sentence><sentence id="778">He said, "You didn't know?" </sentence><sentence id="779">I says, "No Sir." </sentence><sentence id="780">I told the truth. </sentence><sentence id="781">I didn't know I have a fiance. </sentence><sentence id="782">He said, "Well, your fiance immediately went to the <span class="building">foreign department</span> and he said, "If the war wouldn't be on, she already would be my wife. </sentence><sentence id="783">So she is Swedish and please take care of her." </sentence><sentence id="784">And I stood there, you know, and I, I was frozen. </sentence><sentence id="785">I had no words and I said, "I, 1am a Swede? </sentence><sentence id="786">And he said, "Yes." </sentence><sentence id="787">And we go make your papers. </sentence><sentence id="788">And I 8 Tvan Danielsson deg Denes von Mezey 10 Oscar Gustav Adolf said, "Oh, my God." " </sentence><sentence id="789">And that's not all. </sentence><sentence id="790">You're going to stay with us on the <span class="building">Embassy</span>." </sentence><sentence id="791">And I said, "Oh no, no. </sentence><sentence id="792">I can't do that. </sentence><sentence id="793">I have my parents." </sentence><sentence id="794">He said, "Well, we will try to save your parents, but first comes you. </sentence><sentence id="795">We are now responsible for you, and I need some change of clothes and so on. </sentence><sentence id="796">You're going to stay here." </sentence><sentence id="797">I was stunned. </sentence><sentence id="798">So-- </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="848">Q: This had all come from this young man? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="850">A: That young man whom we wrote the letter, letters for years. </sentence><sentence id="851">And I still don't know whether -- well, I will tell you, on the end. </sentence><sentence id="852">Anyways, my friend Steven, said, "Well should she come <span class="building">home</span> with me?" </sentence><sentence id="853">And I said, "No, I think it's better if we send down to her parents. </sentence><sentence id="854">You, you can go <span class="building">home</span> along and we send down one of our employees here and he will talk to the parents and we write the letter. </sentence><sentence id="855">So that's what we did. </sentence><sentence id="856">I felt first very bad and, you know, conscious that I am just leaving my parents. </sentence><sentence id="857">But we are young, and I wanted so badly to live. </sentence><sentence id="858">And it was really a terrible thing maybe, but I just -- I wanted to stay. </sentence><sentence id="859">And so this man went down and told my parents that what happened and my parents said, "Ah, that's wonderful." </sentence><sentence id="860">And they gave them the toothbrush and change of clothes and I for three weeks a guest of the <span class="building">Embassy</span>. </sentence><sentence id="861">I had a wonderful little <span class="interior space">room</span> overlooking the <span class="dlf">rose garden</span> and I found out I wasn't the only guest in the place. </sentence><sentence id="862">First, there was that famous Nobel prize winning professor, Szent-Gyergyi,!! </sentence><sentence id="863">who has found the vitamin. </sentence><sentence id="864">He wasn't Jewish, but he was a stout anti-Nazi and they had to put him there. </sentence><sentence id="865">But eventually the Germans were after him and so they gave him a new name like Swenson and a new lookout and they put him somewhere else and he left. </sentence><sentence id="866">But there was another wonderful young woman with two little boys and she was German, married to a Swede, and she got stuck with the children in <span class="country">Hungary</span>. </sentence><sentence id="867">And she went away after on the very last <span class="spatial object">train</span> that could get back to <span class="country">Sweden</span>. </sentence><sentence id="868">She left with the children. </sentence><sentence id="869">Later on we met in <span class="country">Sweden</span>. </sentence><sentence id="870">So I wasn't alone there, you know, and found out there were other people. </sentence><sentence id="871">But three weeks I was there, and in the three weeks the big bombing started. </sentence><sentence id="872">And they really started and they were day and night, and the German artillery was right above us and we could see whole <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="873">We were in the <span class="region">Buda side</span>. </sentence><sentence id="874">Have you ever been in Budapest?No. </sentence><sentence id="875">A beautiful <span class="populated place">city</span> and it was a pity to see how everything was bombed out, but it had to be done and we were all hoping that the Americans come and then we be liberated. </sentence><sentence id="876">But after three weeks we knew nothing. </sentence><sentence id="877">My dear friend arrived back with his <span class="spatial object">Mercedes</span> and demanded my return immediately. </sentence><sentence id="878">And the Minister said, "Why?" </sentence><sentence id="879">He said, "Well, maybe you don't know, but the Hungarian Nazi Party made every second <span class="building">house</span> in <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> now a <span class="building">Jewish house</span>. </sentence><sentence id="880">Every second <span class="building">house</span> has a big yellow star out because they think that the Americans will not bomb because they don't want to bomb the Jews." </sentence><sentence id="881">Of course, that wasn't true. </sentence><sentence id="882">They bombed the Jews. </sentence><sentence id="883">They bombed the <span class="building">headquarters</span>, but the "! </sentence><sentence id="884">Albert Szent-Gyergyi Christian -- from the <span class="building">Christian houses</span> like where we were on with my parents, that became a <span class="building">Christian house</span>, so my parents had to get out. </sentence><sentence id="885">And thank God, my grandmother had a big <span class="interior space">apartment</span> where my -- my grandmother wasn't alive, but my aunt was there and her best friend who was also married to a Christian but he wanted to be with them, so he moved in. </sentence><sentence id="886">And Steven came every day, so we had two Christians helping us. </sentence><sentence id="887">And that <span class="building">house</span> became a <span class="building">Jewish house</span> and he said, "I have to come back because the Arrow Cross comes every day and reading the list of people in that <span class="building">house</span> and if I am not there, and my name is still on, then they would kill my parents." </sentence><sentence id="888">So they had a little argument and the Minister said, "No, because we are responsible." </sentence><sentence id="889">And he said, "Well, she's responsible for her parents." </sentence><sentence id="890">I just spoke I said, "I'm going <span class="building">home</span>." </sentence><sentence id="891">So then they said, "Not with him." </sentence><sentence id="892">I should go down in the <span class="spatial object">streetcar</span> and I should have one of the employees will go and sit on the other side because they want to know exactly where I'm going. </sentence><sentence id="893">So I went down with the promise that everyday when they allow us out -- we were allowed one hour a day to go out shopping or whatever -- that I call and, thank God, the <span class="spatial object">phones</span> were still working. </sentence><sentence id="894">Bombing or no bombing, we were lucky. </sentence><sentence id="895">The <span class="spatial object">phones</span> were working. </sentence><sentence id="896">And I did call up every day. </sentence><sentence id="897">So I went down with this young man and when I got to the <span class="building">house</span> I looked at him and he did like this and he wrote a little note and he left. </sentence><sentence id="898">And of course, my <span class="building">welcome home</span> was not so good. </sentence><sentence id="899">I felt very guilty and the family didn't really like that I had three weeks of <span class="dlf">heaven</span>, but I can't blame them. </sentence><sentence id="900">I mean, maybe I shouldn't have done it, but as I said I wanted to live. </sentence><sentence id="901">I mean you have only one life. </sentence><sentence id="902">But I was back <span class="building">home</span>. </sentence><sentence id="903">And I called up every day and I think I wasn't down longer than a weeks and a half and I called and a Hungarian secretary came Mezey and said, "Agnes, you have to get up here at once. </sentence><sentence id="904">Something new happened." </sentence><sentence id="905">And I said, "I'll try, but I don't know how." </sentence><sentence id="906">He said, "Well, maybe you're friend will bring you up. </sentence><sentence id="907">Tell him we will not keeping you here." </sentence><sentence id="908">So when he came I said, "Could you just take me up once more?" </sentence><sentence id="909">He said, But you're not going to stay there and jeopardize the family?" </sentence><sentence id="910">I says, "No, I'll come back." </sentence><sentence id="911">And I went up and there was Raoul Wallenberg. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="977">Q: At this point I want to stop. </sentence><sentence id="978">I want to change tapes. </sentence><sentence id="979">I don't want to stop at this point. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class=""><p><sentence id="983">Bonnie, can we stop the tapes please? </sentence><sentence id="984">Do we really have that much? </sentence><sentence id="985">Alright. </sentence><sentence id="986">Okay, let's keep on going. </sentence><sentence id="987">We have 20 minutes. </sentence><sentence id="988">Tell us about <span class="populated place">Raoul</span>. </sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="989">A: Alright. </sentence><sentence id="990">So Danielsson and Mezey introduced him to me, and he spoke English and German, and I think he spoke German that time because I couldn't speak Swedish yet, and his first question was, "Agnes, would you work with me?" </sentence><sentence id="991">And I said, "I'd be delighted Sir, but I still have a Star." </sentence><sentence id="992">And they all started laughing. </sentence><sentence id="993">And I said, "Why you laughing? </sentence><sentence id="994">I can't run around in the <span class="dlf">streets</span>." </sentence><sentence id="995">He said, "You won't. </sentence><sentence id="996">We already have prepared papers for you." </sentence><sentence id="997">And the same day they send me all alone with the Star, but somebody followed me from the <span class="building">Swedish Embassy</span> to the <span class="building">police station</span> where the police chief cut off my Star. </sentence><sentence id="998">I don't know what -- how they bribed him. </sentence><sentence id="999">I have no idea. </sentence><sentence id="1000">He never told me, but they must have bribed the Hungarian especially because the war was probably almost over in "44, and they wanted to be in good foot with the Americans. </sentence><sentence id="1001">Right? </sentence><sentence id="1002">They didn't know that the Russians are coming. </sentence><sentence id="1003">So we all didn't know that that we are sold out, the whole <span class="region">Balkan</span>, right? </sentence><sentence id="1004">To the Soviets. </sentence><sentence id="1005">Well, anyways he cried and I thought I was in <span class="dlf">Heaven</span> already. </sentence><sentence id="1006">I must be dead if this police chief is crying while he cuts off my star and I walked right back to the <span class="building">Embassy</span> and I said, "Here I am." </sentence><sentence id="1007">He said, "Okay. </sentence><sentence id="1008">Second, go get your parents" <span class="interior space">apartment</span> back." </sentence><sentence id="1009">And I said, "I beg your pardon, Sir." </sentence><sentence id="1010">And they laughed again. </sentence><sentence id="1011">I said, "You're laughing, but I have to do it." </sentence><sentence id="1012">He said, "I'm sorry. </sentence><sentence id="1013">That we can't do it, but there is a new <span class="building">housing commission</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1014">You should have seen <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1015">I mean there were maids who used to work in <span class="building">houses</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1016">They walked in and they took the former employers fur coats and everything and they walked for breakfast with big furs and all that. </sentence><sentence id="1017">They had no idea, you know. </sentence><sentence id="1018">And they took all the <span class="interior space">apartments</span> from everybody. </sentence><sentence id="1019">Yeah? </sentence><sentence id="1020">So he said, "Get to that place and get your <span class="interior space">apartment</span> back." </sentence><sentence id="1021">What I didn't even remember, the <span class="interior space">apartment</span> was written on my father's name, but I looked at him by that time and I got -- you saw right away my, my identification from them. </sentence><sentence id="1022">Actually, everybody in that time in <span class="country">Hungary</span> needed an identification, even a shoe cleaner on the <span class="dlf">street</span>, because otherwise you couldn't walk around. </sentence><sentence id="1023">This was wartime. </sentence><sentence id="1024">And so I got mine. </sentence><sentence id="1025">You have them I think or you will have them. </sentence><sentence id="1026">And I walked in with my head absolutely high because now I was a Wallenberg girl. </sentence><sentence id="1027">Okay? </sentence><sentence id="1028">And I walked in and I sort of threw my paper to, to the head. </sentence><sentence id="1029">I said, "What can happen? </sentence><sentence id="1030">Either he shoots me or not." </sentence><sentence id="1031">And he looked at me awfully ugly and without a word he signed and gave it back to me. </sentence><sentence id="1032">I said, "Oh, oh. </sentence><sentence id="1033">Raoul, whom did you bribe again?" </sentence><sentence id="1034">Something must have happened. </sentence><sentence id="1035">But I got out. </sentence><sentence id="1036">Somebody I heard yelling, "There is a bloody Jew going," but I just went with my head up right to my <span class="building">house</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1037">And I walk in and there is a -- that was an <span class="building">apartment building</span> and the superintendent is there and I walk in and he was so stunned that I am alive. </sentence><sentence id="1038">You know they had no idea what happened to us. </sentence><sentence id="1039">And I said, "Hello," and his wife started to cry because I loved her very much, but he was a leech. </sentence><sentence id="1040">He lived on us for years and he looks at me and he said, "What do you want?" </sentence><sentence id="1041">I said, "Here. </sentence><sentence id="1042">My <span class="interior space">apartment</span> back!" </sentence><sentence id="1043">He said, "My daughter already has that <span class="interior space">apartment</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1044">Whereby the wife says, "No, our daughter has already another <span class="interior space">apartment</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1045">So I don't know what he did to his wife after, but I said, "I like to have the receipt official." </sentence><sentence id="1046">So he said, "Well, you have to go to our lawyer and he should give it back to you." </sentence><sentence id="1047">I said, "Look, where is the lawyer living?" </sentence><sentence id="1048">I went to the lawyer and as soon as I walked in, the lawyer looked at the paper and he saw it was official so not much he could do and he said, "Yes, but that has a price." </sentence><sentence id="1049">And I thought, "Oh, my God. </sentence><sentence id="1050">If I have to give him money, I don't have." </sentence><sentence id="1051">And I said, "Well, what's the price?" </sentence><sentence id="1052">And he said, "You will have to testify that I was so good to the Jewish people." </sentence><sentence id="1053">They all wanted that by that time, of course, because whoever comes in, they would have hanged them because they killed thousands of them on the <span class="dlf">streets</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1054">I saw it myself one day this green shirt. </sentence><sentence id="1055">There was a little boy of two years old with a star, and he just -- "bang" and killed him. </sentence><sentence id="1056">No reason to kill a child of two years. </sentence><sentence id="1057">But he had a yellow star on, why not kill? </sentence><sentence id="1058">So in any case, I promised him anything and in the meantime my finger was like this [interviewee gestures] in the back. </sentence><sentence id="1059">I, "The hell with you all, just give it to me." </sentence><sentence id="1060">So I walked back to the <span class="building">house</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1061">Now he couldn't say anything, because the lawyer signed. </sentence><sentence id="1062">So we go <span class="interior space">upstairs</span> and I had a very horrible feeling, "What will I find?" </sentence><sentence id="1063">I found an empty <span class="interior space">apartment</span> except we had a <span class="interior space">maid's room</span> and the <span class="interior space">maid's room</span> was locked, and all that and we opened. </sentence><sentence id="1064">All our stuff was in there, the <span class="spatial object">paintings</span>, the books, the <span class="spatial object">furniture</span>, and for a moment I thought to myself, "Gee, He isn't as bad as I thought," until he opened his mouth and he said, "I'll get even with you yet." </sentence><sentence id="1065">But I figured the -- in this ball game, the <span class="spatial object">ball</span> is now in my <span class="dlf">park</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1066">And I got my <span class="spatial object">telephone</span> back within a day and I had our <span class="interior space">apartment</span> back and I had a <span class="spatial object">telephone</span>, so I was in constant contact with Raoul and everybody else. </sentence><sentence id="1067">Now I wanted my parents badly to get out of that <span class="building">house</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1068">And I went to the <span class="building">house</span> -- to the <span class="building">Jewish house</span>, and I screamed up. </sentence><sentence id="1069">I shouldn't have done it, but I was so excited. </sentence><sentence id="1070">I said, "We got the <span class="interior space">apartment</span> back again, the <span class="interior space">apartment</span> back." </sentence><sentence id="1071">In the meantime, Raoul, as he promised, he got my parents some papers. </sentence><sentence id="1072">They're not supposed to come out of that <span class="building">house</span>, but I said, "Out! </sentence><sentence id="1073">Out! </sentence><sentence id="1074"><span class="building">Home</span>!" </sentence><sentence id="1075">And I took them out. </sentence><sentence id="1076">I missed them and also my cousins. </sentence><sentence id="1077">Her mother couldn't come then. </sentence><sentence id="1078">I don't know where she was. </sentence><sentence id="1079">And I took them all out. </sentence><sentence id="1080">My cousin had papers from Salvadorian papers and the Swiss family helped her so we all went <span class="building">home</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1081">And then we started the big work with Raoul Wallenberg. </sentence><sentence id="1082">That time I was-- </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="1178">Q: Excuse me, won't you? </sentence><sentence id="1179">Would you pause a minute? </sentence><sentence id="1180">Tell me you, when you said when you met Raoul Wallenberg, you seemed to know all about him. </sentence><sentence id="1181">Did you know about him? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="1186">A: Nothing! </sentence><sentence id="1187">All I knew is that there is a young man and I said to myself, "What is he doing?" </sentence><sentence id="1188">And first I think and that was the feeling that he thought it was an adventure. </sentence><sentence id="1189">But he found out in one day, half a day, that this wasn't an adventure. </sentence><sentence id="1190">This is something that you need. </sentence><sentence id="1191">And he was a most fantastic organizer. </sentence><sentence id="1192">A quick thinker! </sentence><sentence id="1193">His first question was from -- he had one friend and that was Per Anger, whom I don't know if you interviewed yet, but Per Anger was then the First Secretary of the <span class="building">Embassy</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1194">And he was an old friend of Raoul and he asked him the first moment, "What have you done for the people here?" </sentence><sentence id="1195">Because it was not only Jews, but it was also anti-Nazi, aristocrats, and Christians, whom he had to help. </sentence><sentence id="1196">It was not just the Jews, but mostly. </sentence><sentence id="1197">And they said, "We have given out 800 real passports." </sentence><sentence id="1198">Now that was what I had, too. </sentence><sentence id="1199">And Raoul was beside himself. " </sentence><sentence id="1200">Two hundred -- two -- 2,8000 -- no, 280,000 people, you give 800 pass-passports? </sentence><sentence id="1201">Well, that's nothing." </sentence><sentence id="1202">And from the first day on, he actually took over the whole <span class="building">embassy</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1203">The Minister didn't like it very much because after all, he was a diplomat and he was nothing. </sentence><sentence id="1204">And when he asked him -- he came as a third secretary -- he had to have a diplomatic passport because otherwise, he couldn't travel. </sentence><sentence id="1205">And he said, "Mr. Danielsson, you'll have to understand that when you go and argue with the people, you speak as a diplomat. </sentence><sentence id="1206">I don't." </sentence><sentence id="1207">And that's how he wanted. </sentence><sentence id="1208">He was like a devil. </sentence><sentence id="1209">You know to us, he spoke like the greatest brother, like a little child, and he was full of jokes all the time. </sentence><sentence id="1210">And when we were a little bit down, then he would come up with jokes or he would imitate Mussolini"? </sentence><sentence id="1211">or he would imitate Hitler or Eichmann."? </sentence><sentence id="1212">Whatever he could make us laugh, he made us hysterically laugh because that was his whole nature. </sentence><sentence id="1213">What he felt inside, we don't know because he never showed. </sentence><sentence id="1214">The only thing I knew that he was deathly afraid and that was the <span class="spatial object">bombs</span> because that he couldn't hide. </sentence><sentence id="1215">But we all were afraid from that and he said now, "Whatever happens," because when the Americans come, when they bombed, it went all the way through to the <span class="interior space">basements</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1216">When the Russians came the two <span class="interior space">floors</span> upstairs disappeared. </sentence><sentence id="1217">One was our <span class="interior space">apartment</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1218">It's not all bombed out you know, but with the Americans it went, and it didn't matter whether it was the <span class="building">Jewish house</span> or the <span class="building">Christians houses</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1219">Bombed! </sentence><sentence id="1220">And that was it, and the British too. </sentence><sentence id="1221">But Raoul took over immediately. </sentence><sentence id="1222">And <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> is a small <span class="populated place">town</span> and it was like a wildfire that there is some "angel" who is here to help. </sentence><sentence id="1223">So the Jewish Community and those of anti-Nazi Christians, they all came and Raoul -- in two days we had 350 people helping. </sentence><sentence id="1224">And we didn't get paid as you always hear, "He's a paid employee." </sentence><sentence id="1225">Nobody was paid. </sentence><sentence id="1226">We were paid because we had our wonderful identification, but quite a lot from our 350 people died and were taken and were killed, so those who were -- we were lucky. </sentence><sentence id="1227">Some of them didn't kill. </sentence><sentence id="1228">Not because that they all say that that was saved their lives. </sentence><sentence id="1229">It did not save our lives. </sentence><sentence id="1230">It was a part of our work with him. </sentence><sentence id="1231">We belonged to the <span class="building">embassy</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1232">And it was funny because the <span class="building">embassy</span> only had 12 employees and Raoul had 350 in days, but he needed it. </sentence><sentence id="1233">And in no time, he opened a <span class="building">hospital</span> and he was looking. </sentence><sentence id="1234">There was lots of doctors who were hiding. </sentence><sentence id="1235">He found them, and they worked for him and the <span class="building">Red Cross</span> nurses and the other nurses, and many of them died and many of them lived and helped him "til the last moment. </sentence><sentence id="1236">But he was, he was never for a moment without thinking, "what can I do next?" </sentence><sentence id="1237">And he was like a <span class="spatial object">machine</span>, you know "Go! </sentence><sentence id="1238">Go! </sentence><sentence id="1239">Go!" </sentence><sentence id="1240">And so all of us became like this. </sentence><sentence id="1241">I also slept sometimes one or two hours a night because there was no time. </sentence><sentence id="1242">We always had to do something because there were always something new what Eichmann was thinking of and especially the <span class="spatial object">Arrow Cross</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1243">So not only that we had these helpers but we had quite a few very rich people and they offered Raoul their <span class="building">houses</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1244">So we did in two weeks -- we had about 60 <span class="building">houses</span> on the two sides of the <span class="env feature">Danube</span>, <span class="populated place">Buda</span> and <span class="populated place">Pest</span>, where the Swedish flag went on and we had Nazi-clad, Nazi-clad Hungarian, Jewish boys standing outside taking care of the <span class="building">houses</span> and nobody could step in because it was a <span class="region">Swedish territory</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1245">And Per Anger writes it in his book and he says that at that time -- because in <span class="country">Hungary</span>, they always made jokes whether there was a war or not -- that the Swedish government was the greatest landlord in <span class="country">Hungary</span> at that time. </sentence><sentence id="1246">And we had those <span class="building">houses</span> and it was good because our <span class="building">offices</span> had to move every day because they were after us. </sentence><sentence id="1247">Eichmann " Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini 3 Adolf Eichmann was after Raoul all the time, but he was not afraid from Eichmann. </sentence><sentence id="1248">He invited him for dinner, and then he forgot about it, and he had to call the <span class="building">Swiss Embassy</span> -- a Swedish guy, and he said, "Do you have any wine and food? </sentence><sentence id="1249">I forgot I invited Eichmann for dinner." </sentence><sentence id="1250">But he not only invited Eichmann for dinner. </sentence><sentence id="1251">He asked one of the Jewish helpers to serve him so it would be fun to see how he reacts to somebody with the yellow star. </sentence><sentence id="1252">And we did it because it was fun. </sentence><sentence id="1253">Raoul wanted it. </sentence><sentence id="1254">But at that time we were already bombed heavily, and Raoul had shirt open, and this guy here arrived with all the guns around him, but he couldn't kill Raoul on the <span class="region">Swedish territory</span> you know. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="1327">Q: Let's stop here. </sentence><sentence id="1328">Let's back up. </sentence><sentence id="1329">What do you mean? </sentence><sentence id="1330">Which guy arrived. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="1335">A: Eichmann. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="1337">Q: Oh. </sentence><sentence id="1338">Okay. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="1341">A: With, with a soldier and all that. </sentence><sentence id="1342">And Raoul -- it was already no light, we had only candlelights -- and Raoul opened the <span class="dlf">windows</span> and it was the whole <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> was burning. </sentence><sentence id="1343">And he said, "Eichmann, look out. </sentence><sentence id="1344">Look what you're doing?" </sentence><sentence id="1345">And Eichmann said, "They deserve it." </sentence><sentence id="1346">He said, "Stop talking and stop killing the people. </sentence><sentence id="1347">You didn't win. </sentence><sentence id="1348">The Germans lost, so give up." </sentence><sentence id="1349">And Eichmann said, "No, I will not give up and my only thing is that you are in my way." </sentence><sentence id="1350">And Raoul very quietly said, "But I am not enough in your way." </sentence><sentence id="1351">He just didn't take it seriously. </sentence><sentence id="1352">And then Eichmann left. </sentence><sentence id="1353">But he had to have his say and he had to show it to him, you know. </sentence><sentence id="1354">I wish he would be there when Eichmann had to be hanged or whatever they did to him. </sentence><sentence id="1355">Unfortunately, he probably doesn't even know about it. </sentence><sentence id="1356">So any case, it was wild because I was for awhile -- I was just hostessing, you know, because thousands of people came up to us for the Schutz-pass!* </sentence><sentence id="1357">what was also his design. </sentence><sentence id="1358">He designed -- first, he went to the Hungarian and said, "Are there still <span class="spatial object">trains</span> going between here and <span class="country">Sweden</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1359">I'd like to take the Jews off your hand," he said. </sentence><sentence id="1360">And they said, "Yes, Mr. Wallenberg. </sentence><sentence id="1361">You can take 5,000 people." </sentence><sentence id="1362">So he came back to the <span class="building">Embassy</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1363">He says, "5,000 and they will never allow me another one." </sentence><sentence id="1364">So that's no good. </sentence><sentence id="1365">So then he designed this Schutz-pass. </sentence><sentence id="1366">And, of course, with 350 people we had millions of families and friends who collected the pictures, signed, and Danielsson, the Minister sat and signed each of them. </sentence><sentence id="1367">Now I am afraid you will hear many times they said they were fake papers. </sentence><sentence id="1368">Not one of them were ever fake. </sentence><sentence id="1369">If they say it was too many, yes, because then eventually we were allowed to make 10,000 of it, but we probably made 50,000 of it. </sentence><sentence id="1370">Alright? </sentence><sentence id="1371">But they were not fake because everyone of them is signed by the Swedish Minister. </sentence><sentence id="1372">What was fake was the Polish gentlemen who already did his three years <span class="interior space">Underground</span> in <span class="country">Poland</span> and he had a little <span class="spatial object">printing machine</span> and he figured he will come to <span class="country">Hungary</span> and see what he can help there. </sentence><sentence id="1373">And there he had Raoul Wallenberg. </sentence><sentence id="1374">And he found one of his passes and he duplicated it and he signed "Danielsson" and 4 Protective pass (German) some people found it. </sentence><sentence id="1375">And they called Raoul, and Raoul met him and first very angry. </sentence><sentence id="1376">He said, "You can't do that." </sentence><sentence id="1377">But then as typical Raoul, he looked at him, he said, "But if you can save one single life, go ahead and do it." </sentence><sentence id="1378">So very many people got away with the fake papers because they looked so much like Raoul's, and some of them died with the real one and died with the fake one. </sentence><sentence id="1379">But it was not Raoul's papers. </sentence><sentence id="1380">They were not fake, you see. </sentence><sentence id="1381">And these people just don't understand. </sentence><sentence id="1382">He did. </sentence><sentence id="1383">Also, they say he gave us passports. </sentence><sentence id="1384">He never gave passports. </sentence><sentence id="1385">It was a pass, and the pass and if you will read my book, you will see it. </sentence><sentence id="1386">I have it translated. </sentence><sentence id="1387">The picture of the person is on there, with the signature, and it says, "The above, the bearer of this paper is protected by the Swedish Government and all his belongings." </sentence><sentence id="1388">And if and when we collectively can go to <span class="country">Sweden</span>, then they will be going and then in <span class="country">Sweden</span> in 14 days this paper will be invalid. </sentence><sentence id="1389">It doesn't say anywhere it's a <span class="spatial object">passport</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1390">It doesn't say anywhere that he can take his star off. </sentence><sentence id="1391">It just says he's protected by the Swedish government. </sentence><sentence id="1392">And then when these people had to be shifted out of their <span class="building">houses</span>, then Raoul just picked them up and in these 60 <span class="building">houses</span> we put them in. </sentence><sentence id="1393">These were our <span class="building">safe houses</span> and it was not comfortable, but they had food and they had medicine and they had Raoul Wallenberg. </sentence><sentence id="1394">Raoul came there every day and visited everybody when he had time because he had to go in the meantime on the <span class="dlf">road</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1395">Now, on the <span class="dlf">road</span> he didn't take us girls. </sentence><sentence id="1396">He took the <span class="building">Red Cross</span> and he took some of the diplomats. </sentence><sentence id="1397">And by that time he called up the Swiss diplomat and said, "Help me. </sentence><sentence id="1398">We need some help. </sentence><sentence id="1399">We need you people doing this." </sentence><sentence id="1400">So then we got the Swiss involved. </sentence><sentence id="1401">We got the Portuguese involved. </sentence><sentence id="1402">We got the <span class="building">Papal Nuncio</span> involved very nicely. </sentence><sentence id="1403">And so he had enough men to go with him including Thomas Veres, who was always with him. </sentence><sentence id="1404">He was a young boy with a <span class="spatial object">camera</span> hidden and he made all these pictures. </sentence><sentence id="1405">And he also saved the life of Raoul a couple of times because they were sitting and he's photographing and suddenly he sees a German aiming at Raoul and he would shout, "Raoul, jump. </sentence><sentence id="1406">They're killing you." </sentence><sentence id="1407">And Raoul jumped into the <span class="spatial object">car</span> and they left. </sentence><sentence id="1408">But he went out after the people all the way to the <span class="dlf">Austrian border</span> to get the people back. </sentence><sentence id="1409">With lies, with complete lies, because they heard about it. </sentence><sentence id="1410">As I said, it was the coldest winter and they marched the people and I don't know -- and you said, you've never been in <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1411">Between <span class="populated place">Vienna</span> -- the <span class="dlf">border</span> and <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>, that was then a five hour car ride, and they were walking these people in the <span class="env feature">snow</span> without shoes. </sentence><sentence id="1412">Children, sick people, old people, and they died, and people trampled over them. </sentence><sentence id="1413">And Raoul was beside himself. </sentence><sentence id="1414">So he went on the <span class="dlf">road</span> and one day Per Anger had met him and Raoul had -- have we finished? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="1491">Q: Yeah. </sentence><sentence id="1492">I want to stop. </sentence><sentence id="1493">We'll change tapes and then I want to pick up with this march. </sentence><sentence id="1494">It's important. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="1499">A: Okay. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="1501">Q: Okay Bonnie. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class=""><p><sentence id="1503"> Tape #2 </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="1505">Q: Okay. </sentence><sentence id="1506">We're back on camera. </sentence><sentence id="1507">You were-- </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="1511">A: Yes. </sentence><sentence id="1512">I was telling that Raoul went after these people all the way to the <span class="dlf">Austrian border</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1513">But one of these occasions he had Per Anger with him too, and he had a big black book and on the way to the <span class="building">railway station</span>, he stopped and screamed at the Nazis in German. </sentence><sentence id="1514">He spoke perfect German. " </sentence><sentence id="1515">How dare you are taking our people. </sentence><sentence id="1516">They're all our protected people. </sentence><sentence id="1517">And all of those people, who have my papers turn around." </sentence><sentence id="1518">And one of my very good girlfriends from here now, she said, "Well, what can happen? </sentence><sentence id="1519">They'll kill her anyhow." </sentence><sentence id="1520">She turned around. </sentence><sentence id="1521">She didn't have any paper -- and her sister and her mother. </sentence><sentence id="1522">And "Get on the <span class="spatial object">truck</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1523">Okay? </sentence><sentence id="1524">And then he started to open his black book and started to read names like a machine gun. </sentence><sentence id="1525">And people caught on, those who could still walk and they walked up whether that was their name or not, and he brought about thousand people back to <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> to these safe <span class="building">houses</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1526">And on the way <span class="building">home</span>, Per Anger said to him, "Raoul, I didn't know we have a black book and you have names? </sentence><sentence id="1527">When did you do that?" </sentence><sentence id="1528">And Raoul started hysterically laughing and he said, "I'll show it to you when I done it." </sentence><sentence id="1529">And he opens it up and not one single name. </sentence><sentence id="1530">Nothing! </sentence><sentence id="1531">But that was his idea. </sentence><sentence id="1532">He had to do something. </sentence><sentence id="1533">He had to save people. </sentence><sentence id="1534">And the same thing, he had drivers licenses and insurance papers, whatever he could find in Hungarian, what the Germans couldn't read. </sentence><sentence id="1535">And he took it all the way to the <span class="spatial object">train</span> and he demanded to open the <span class="dlf">doors</span> and he yelled to the people, "I have your papers here. </sentence><sentence id="1536">Get out, Mr. So and So." </sentence><sentence id="1537">And there to some people, you know, "Aw, maybe we can get away." </sentence><sentence id="1538">And he handed them -- some of them got the Schutz-pass, not with their name, but who cares, you know. </sentence><sentence id="1539">And insurance papers and tax papers. </sentence><sentence id="1540">You name it. </sentence><sentence id="1541">He brought them back. </sentence><sentence id="1542">But I don't know if you saw the film. </sentence><sentence id="1543">There was one and that was the truth that he took <span class="building">home</span> thousands and in the meantime they killed another thousand and you could hear it, but you can't save everybody. </sentence><sentence id="1544">He always played with his own life because he can be killed any moment, but he didn't care. </sentence><sentence id="1545">He just wanted the people. </sentence><sentence id="1546">Once he was about 250 young men was taken and they were told that they will clean up <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> from the bombing and he knew exactly that's not true. </sentence><sentence id="1547">So he went after them, again just with two of his colleagues, and again a lot of paper and this Nazi looks at him and he knew who he was and he said, "Wallenberg, if there is one man who doesn't have a paper, I kill him on the spot." </sentence><sentence id="1548">And Raoul looks at him and said, "That's fine. </sentence><sentence id="1549">You can kill him." </sentence><sentence id="1550">And from the 250, 249 already down, everybody had the paper and one give him eye contact with Raoul. </sentence><sentence id="1551">Was a doctor, and he is in this <span class="country">country</span> today. </sentence><sentence id="1552">And Raoul understand immediately. </sentence><sentence id="1553">He had no idea what the man's name is and he says, "Johnny, you left your paper at my <span class="spatial object">desk</span> again." </sentence><sentence id="1554">And he handed him a paper and off they went. </sentence><sentence id="1555">Yeah? </sentence><sentence id="1556">But he always -- he came up with stories that, that you wouldn't believe that anyone can do. </sentence><sentence id="1557">Now we had this <span class="building">hospital</span> already. </sentence><sentence id="1558">And also it was full of patients and also full of doctors and nurses, and it was cold. </sentence><sentence id="1559">It was already a very, very snowy day in the beginning of December, or end of November, and Raoul had one wonderful thing what I could never learn. </sentence><sentence id="1560">He remembered names, and once he had your name he would never forget. </sentence><sentence id="1561">I forget it in five minutes. </sentence><sentence id="1562">He never made a mistake, to call me Ava and somebody else Aggie. </sentence><sentence id="1563">He knew who was Aggie and he knew who was Ava. </sentence><sentence id="1564">No mistakes. </sentence><sentence id="1565">So what he wanted to do -- the Hungarian Nazi party, this horrible Arrow Cross, they had <span class="building">offices</span> in every section of the <span class="populated place">city</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1566">And he send out some little spy to learn every officer's name to be sure that he gets the right people. </sentence><sentence id="1567">And he never forgot those names, and he knew which one in which <span class="region">section</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1568">One day he comes to the <span class="building">hospital</span> in this horrible snow and he was unshaven and probably hungry. </sentence><sentence id="1569">Who knows where he was, saving people. </sentence><sentence id="1570">And he comes in and he finds three little Hungarian punks. </sentence><sentence id="1571">I mean punks because they were 12 and 13 year old analphabets, but they gave them the gun and they said, "Kill." </sentence><sentence id="1572">If you tell that to a 12 year old, "Kill, then you won't get punished for it." </sentence><sentence id="1573">Why not? </sentence><sentence id="1574">So here they stand with the gun and the doctor's hand is up and the patients are shaking and Raoul --I was there, it so happened on that day -- and Raoul had to think very fast, and he hit these three kids. </sentence><sentence id="1575">I've never seen anybody hitting so strong. </sentence><sentence id="1576">Then he doesn't speak Hungarian. </sentence><sentence id="1577">Only a few words, and somehow he managed to tell them in half German and half Hungarian, "Get out of here. </sentence><sentence id="1578">You are in a <span class="region">Swedish territory</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1579">And, of course, the <span class="spatial object">guns</span> fell to the <span class="interior space">floor</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1580">So we had three guns in no time. </sentence><sentence id="1581">And he said, "Get your officers in here." </sentence><sentence id="1582">These three boys ran out. </sentence><sentence id="1583">I mean, they were little kids and they were frightened because he was just powerful. </sentence><sentence id="1584">In three minutes, an officer walks in, a Hungarian, and they all spoke some German. </sentence><sentence id="1585">And our Raoul as quiet as nothing happened, looked at his watch and says, "Simon, what took you three minutes to get here?" </sentence><sentence id="1586">And the guy looks up and says, "How'd you know my name, Mr. Wallenberg?" </sentence><sentence id="1587">He knew. </sentence><sentence id="1588">And Raoul pushed up his shoulders and he said, "I know everybody's name and besides you are in big trouble." </sentence><sentence id="1589">He says, "I am not in trouble. </sentence><sentence id="1590">You are." </sentence><sentence id="1591">He says, "No, you are because by mistake you killed a Gestapo officer, and they're looking for you." " </sentence><sentence id="1592">No, I never killed anyone." " </sentence><sentence id="1593">Yes, you did. </sentence><sentence id="1594">He died here in our <span class="building">hospital</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1595">And before he died, he asked us to call the <span class="building">headquarters</span> and your name is up at the <span class="building">headquarters</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1596">They're killing you. </sentence><sentence id="1597">So get out and bring me what I ask you. </sentence><sentence id="1598">Medication! </sentence><sentence id="1599">And maybe I will help you." </sentence><sentence id="1600">Without a word the guy ran out. </sentence><sentence id="1601">And all of us looked at Raoul, you know, and the doctor start laughing. </sentence><sentence id="1602">He says, "Raoul, what the hell did you just do?" </sentence><sentence id="1603">And Raoul says, "Nothing. </sentence><sentence id="1604">Nothing." </sentence><sentence id="1605">He said, "How did you know it was Simon." </sentence><sentence id="1606">He said, "I didn't know he was Simon, but that's the name of the officer there and we were lucky. </sentence><sentence id="1607">It was Simon." </sentence><sentence id="1608">And then the doctor looked at him again and he says, "Raoul, I never had a Gestapo officer here dying." </sentence><sentence id="1609">He said, "Naturally not, but he killed so many people one of them could have been." </sentence><sentence id="1610">You see, now that was the way he saved. </sentence><sentence id="1611">It could have been a trouble for him at all times. </sentence><sentence id="1612">He did the same thing when he saved 70,000 people. </sentence><sentence id="1613">We had a <span class="populated place">ghetto</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1614">A real <span class="populated place">ghetto</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1615">And that was just about on the end when the Russians were already outside the outskirts of <span class="populated place">Budapest</span> and Eichmann laughed many times, "Kill everybody," and they put up the guns. </sentence><sentence id="1616">Now by that time, we had quite a few Nazis who wanted to save their life and the Hungarian Arrow Cross and they helped Raoul and one of them came to him one day and he said, "Go immediately. </sentence><sentence id="1617">Eichmann put up the bombs, and they're going to kill the 70,000 people." </sentence><sentence id="1618">And Raoul says very quietly, "Oh, gosh and just our two <span class="building">Red Cross</span> girls are in there delivering medicine and food." </sentence><sentence id="1619">He says, "Get back to your <span class="building">headquarters</span> and tell them that the Germans called off the killing." </sentence><sentence id="1620">And now it's not like in the film. </sentence><sentence id="1621">In the film, he went himself to them. </sentence><sentence id="1622">But it's not so. </sentence><sentence id="1623">We were all in the <span class="building">office</span> and like a little child he says, "Now, listen to what I'm going to do." </sentence><sentence id="1624">He picks up the phone and with his gorgeous German, he calls the <span class="building">headquarters</span>, and he said, "This is Lieutenant Krauss(ph)." </sentence><sentence id="1625">Okay? " </sentence><sentence id="1626">I want to talk to" --I think <span class="building">Veesenmayer</span>! </sentence><sentence id="1627">> was the General's name. </sentence><sentence id="1628">I can't remember it. </sentence><sentence id="1629">And in the meantime, he constantly looks at us, you know, and we all started laughing because he just made a joke. </sentence><sentence id="1630">And when the General came to the <span class="spatial object">phone</span>, he said, "This is <span class="populated place">Wallenberg</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1631">Of course, he couldn't hang up on him. </sentence><sentence id="1632">And he said, "I really astonished what you are doing. </sentence><sentence id="1633">I understand you are a very highly decorated First World Officer. </sentence><sentence id="1634">How can you take it on your conscious to kill 70,000 innocent people, plus my two Swedish girls who are in there now?" </sentence><sentence id="1635">Whereby he must have answered, "Eichmann ordered," because our Raoul said, "Eichmann? </sentence><sentence id="1636">Didn't you know he left <span class="populated place">town</span>? </sentence><sentence id="1637">I had lunch with him yesterday." </sentence><sentence id="1638">That was a complete lie. </sentence><sentence id="1639">Now you can imagine. </sentence><sentence id="1640">Eichmann could have stood right beside that general, but he has to risk it because there were 70,000 people's lives on the <span class="dlf">line</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1641">Whereby he answered, "I didn't know." </sentence><sentence id="1642">He said, "Alright. </sentence><sentence id="1643">Then, I order you to call off the killing, because if not then I as a diplomat promise you that you will be hanged before your officers." </sentence><sentence id="1644">He hung up. </sentence><sentence id="1645">In two minutes, he called off the killing. </sentence><sentence id="1646">And we have quite a few old people today like that who came to this <span class="country">country</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1647">They didn't know until today who saved them. </sentence><sentence id="1648">So you see, his life was all -- what he was there. </sentence><sentence id="1649">He was lying. </sentence><sentence id="1650">He was cheating. </sentence><sentence id="1651">He was bribing. </sentence><sentence id="1652">But that was the only way. </sentence><sentence id="1653">He did millions of things. </sentence><sentence id="1654">I mean by that time we had our guns too and he dressed his boys up. </sentence><sentence id="1655">They took -- the <span class="spatial object">Arrow Cross</span> came in and took people out of our <span class="building">safe houses</span> through the <span class="interior space">basement</span> and they went. </sentence><sentence id="1656">So Raoul turned to our young boys and he said, "You have the Nazi uniforms." " </sentence><sentence id="1657">Yeah." " </sentence><sentence id="1658">Get dressed. </sentence><sentence id="1659">Get dressed." " </sentence><sentence id="1660">Where we going?" </sentence><sentence id="1661">He said, "You're going after them and bring them back." </sentence><sentence id="1662">Three or four boys went screaming at the German. </sentence><sentence id="1663">They all spoke German, and they said, "We have to take them to the <span class="building">Headquarters</span>." " </sentence><sentence id="1664">No, we have to take them. </sentence><sentence id="1665">You have phony papers." </sentence><sentence id="1666">And the Germans said, "No, I don't have." " </sentence><sentence id="1667">Yes, that's a phony papers." </sentence><sentence id="1668">Took it from him. " </sentence><sentence id="1669">Turn around. </sentence><sentence id="1670">We go." </sentence><sentence id="1671">So these poor people, they didn't know where they going and then finally, one of these little Hungarian came up to somebody and says, "Don't worry. </sentence><sentence id="1672">We are the Wallenberg people." </sentence><sentence id="1673">And they took them all back. </sentence><sentence id="1674">Now we had phony papers. </sentence><sentence id="1675">We had real papers, too. </sentence><sentence id="1676">But you see this -- you have to do everything so 1S <span class="building">Edmund Veesenmayer</span> fast. </sentence><sentence id="1677">Now, it was not always easy. </sentence><sentence id="1678">His big, big heartbreak was when he had an <span class="building">orphanage</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1679">He had two <span class="building">orphanages</span> but in the one, we had 79 children. </sentence><sentence id="1680">And, of course, Raoul visits there bombing time and he picked up those crying kids and he would start making animal noises and telling them stories just to calm them down. </sentence><sentence id="1681">And the kids were talking, laughing and forgot that the bombs were falling like crazy because that was Raoul. </sentence><sentence id="1682">And he visited them as much as he could. </sentence><sentence id="1683">Not every day because he had to go out to the <span class="dlf">Austrian border</span> and who knows where. </sentence><sentence id="1684">But he came to the children as much as he could, always with candies in his pockets and with just to make the kids happy. </sentence><sentence id="1685">He was a clown without the nose and everything, you know. </sentence><sentence id="1686">And one day he arrived and found the children all dead. </sentence><sentence id="1687">We found out from the guard -- was a young boy, who was also shot, but thank God it went in his shoulder, so he could tell the story. </sentence><sentence id="1688">They came in. </sentence><sentence id="1689">Young, young, young, 13, 14 year old kids and started to just shoot the kids. </sentence><sentence id="1690">One little boy went under a <span class="spatial object">chair</span> because his mother taught him before they parted and he thought his mother was dead and Raoul found the little boy walking on the <span class="dlf">street</span> and said to him, "Whenever you get in trouble, get under a <span class="spatial object">chair</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1691">And these damn Hungarians were so busy shooting, they didn't even look under the <span class="spatial object">chair</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1692">Just kill the kids. </sentence><sentence id="1693">And one more was saved, because she had scarlet fever and Raoul got her some Christian papers and she was in a <span class="building">hospital</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1694">So those two kids were saved. </sentence><sentence id="1695">The rest of it were all dead. </sentence><sentence id="1696">They just killed them for fun!And this was the only time I ever seen Raoul Wallenberg down on his knees crying, bitterly crying. </sentence><sentence id="1697">For about 10 minutes, he couldn't get to himself because killing children, that was more than he could take. </sentence><sentence id="1698">And then suddenly he got up, and he was again like seven foot tall, and said, "We're not going to stop fighting. </sentence><sentence id="1699">I want to save this <span class="country">nation</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1700">I want the children to make peace in this world." </sentence><sentence id="1701">And he went on fighting. </sentence><sentence id="1702">And it must have hurt him so badly. </sentence><sentence id="1703">And I do hope you will have a chance once to invite that wonderful young lady who has been saved because of scarlet fever. </sentence><sentence id="1704">Twice she was saved by Raoul, and she is now teaching in <span class="building">Mercer College</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1705">She's teaching humanities and languages. </sentence><sentence id="1706">And you should have her. </sentence><sentence id="1707">I will give you the address after. </sentence><sentence id="1708">She's a marvelous person. </sentence><sentence id="1709">So in any case this was the two people. </sentence><sentence id="1710">And then Raoul was out again, when we heard that they shooting people into the <span class="env feature">Danube River</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1711">And it was December, just before Christmas. </sentence><sentence id="1712">And what the Hungarians did -- it was no snow -- it was a no stars, only heavy snowing and the <span class="env feature">Danube</span>, the first time in 40 years was really frozen with huge icicles. </sentence><sentence id="1713">And they thought this is the best time to kill people because nobody will look for them and in the dark and they were cowards these, these Hungarian Nazi men. </sentence><sentence id="1714">But Eichmann said, "Do it." </sentence><sentence id="1715">So what they did, they roped three people together and then they shot the middle one and, of course, all three of them fell in and died. </sentence><sentence id="1716">Some of them, I understand, swam out somehow and survived. </sentence><sentence id="1717">But Raoul arrived <span class="building">home</span> the third day to hear about that from wherever he was, and he was beside himself. " </sentence><sentence id="1718">What will Eichmann do next? </sentence><sentence id="1719">How can they do that to human beings?" </sentence><sentence id="1720">And this was the first time he turned to us and asked, "How many of you can swim?" </sentence><sentence id="1721">I was the only one with three other diplomats, men, who put up my hand. </sentence><sentence id="1722">I said, "I was taught swimming in <span class="building">school</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1723">Let's go." </sentence><sentence id="1724">I had no idea where we're going. </sentence><sentence id="1725">So we went with our <span class="spatial object">trucks</span> on the other <span class="region">side</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1726">We knew where they were shooting on the right, and on the left. </sentence><sentence id="1727">We turned off the <span class="spatial object">motors</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1728">We had hot soup and change of clothes and we were standing at the <span class="interior space">cave</span>, and every time we had to synchronize. </sentence><sentence id="1729">When they shot we had to fall in too, so that the splash goes at the same time. </sentence><sentence id="1730">Not that the Hungarians had time to listen because they were so busy. </sentence><sentence id="1731">They were afraid they would be caught. </sentence><sentence id="1732">So we -- when they fell we jumped and thanks to the icicles the rope hang on to the <span class="env feature">ice</span>, and we knew where there is a rope, there is a body. </sentence><sentence id="1733">And we started to pull them out and then the nurses and the doctors were there, put them in, changed them. </sentence><sentence id="1734">Fifty people we saved -- what is nothing. </sentence><sentence id="1735">But it's more than if we had no Raoul Wallenberg. </sentence><sentence id="1736">We couldn't do more because we were all frozen so stiff that we couldn't move anymore. </sentence><sentence id="1737">And then that was over and then we had one more big thing. </sentence><sentence id="1738">When they advertised -- the "lovely" Germans -- that all the women between the age of 15 and 25 should go to such and such a <span class="building">palace</span> next morning to clean up <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>, we knew again that they will take them right out of the <span class="country">country</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1739">So Raoul again turned to his 350 people and he said, "You all have young friends and sisters and so on, so we got the pictures and we were working in the <span class="region">Buda side</span> in a beautiful <span class="building">villa</span> because as I told you we always had to move our <span class="building">offices</span> and Danielsson was sitting there, the Minister, signed each one of these <span class="dlf">passes</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1740">And there was a curfew. </sentence><sentence id="1741">No one, no Jews, no Christians, nobody was allowed out on the <span class="dlf">street</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1742">But what was so amazing that it was a most beautiful, moonlit night, cold like ice, but moonlit. </sentence><sentence id="1743">Why they didn't bomb us, nobody knows. </sentence><sentence id="1744">Why they didn't come on that night. </sentence><sentence id="1745">Maybe they knew about this stuff, and they didn't. </sentence><sentence id="1746">We don't know. </sentence><sentence id="1747">The CIA!(r) must have been very good and the <span class="building">Scotland Yard</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1748">They didn't come. </sentence><sentence id="1749">And suddenly Raoul arrived around midnight. </sentence><sentence id="1750">Again, he looked hungry and tired and unshaven, but he said, "Are you all finished because by two o'clock we have to deliver all these passes?" </sentence><sentence id="1751">And so we said, "Yeah." </sentence><sentence id="1752">And then he told us quickly a joke. </sentence><sentence id="1753">He said, "I don't want you to look up, but I want you to know that we have new neighbors in the next <span class="building">villa</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1754">And naturally we all looked up. </sentence><sentence id="1755">He says, "Don't look up. </sentence><sentence id="1756">Just work. </sentence><sentence id="1757">It's only the <span class="building">German Headquarters</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1758">And he did like he didn't care. </sentence><sentence id="1759">If Raoul doesn't care if the German has <span class="building">headquarters</span>, why should we, you know? </sentence><sentence id="1760">I mean it was crazy. </sentence><sentence id="1761">We were taken over by his strength. </sentence><sentence id="1762">And it was really a feeling, "If he can do it, then we should help him with everything." </sentence><sentence id="1763">So I was the lucky one who was first ready with about 500 of his papers and I -- he embarrass -- embraced me and he said, "Be careful." </sentence><sentence id="1764">And I said, "Yes Sir, I will." </sentence><sentence id="1765">And I left. </sentence><sentence id="1766">And I remember there was no one around. </sentence><sentence id="1767">I went with the curfew. </sentence><sentence id="1768">And I walked across the <span class="dlf">bridge</span> to <span class="populated place">Pest</span> because all my people were on the <span class="region">Pest side</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1769">And it was a very emotional going because I had to ring some door bells and some friends of mine came to the <span class="dlf">door</span> and they said, "Aggie, what you doing out?" </sentence><sentence id="1770">I said, "Please don't ask. </sentence><sentence id="1771">Don't ask. </sentence><sentence id="1772">16 <span class="building">Central Intelligence Agency</span> Just take this. </sentence><sentence id="1773">An angel sent it to you." </sentence><sentence id="1774">And we kissed and cried and I went on delivering all 500. </sentence><sentence id="1775">All I heard is my footstep on the <span class="env feature">snow</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1776">But no bombing. </sentence><sentence id="1777">Nobody. </sentence><sentence id="1778">So I went <span class="building">home</span> and finally I sit down on my <span class="spatial object">bed</span> and then it dawned to me what I just done. </sentence><sentence id="1779">And I said to myself, "Are you crazy? </sentence><sentence id="1780">You could have been killed." </sentence><sentence id="1781">Then like Raoul Wallenberg would say, "Get killed? </sentence><sentence id="1782">No way. </sentence><sentence id="1783">Because the Hungarians and the Germans, they're cowards. </sentence><sentence id="1784">They wouldn't be daring to be outside in a curfew." </sentence><sentence id="1785">And I went to sleep with nothing. </sentence><sentence id="1786">I woke up at six o'clock in the morning that my two girlfriends were thrown out of the <span class="populated place">camp</span> because of the pass. </sentence><sentence id="1787">And they ran all the way to our <span class="building">house</span> because they -- actually they spoke more German than Hungarian because they were from <span class="populated place">Berlin</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1788">But the German officer picked up their German and said something very ugly to them in German what they can do with the paper. </sentence><sentence id="1789">But the kids made one look at him and they turned around and started to run and he never shot after them. </sentence><sentence id="1790">He let them run. </sentence><sentence id="1791">So the paper had a big "something." </sentence><sentence id="1792">We don't know what Raoul did really. </sentence><sentence id="1793">If you read a few books now, you can put it together what really happened and what he did. </sentence><sentence id="1794">But it was amazing. </sentence><sentence id="1795">So my two girls friend are actually in this <span class="country">country</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1796">They are grandmothers, both of them. </sentence><sentence id="1797">But they lived. </sentence><sentence id="1798">Okay? </sentence><sentence id="1799">So it is incredible the things he has done. </sentence><sentence id="1800">And then that was already Christmastime. </sentence><sentence id="1801">I have never seen him again, because I got sick. </sentence><sentence id="1802">Maybe it was partly the <span class="env feature">Danube</span>, a little bit cold, but it was worthwhile. </sentence><sentence id="1803">And we only found out after that evidently I had a nervous breakdown. </sentence><sentence id="1804">But it didn't come out only in the afternoon when I got a bit excited. </sentence><sentence id="1805"><span class="country">Iran</span> a big fever and there were no doctors to get. </sentence><sentence id="1806">They were either hiding or being out on the front or they were Nazis. </sentence><sentence id="1807">But my super said he will find me one. </sentence><sentence id="1808">And he came to the <span class="building">house</span> and he said, "Ach, just a little cold." </sentence><sentence id="1809">And that is not funny. </sentence><sentence id="1810">It was a needle what you give for animals, but neither my mother or me knew to, and he said, "I give her sulfa." </sentence><sentence id="1811">And very smilingly, he gave me the sulfa, and five minutes after he left, I was in a deep coma. </sentence><sentence id="1812">And my mother was in a panic and the <span class="spatial object">phones</span> still worked, so she called there. </sentence><sentence id="1813">The super promised me that one of these days he'd get rid of me, but it didn't work yet. </sentence><sentence id="1814">He tried it once more. </sentence><sentence id="1815">Anyway, Mother called a friend and the friend found a doctor. </sentence><sentence id="1816">And the doctor came and he asked my mother what happened and Mommy said, "He left --I don't know what happened. </sentence><sentence id="1817">He left a <span class="spatial object">needle</span> there." </sentence><sentence id="1818">And he says, "Oh, my God. </sentence><sentence id="1819">He poisoned that child. </sentence><sentence id="1820">This is for an animal. </sentence><sentence id="1821">You don't give that to people." </sentence><sentence id="1822">Somehow they found an anti-whatever. </sentence><sentence id="1823">So it took a --I got back. </sentence><sentence id="1824">My mind stayed alright except I had jaundice. </sentence><sentence id="1825">So I was incapacitated. </sentence><sentence id="1826">I couldn't get out. </sentence><sentence id="1827">I never saw Raoul again, unfortunately. </sentence><sentence id="1828">That was my end. </sentence><sentence id="1829">And then the bombing really became so big and the <span class="dlf">bridges</span> disappeared so we could not go. </sentence><sentence id="1830">And that was "part one" of this little life there -- very exciting life. </sentence><sentence id="1831">And then the Soviet arrived. </sentence><sentence id="1832">And it wasn't better at all than the Nazis. </sentence><sentence id="1833">If it's possible, it was even worse. </sentence><sentence id="1834">Because they just picked people up from the <span class="dlf">streets</span> -- never mind who it was -- and shipped them right off to <span class="country">Siberia</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1835">The officers arrived in <span class="spatial object">American tanks</span> and American boots. </sentence><sentence id="1836">The soldiers came all the way from <span class="region">Siberia</span> barefoot. </sentence><sentence id="1837">They were hungry. </sentence><sentence id="1838">They attacked old women, young women. </sentence><sentence id="1839">They only ones they saved were children. </sentence><sentence id="1840">They loved children. </sentence><sentence id="1841">They washed their face in the <span class="spatial object">toilet</span>, and they made their business in the <span class="spatial object">bathtub</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1842">We couldn't believe it that they were that primitive. </sentence><sentence id="1843">Some of them stole the <span class="spatial object">watches</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1844">They had watches from here to here, and they came up to you and say, "tick tock, tick tock." </sentence><sentence id="1845">It was incredible. </sentence><sentence id="1846">So it was not much better as what it was. </sentence><sentence id="1847">And I had no idea what happened on the other side, what happened to the <span class="dlf">legation</span> until one day on a <span class="spatial object">boat</span> over came one of our lawyers who was a <span class="country">Czechoslovakian</span> who worked with Raoul and he didn't tell me that Raoul disappeared by himself. </sentence><sentence id="1848">He didn't say anything. </sentence><sentence id="1849">He just said that the whole <span class="dlf">legation</span> has been taken. </sentence><sentence id="1850">And I assumed that Raoul was with them. </sentence><sentence id="1851">I knew nothing. </sentence><sentence id="1852">And I said, "Where did they take them." </sentence><sentence id="1853">And he said, "<span class="populated place">Debrecen</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1854"><span class="populated place">Debrecen</span> was the <span class="building">headquarters</span> of the Russians. </sentence><sentence id="1855">And he said, "Do you want to help them?" </sentence><sentence id="1856">And I looked at him and I said, "Yeah. </sentence><sentence id="1857">How could I help?" </sentence><sentence id="1858">You know I was all excited. </sentence><sentence id="1859">And he said, "Well, you have to go to <span class="populated place">Rumania</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1860">And my parents right away, "No, she's not going anywhere." </sentence><sentence id="1861">I said, "Wait, Mommy. </sentence><sentence id="1862">Let Paul!" </sentence><sentence id="1863">tell me what he wants." </sentence><sentence id="1864">I said, "Why <span class="populated place">Rumania</span>?" </sentence><sentence id="1865">He said, "Because <span class="populated place">Rumania</span> is already occupied by French, British, Russian, and Hungarian, and that is the only available <span class="building">embassy</span>, <span class="building">Swedish embassy</span> in the whole <span class="region">Balkan</span>, and somebody has to go there and ask that Ambassador to help this one." </sentence><sentence id="1866">And I said, "Can I go? </sentence><sentence id="1867">How?" </sentence><sentence id="1868">He said, "Well, it's very easy because the Rumanians are now allowed to repatriate. </sentence><sentence id="1869">So if you became a Swede legally, now you can become an illegal Rumanian. </sentence><sentence id="1870">Just don't open your mouth because you don't speak Rumanian." </sentence><sentence id="1871">| said, "Well, that's great." </sentence><sentence id="1872">So my parents were very much, "No. </sentence><sentence id="1873">No. </sentence><sentence id="1874">No." </sentence><sentence id="1875">I said, "Mommy and Poppy, the Swedish government saved us. </sentence><sentence id="1876">At least what I can do, save them and Raoul. </sentence><sentence id="1877">I mean what they have done for all of us." </sentence><sentence id="1878">So they knew that I have a hard neck and anything they will tell me, I will say, "No." </sentence><sentence id="1879">So they -- Paul said, "I'll come back in a couple of days, bring you the papers." </sentence><sentence id="1880">Now how you get there? </sentence><sentence id="1881">We had the same <span class="spatial object">wagons</span> as we had to deport the Jews. </sentence><sentence id="1882">And we were -- I was told by a few people that some people are disappearing middle of the trip by the Russians. </sentence><sentence id="1883">They take them to <span class="region">Siberia</span> or they're ship back to <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>. " </sentence><sentence id="1884">Do you still want to do it?" </sentence><sentence id="1885">I said, "Yes." </sentence><sentence id="1886">What else can you say? </sentence><sentence id="1887">You have to try. </sentence><sentence id="1888">So I had a knapsack, and Thad a fur coat, what was my only warm stuff I had. </sentence><sentence id="1889">And I had slacks and we had ski shoes what was on me for four months because it was so cold and we always went down to the <span class="interior space">basement</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1890">And it took us 12 hours before we even left the <span class="building">station</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1891">And you didn't know who the other people were. </sentence><sentence id="1892">You knew nothing. </sentence><sentence id="1893">But in a little while everybody warmed up. </sentence><sentence id="1894">Everybody was hungry, so everybody came out with a little food so at least we had eaten. </sentence><sentence id="1895">But after six hours of trip they suddenly stopped. </sentence><sentence id="1896">They said, "Something wrong with the <span class="spatial object">train</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1897">Get out." </sentence><sentence id="1898">We didn't know where we were and again this feeling, "Oops, we can be picked up by the Soviets now. </sentence><sentence id="1899">What happened?" </sentence><sentence id="1900">But we were taken to 7 <span class="populated place">Paul Hegediis</span> a <span class="building">school</span> and we slept in that <span class="building">school</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1901">There was <span class="interior space">room</span> on the <span class="interior space">floor</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1902">It was cold, but somehow when 30, 40 people sleep in one <span class="interior space">room</span>, you don't even feel the cold anymore. </sentence><sentence id="1903">You were all dressed. </sentence><sentence id="1904">And we were waken up in the morning that we're going on to <span class="populated place">Rumania</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1905">And there were very lovely Rumanian soldiers up there and they spoke a little Hungarian and German. </sentence><sentence id="1906">And they explained to us that when we come to the front -- <span class="dlf">frontier</span> that Russian soldiers will come. </sentence><sentence id="1907">And we were in a <span class="spatial object">wagon</span> with a lot of hay. </sentence><sentence id="1908">He says, "I would like you to all go under the <span class="env feature">hay</span> somehow and not a word. </sentence><sentence id="1909">Please try not to cough. </sentence><sentence id="1910">Try not to sneeze. </sentence><sentence id="1911">Usually the Russians are drunk, but they will come in with the spotlight. </sentence><sentence id="1912">And Good luck. </sentence><sentence id="1913">We have to leave you on your own. </sentence><sentence id="1914">And let's hope that you all make it in to <span class="populated place">Rumania</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1915">So we did that and sure enough, we could hear them coming.singing along. </sentence><sentence id="1916">And they opened this heavy <span class="dlf">door</span> and they skimmed through and nobody coughed. </sentence><sentence id="1917">Thank God! </sentence><sentence id="1918">And they closed the <span class="dlf">door</span> and we started to move and we couldn't believe we were in <span class="populated place">Rumania</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1919">Now, we arrived in a very small <span class="populated place">town</span> where I had two wonderful girlfriends. </sentence><sentence id="1920">One of them was a baroness who was a great philanthropist, and I was hoping that she lived through all this and she did. </sentence><sentence id="1921">And the other one was a girl who went to our famous Liszt!(r) <span class="building">Academy of Music</span> and she lived in our <span class="building">house</span> and then she went back. " </sentence><sentence id="1922">Maybe in <span class="populated place">Rumania</span> there won't be any war," so she goes <span class="building">home</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1923">She lived too. </sentence><sentence id="1924">And that's a long story I don't want to get in. </sentence><sentence id="1925">Anyhow, I met each of them, and then I told my friend, Marika," that I have to go to <span class="populated place">Bucharest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1926">And she said, "Why?" </sentence><sentence id="1927">I said, "I can't tell you." </sentence><sentence id="1928">She said, "Well, I know you well enough. </sentence><sentence id="1929">If you can't tell me, there must be a good reason." </sentence><sentence id="1930">But nobody's allowed to go on, only in official capacity on these <span class="spatial object">trains</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1931">I said, "Could you find some official reason?" </sentence><sentence id="1932">She said, "I will." </sentence><sentence id="1933">The next day I got my police whatever it was, to get to <span class="populated place">Bucharest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1934">First class. </sentence><sentence id="1935">Two Russian officers. </sentence><sentence id="1936">And my stomach went down. </sentence><sentence id="1937">Both of them looking at me. </sentence><sentence id="1938">One of them picks up the vodka, says in Russian to me, "Drink." </sentence><sentence id="1939">And I said, "No." </sentence><sentence id="1940">And he looks at me again, "Drink!" </sentence><sentence id="1941">He took it to my <span class="dlf">mouth</span> and I let it run. </sentence><sentence id="1942">I was scared. </sentence><sentence id="1943">I said, "Now, for that I came out. </sentence><sentence id="1944">Now I'm going to be raped or who knows?" </sentence><sentence id="1945">I was frightened. </sentence><sentence id="1946">So the one suddenly started to -- "You speak German." </sentence><sentence id="1947">And I said, "Yes." </sentence><sentence id="1948">I said, "Uh-oh, now <span class="building">inquisition</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1949">Maybe he's thinking I'm a Nazi or something." </sentence><sentence id="1950">So they asked questions here and there in German. </sentence><sentence id="1951">And he said, "Are you Romanian?" </sentence><sentence id="1952">| said, "Yeah. </sentence><sentence id="1953">But I lived in <span class="country">Hungary</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1954">He said, "What you going to do." " </sentence><sentence id="1955">I'm going to teach." </sentence><sentence id="1956">Come out of my mind you know. </sentence><sentence id="1957">In the meantime, the other one is still looking at me. </sentence><sentence id="1958">Finally, we come to <span class="populated place">Sinaia</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1959">That was a stop. </sentence><sentence id="1960">And I said, "I have to get off for fresh air." </sentence><sentence id="1961">They let me go. </sentence><sentence id="1962">And I come back, they were not there. </sentence><sentence id="1963">The two coats were there. </sentence><sentence id="1964">No officers. </sentence><sentence id="1965">So we were already moving and they still were not there. </sentence><sentence id="1966">Suddenly, I see them coming, looking around and jumping in, closed the <span class="dlf">door</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1967">So inside, something told me that these are not just bad Russian officers. </sentence><sentence id="1968">There must be something, but I didn't ask. </sentence><sentence id="1969">I didn't talk. </sentence><sentence id="1970">Suddenly, the one in German started to talk to me again. " </sentence><sentence id="1971">8 Franz Liszt "deg Baroness Marika von Neumann Said, "Are you Jewish?" </sentence><sentence id="1972">I said, "Yes." </sentence><sentence id="1973">He said, "So am I." And, you know, I look at him again. </sentence><sentence id="1974">I said, "What you doing?" </sentence><sentence id="1975">He said, "We are dissidents." </sentence><sentence id="1976">So but I still didn't tell them who I really was. </sentence><sentence id="1977">And he said, "We are trying to go to <span class="country">Israel</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1978">My friend doesn't speak a word other. </sentence><sentence id="1979">He's Christian. </sentence><sentence id="1980">He's from, from <span class="populated place">Stalingrad</span>" -- or I don't know where -- no, from <span class="populated place">Kiev</span> and he was from <span class="populated place">Odessa</span>, and they are friends. </sentence><sentence id="1981">And he's a writer, the other one and this is a doctor. </sentence><sentence id="1982">And he said, "We are trying to go to <span class="country">Israel</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1983">And we are going to <span class="populated place">Rumania</span> now. </sentence><sentence id="1984">We don't know now, how, -- what. </sentence><sentence id="1985">Can we help you something there?" </sentence><sentence id="1986">I said, "Yes, I will need a job. </sentence><sentence id="1987">He said, "We know everybody at the <span class="building">Joint</span>." </sentence><sentence id="1988">So I-- you know, I mean, it was incredible. </sentence><sentence id="1989">So we arrived there and they helped my parents a lot. </sentence><sentence id="1990">They went back to <span class="country">Hungary</span> and helped my parents and then when my parents finally came out, they helped them through <span class="country">Czechoslovakia</span> and my two girlfriends" mother. </sentence><sentence id="1991">So they were very helpful. </sentence><sentence id="1992">I don't know what happened to them. </sentence><sentence id="1993">I have no idea if they ever found them or if they ever made it to <span class="country">Israel</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1994">I have no idea. </sentence><sentence id="1995">But it was a very interesting meeting and a couple of times we met in <span class="populated place">Bucharest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="1996">And they knew by that time that -- but they didn't know who Raoul Wallenberg was. </sentence><sentence id="1997">I told them the whole story why I'm there. </sentence><sentence id="1998">And the one of them -- they said that "We have written a book and I wish you could take it with you." </sentence><sentence id="1999">And I was very excited and I thought that was a fantastic thing because finally the <span class="region">outside world</span> will know because they have written exactly how bad the life is during Communism and that only the top Communists had everything. </sentence><sentence id="2000">They can go on travels and they have food and the people just dying around them from hunger. </sentence><sentence id="2001">So it would have been a terrific book to take with me. </sentence><sentence id="2002">But we hadn't left <span class="populated place">Bucharest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2003">That's why. </sentence><sentence id="2004">Finally, I was in <span class="populated place">Bucharest</span> and they helped me to get a very small job that I am enjoying, but they got me a <span class="interior space">room</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2005">And next day I hailed a <span class="spatial object">cab</span> to go to the <span class="building">embassy</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2006">And the taxi driver also spoke German and Hungarian and he asked me why I am there. " </sentence><sentence id="2007">Are you Jewish? </sentence><sentence id="2008">And I said, "Yes." " </sentence><sentence id="2009">So am I." And so we were talking for a little while and he said, "It's a very dangerous place where we're going." </sentence><sentence id="2010">I said, "Why?" </sentence><sentence id="2011">He said, "Because the <span class="building">Russian Embassy</span> is just beside the Swedish one." </sentence><sentence id="2012">It's a gorgeous, gorgeous <span class="dlf">avenue</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2013">Beautiful, with all very rich people who used to live there. </sentence><sentence id="2014">And I said, "Thank you." </sentence><sentence id="2015">He said, "I'll pick you up again." </sentence><sentence id="2016">I said, "No, that's not necessary. </sentence><sentence id="2017">I'll get <span class="building">home</span>." " </sentence><sentence id="2018">No. </sentence><sentence id="2019">No. </sentence><sentence id="2020">I will come." </sentence><sentence id="2021">Alright. </sentence><sentence id="2022">So anyway, I walk in and there's a secretary and she says, "Why -- what do you want from the Ambassador." </sentence><sentence id="2023">And I said, "I'm sorry. </sentence><sentence id="2024">I can't tell you." </sentence><sentence id="2025">And she wouldn't let me in and I sat there "til four o'clock and so in the end she got so tired of me. </sentence><sentence id="2026">She says, "Look, I think you can go in now." </sentence><sentence id="2027">So when I went in and he looks at me and he says, "Why did you sit there all day and you didn't come in?" </sentence><sentence id="2028">And I said, "Could I have told her why I came?" </sentence><sentence id="2029">And he said, "No." </sentence><sentence id="2030">I said, "Well, now I'm here." </sentence><sentence id="2031">So it was so exciting because he had his <span class="spatial object">teletype machine</span> and they were looking for all the people that Paul gave me. </sentence><sentence id="2032">There was eight Swedes and all their families were looking for them and I could tell them, "Yes, they are alive." </sentence><sentence id="2033">And my fiance also was looking for me and I could tell him, "Here I am sitting with you." " </sentence><sentence id="2034">How did you get here?" </sentence><sentence id="2035">So I told him my wonderful trip. </sentence><sentence id="2036">He says, "Oh, boy. </sentence><sentence id="2037">You really made it. </sentence><sentence id="2038">Now, promise me one thing. </sentence><sentence id="2039">Don't carry Hungarian papers. </sentence><sentence id="2040">Don't carry Rumanian papers. </sentence><sentence id="2041">Carry nothing but your Swedish paper with you." </sentence><sentence id="2042">And he gave me a new this is what you have now is a new one, because the other one I don't even know what happened. </sentence><sentence id="2043">So that's all I carried with me. </sentence><sentence id="2044">And he said they want me to go with them when they out and I told him exactly where it is. </sentence><sentence id="2045">And in eight days the whole <span class="building">embassy</span>, minus Raoul Wallenberg was in <span class="populated place">Bucharest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2046">He helped. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
|
<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="2595">Q: Explain. </sentence><sentence id="2596">I lost something in there. </sentence><sentence id="2597">You -- how did you get the <span class="building">Embassy</span> people into <span class="populated place">Bucharest</span>. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
|
<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="2601">A: I didn't. </sentence><sentence id="2602">That was the <span class="building">Ambassador</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2603">But I told him where they are. </sentence><sentence id="2604">So that's why Paul, that lawyer said, "Go, and you're the only one who could help. </sentence><sentence id="2605">You have to talk to the Ambassador." </sentence><sentence id="2606">And what the Ambassador did I don't know. </sentence><sentence id="2607">But as soon as they arrived, of course, it was a big crying and laughing. </sentence><sentence id="2608">What else can you do you know. </sentence><sentence id="2609">We all asked, "Where is Raoul," and Per Anger said, "Don't worry about him. </sentence><sentence id="2610">You know he will come back." </sentence><sentence id="2611">He never did. </sentence><sentence id="2612">And then in about -- yeah, and they were very nice. </sentence><sentence id="2613">They said they're going to give me money every week. </sentence><sentence id="2614">Something to help me out. </sentence><sentence id="2615">But when I marry my fiance, then he will have to repay the whole thing to the government. </sentence><sentence id="2616">And I understood that. </sentence><sentence id="2617">I mean after all, they will take me with them. </sentence><sentence id="2618">So there were seven Swedes and I -- so eight of us, and they were the 12 <span class="building">Embassy</span> people. </sentence><sentence id="2619">Finally, we got a call. </sentence><sentence id="2620">We can leave and it was great excitement. </sentence><sentence id="2621">And we all went out. </sentence><sentence id="2622">The <span class="building">railway station</span> is in <span class="populated place">Ploesti</span>, the famous place where they bombed it. </sentence><sentence id="2623">And we were all there, and we were about to get on. </sentence><sentence id="2624">The <span class="building">Embassy</span> people were already on and suddenly the Russian said, "Nyet,?deg" for the other eight and we couldn't go. </sentence><sentence id="2625">So we were let down you know. </sentence><sentence id="2626">Thank God, my <span class="interior space">room</span> was not yet rented. </sentence><sentence id="2627">So I went back and we stayed together as much as we could and also I was told to be very careful because with the British and the French and the Russian and the Hungarians, I can be any day taken to a <span class="building">prison</span> and asked questions. </sentence><sentence id="2628">And sure enough, one day up comes a Rumanian. </sentence><sentence id="2629">And he says, "Papers." </sentence><sentence id="2630">And I smiled like I don't know what he's talking about. </sentence><sentence id="2631">He tried every language and I keep on smiling. </sentence><sentence id="2632">You know I didn't know what to do. </sentence><sentence id="2633">You know I said, "Now, should I get in trouble?" </sentence><sentence id="2634">So finally, he motioned me to get into the <span class="building">police station</span> and in the <span class="building">police station</span>, they also talk Rumanian only. </sentence><sentence id="2635">I gave the Swedish paper. </sentence><sentence id="2636">He didn't know what that was. </sentence><sentence id="2637">And then suddenly I asked for a pencil. </sentence><sentence id="2638">You know, I showed him and he gives me and I put down the <span class="building">Embassy</span>'s phone number. </sentence><sentence id="2639">In about half an hour, the Ambassador arrived. </sentence><sentence id="2640">He was gray in his face. </sentence><sentence id="2641">He was so frightened, you know? </sentence><sentence id="2642">And I was as quick thinking as Raoul. </sentence><sentence id="2643">I knew a few words of Swedish. </sentence><sentence id="2644">One was milk, that's "mjelk.?!" " </sentence><sentence id="2645">Tack s4 mycket""" 20 No (Russian) 21 Milk (Swedish) 2 Thank you (Swedish) means "thank-you," and "bred"3" is "bread." </sentence><sentence id="2646">And as he walked in, I started to throw these out at him, "Mjelk, tack sa mycket. </sentence><sentence id="2647">Bred, bred." </sentence><sentence id="2648">And I went over and over and I could see how his face started to relax, and he almost started to laugh. </sentence><sentence id="2649">And, of course, these Rumanians -- and he talked something in Swedish to me and I talked back again. " </sentence><sentence id="2650">Tack sa mycket," this and that. </sentence><sentence id="2651">So they just let me go. </sentence><sentence id="2652">And then we going out to the <span class="spatial object">car</span> and he says, "How did you come to that idea?" </sentence><sentence id="2653">I said, "I'm a Wallenberg girl. </sentence><sentence id="2654">Remember?" </sentence><sentence id="2655">I had to think fast. </sentence><sentence id="2656">You would have never been...." He was laughing all the way back you know. </sentence><sentence id="2657">He said, "This is most incredible." </sentence><sentence id="2658">I said, "What else could I have done? </sentence><sentence id="2659">They would have pushed me either to <span class="region">Siberia</span> or back to <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>." </sentence><sentence id="2660">So that was my whole knowledge of Swedish at that time. " </sentence><sentence id="2661">Thank you, milk, and bread." </sentence><sentence id="2662">But I got out from the <span class="building">jail</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2663">And then we were called again that now we can leave and that we be careful, because we will have a very, very great security and everything will be taken from us. </sentence><sentence id="2664">So my two Russian friends came, "Take the book," and I cowardly said, "I don't dare because I understand they're going to do it." </sentence><sentence id="2665">Said, "Well, we understand." </sentence><sentence id="2666">Not one thing was looked through. </sentence><sentence id="2667">We just went by. </sentence><sentence id="2668">But how do you know that before hand? </sentence><sentence id="2669">You don't. </sentence><sentence id="2670">And we went on a -- that was very interesting. </sentence><sentence id="2671">We went on a South American -- not South American -- <span class="spatial object">South African military plane</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2672">And the side -- we could only sit side -- this was the first time in my life I sat in an <span class="spatial object">airplane</span>, you know. </sentence><sentence id="2673">And we sat on the sides where the bombs used to be there. </sentence><sentence id="2674">And we had to fly to <span class="populated place">Bari</span>, what was the <span class="building">headquarters</span> of the British and the French and the Americans and the Indians and everybody. </sentence><sentence id="2675">And we were the eight Swedes, there was two Frenchmen, not my friends, but other two and there was two British. </sentence><sentence id="2676">One was a big fat man with a [inaudible] case and he was holding on to them and he looked at us so ugly because one of the ladies -- she was German, but she was the wife of a Swedish consul who died, she was a widow -- and she and me, we spoke German. </sentence><sentence id="2677">And what we didn't know that this man was from the <span class="building">Scotland Yard</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2678">No idea. </sentence><sentence id="2679">But he didn't like the German talking you know. </sentence><sentence id="2680">He thought this was Germans who were running away. </sentence><sentence id="2681">But we didn't know all this. </sentence><sentence id="2682">And we were in -- there was one young man who also, only after-- </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="2769">Q: We need to, we need to condense this a little bit. </sentence><sentence id="2770">Could you, could you just tell us when the <span class="spatial object">plane</span> arrived. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="2773">A: The <span class="spatial object">plane</span> arrived. </sentence><sentence id="2774">Okay. </sentence><sentence id="2775">The <span class="spatial object">plane</span> arrived. </sentence><sentence id="2776">You're right. </sentence><sentence id="2777">I'm sorry. </sentence><sentence id="2778">I open my big mouth. </sentence><sentence id="2779">We arrived to <span class="populated place">Bari</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2780">That was the <span class="building">military base</span> for the Americans and the British. </sentence><sentence id="2781">And we went first to the <span class="building">British headquarters</span> and they invited us to tea and they said that we are going into a <span class="building">hotel</span> because the Swedes are paid for it. </sentence><sentence id="2782">And we did not go in a <span class="building">hotel</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2783">We deg3 Bread (Swedish) went to a <span class="populated place">transit camp</span>. " </sentence><sentence id="2784">Number One," what was before for the Jews. </sentence><sentence id="2785">From there they took them to the <span class="interior space">gas chamber</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2786">Now it was for German prisoners, and for people whom they didn't know what to do with. </sentence><sentence id="2787">And it turns out that this man was from <span class="building">Scotland Yard</span> and when he heard us talking German, he made up his mind that we were Nazis running away. </sentence><sentence id="2788">We were four weeks in that place until they found us. </sentence><sentence id="2789">But, as you said, we have to condense. </sentence><sentence id="2790">I can't tell you. </sentence><sentence id="2791">We were there four weeks and it was most interesting, fascinating, all the things what happened. </sentence><sentence id="2792">Then we got word that we can go up to <span class="populated place">Rome</span>, and we got an American, wonderful American, young sergeant, who had a <span class="spatial object">truck</span> and he drove us through <span class="populated place">Monte Cassino</span>, and this I don't want to go in either. </sentence><sentence id="2793">And he was singing all the way, like Paul Robeson, you know, in a gorgeous voice. </sentence><sentence id="2794">He didn't sing in <span class="populated place">Monte Cassino</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2795">None of us could. </sentence><sentence id="2796">It was tragic there. </sentence><sentence id="2797">But anyhow, he took us to <span class="populated place">Rome</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2798">In <span class="populated place">Rome</span>, we were another month, and from <span class="populated place">Rome</span> we went, finally, to <span class="country">Switzerland</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2799">And from <span class="country">Switzerland</span>, the old ladies were taken on an <span class="spatial object">airplane</span> and the Ambassador's girlfriend who was a Hungarian Countess, she was flying there. </sentence><sentence id="2800">And almost everybody except the lady who spoke German and this one Hungarian I think it would be the inner- minister's son, whom we only found out after that he worked for the <span class="building">Scotland Yard</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2801">Didn't even know that. </sentence><sentence id="2802">Just he left to-- so only one man, another man whose wife was Swedish, and this lady and I we stayed. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="2835">Q: What happened to you at this point again very briefly. </sentence><sentence id="2836">What -- where did you go? </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="2839">A: Well, at this point, it was very exciting because I have a huge family there. </sentence><sentence id="2840">And all I wanted to tell them this marvelous story about <span class="populated place">Wallenberg</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2841">First of all, they didn't want to hear anything -- not about Holocaust. </sentence><sentence id="2842">They weren't interested. </sentence><sentence id="2843">And I kept on saying, "But this is such a wonderful story." " </sentence><sentence id="2844">I told you we are not interested. </sentence><sentence id="2845">And don't think so much about it. </sentence><sentence id="2846">We don't have it." </sentence><sentence id="2847"><span class="country">Switzerland</span> had everything, but they didn't want it. </sentence><sentence id="2848">So it was a very unpleasant four weeks when we got our marching orders that we can go with the <span class="building">Norwegian Red Cross</span> through <span class="country">Germany</span> into <span class="country">Denmark</span> and then from <span class="country">Denmark</span> to <span class="country">Sweden</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2849">Well, the Swiss knew exactly that we had no food in <span class="country">Germany</span> at all, and they took everybody's food and everybody's money away. </sentence><sentence id="2850">And I was very lucky. </sentence><sentence id="2851">Again, I was all the way in the back. </sentence><sentence id="2852">I went into the <span class="spatial object">toilet</span> and I took all my money and I put it in my shoe and I went back. </sentence><sentence id="2853">So at least I had money. </sentence><sentence id="2854">Food, they took away. </sentence><sentence id="2855">So we went three days and we didn't eat because there was no food in <span class="country">Germany</span> no where. </sentence><sentence id="2856">We went through <span class="populated place">Nuremberg</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2857">We went through whole lot of things, and then we arrived in this small <span class="populated place">town</span> of <span class="country">Denmark</span> and it's incredible. </sentence><sentence id="2858">There was a whole <span class="populated place">village</span> made up with maybe millions of <span class="spatial object">showers</span> with hot water and food. </sentence><sentence id="2859">You have never seen so much food in your life. </sentence><sentence id="2860">We all got sick because we didn't -- we couldn't eat that much, but the Danes just didn't know what to do because there were Norwegians who were stuck. </sentence><sentence id="2861">And there were Danes and there were Swedes and there were us, you know. </sentence><sentence id="2862">They were incredible. </sentence><sentence id="2863">Our drivers on the <span class="spatial object">car</span> -- on the <span class="spatial object">trucks</span> by the way were Nazi prisoners, and I will never forget that, that nobody -- all the Norwegians, the Danes, they spoke German. </sentence><sentence id="2864">None of them wanted -- but they decided it is dangerous because all the signs through <span class="country">Germany</span> now in English and there are places where there are no <span class="dlf">bridge</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2865">Somebody has to do it, so Lused to be the youngest. </sentence><sentence id="2866">So they said, "Will you speak to them in German?" </sentence><sentence id="2867">So I said, "Do I have to?" " </sentence><sentence id="2868">Yeah." </sentence><sentence id="2869">So I sat with the driver and he still had the <span class="spatial object">Swastika</span> hanging there. </sentence><sentence id="2870">Today, I'm laughing about it. </sentence><sentence id="2871">If he would have known that a Jew is giving him the directions and the orders what to do, I think he would have killed us all. </sentence><sentence id="2872">But it was fun. </sentence><sentence id="2873">And we made it. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="2910">Q: We need to -- excuse me, we need to condense. </sentence><sentence id="2911">Could you now tell us when you got into <span class="country">Sweden</span>? </sentence><sentence id="2912">Just very briefly. </sentence><sentence id="2913">How long you were there. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="2918">A: <span class="country">Sweden</span>, I got in, in October. </sentence><sentence id="2919">October four or five. </sentence><sentence id="2920">And I first went to my fiance's mother. </sentence><sentence id="2921">First, they wouldn't let me in and that's a long story. </sentence><sentence id="2922">I'll tell you another day. </sentence><sentence id="2923">And then we went up for a weekend to <span class="populated place">Stockholm</span> already together with his mother. </sentence><sentence id="2924">And there was two gentlemen. </sentence><sentence id="2925">He and another gentleman who met me, and they were greeting me with a fist like this and I said, "What's that?" </sentence><sentence id="2926">And he said, "Oh, don't you know? </sentence><sentence id="2927">That's the Communist's greetings." </sentence><sentence id="2928">And my stomach went down again and I said, "Huh?" </sentence><sentence id="2929">Tells me his greetings, but I thought it was just stupid joke. </sentence><sentence id="2930">Anyhow, next day, that was Sunday. </sentence><sentence id="2931">Monday, I got in contact with everybody from the <span class="building">Swedish Embassy</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2932">My first question was, "Where is <span class="populated place">Raoul</span>?" " </sentence><sentence id="2933">We don't know," was the answer. </sentence><sentence id="2934">And then I told them about my fiance whom I have to marry, and I told them that I am very disturbed because he greet me like that and you will have to understand that I cannot marry a Communist. </sentence><sentence id="2935">And they say, "Well, we understand that, but after all, he...." I said, "Yes, I know." </sentence><sentence id="2936">They found out he was one of the top Communists. </sentence><sentence id="2937">And what happened is that in <span class="country">Switzerland</span>, I was interviewed by a friend who's a newspaper man. </sentence><sentence id="2938">And, as usual, with newspaper people, they go after their own head. </sentence><sentence id="2939">I said, "I'm going to <span class="country">Sweden</span>." </sentence><sentence id="2940">What he put down that I'm going in Hungarian government business to <span class="populated place">Oslo</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2941">And even when the <span class="building">Embassy</span> saw it, "Is she crazy? </sentence><sentence id="2942">Well, what is this?" </sentence><sentence id="2943">So that wasn't true and so this fiance of mine thought that I am going from <span class="building">Communist business</span> so he brought the chief of Communist's party. </sentence><sentence id="2944">Anyways, everything turned out. </sentence><sentence id="2945">I didn't have to marry him. </sentence><sentence id="2946">And that was wonderful, you know. </sentence><sentence id="2947">But in the meantime, it also turned out that he really wanted to save me and he was in love with someone else. </sentence><sentence id="2948">So it turned out alright that far. </sentence><sentence id="2949">But I was there and I very fast got a wonderful job with Count Bernadotte(tm)* who brought in from all the <span class="populated place">camps</span> the people they needed -- people who go out and can speak <span class="country">France</span> and German and Hungarian and tell them stories about Swedish literature and culture. </sentence><sentence id="2950">And that was a very wonderful thing to do because I had a key to the <span class="building">Royal Library</span> because they had the books were translated from Swedish to German so I could read Selma Lagerlef and all that. </sentence><sentence id="2951">And I went and spoke for six months in all the <span class="populated place">camps</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2952">I was very well paid, and it was also very wonderful. </sentence><sentence id="2953">The people I met in these <span class="populated place">camps</span> who came out so sick, and the Swedes took care so beautifully of them. </sentence><sentence id="2954">So that was the -- I was three years in <span class="country">Sweden</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2955">4 Count Folke Bernadotte After this job, I worked for a <span class="building">Scandinavian bank</span> and then I got frightened from the Soviets because everybody thought the Soviet going to overrun <span class="country">Sweden</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2956">Everybody was learning Russian in <span class="country">Sweden</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2957">Children were -- when they were naughty, they said, "We give you to the Russians." </sentence><sentence id="2958">And I got frightened. </sentence><sentence id="2959">I just wanted freedom, and it was wonderful and I loved <span class="country">Sweden</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2960">And Raoul wasn't <span class="building">home</span> yet, and we didn't know what happened. </sentence><sentence id="2961">Nothing we knew about it. </sentence><sentence id="2962">And in the meantime, I brought my parents out. </sentence><sentence id="2963">And I wanted to come to <span class="country">America</span> and they wouldn't let me. </sentence><sentence id="2964">They said American was closed 12 years for Hungarians. </sentence><sentence id="2965">So <span class="country">Australia</span> let me, and I went all alone all the way to <span class="country">Australia</span> and left my parents behind in <span class="country">Sweden</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2966">And Raoul was still not back. </sentence><sentence id="2967">And we couldn't find him. </sentence><sentence id="2968">We still didn't hear too much and still nobody was looking for him. </sentence><sentence id="2969">Actually, nobody cared. </sentence><sentence id="2970">You never heard that word, "Raoul Wallenberg." </sentence><sentence id="2971">Then I came to the <span class="country">States</span>, and when I arrived to the <span class="country">States</span> my parents went to <span class="country">Argentina</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2972">They lived there for three years, and when I became a citizen, then they finally came here. </sentence><sentence id="2973">And in 1960, I got married and the first person ever listened and believed the Wallenberg story was my husband. </sentence><sentence id="2974">Three weeks on our honeymoon, I told him the story and he was crying for three weeks. </sentence><sentence id="2975">We want that man back, but we still didn't do anything. </sentence><sentence id="2976">And then as you know, in the late 70s, Congressman Lantos"> and his wife started to look for him. </sentence><sentence id="2977">And that's how it all started. </sentence><sentence id="2978">And now my job is strictly to let the whole world know, especially children, that there is a hero outside. </sentence><sentence id="2979">Because we don't have any heroes. </sentence><sentence id="2980">And we don't teach our children. </sentence><sentence id="2981">And the Holocaust is important. </sentence><sentence id="2982">Not just because the 6,000,000 Jews, because you know that Hitler killed 3,000,000 people who were priests, nuns, gypsies, blacks, and children in <span class="spatial object">wheelchairs</span>. </sentence><sentence id="2983">Three million, that's Holocaust. </sentence><sentence id="2984">Twenty three million young Russians. </sentence><sentence id="2985">That's Holocaust. </sentence><sentence id="2986">What's going on in <span class="country">South Africa</span> is Holocaust. </sentence><sentence id="2987">We don't teach it to our children. </sentence><sentence id="2988">We can't live like that. </sentence><sentence id="2989">Children have to know what to fight for as Raoul Wallenberg did, because only the children without prejudice holding their hands, can make peace in the world. </sentence><sentence id="2990">And this is the only way, and that's what I am teaching. </sentence><sentence id="2991">I cannot bring Raoul out. </sentence><sentence id="2992">I have no authority for that. </sentence><sentence id="2993">I let that let the diplomats handle it. </sentence><sentence id="2994">But he's teaching us to go on, "cause he taught me too. </sentence><sentence id="2995">Alright, I was in a family where nobody was ever prejudiced, but I learned that, like Raoul, always that there are no colors. </sentence><sentence id="2996">There are no religions. </sentence><sentence id="2997">There are two kind of people, the good and the bad. </sentence><sentence id="2998">And if you're good, try to make the bad better. </sentence><sentence id="2999">And that's what children -- and children listen. </sentence><sentence id="3000">You'd be surprised how wonderful they are in the <span class="building">schools</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3001">And if I only reach three or four children in every <span class="building">school</span>, in every <span class="building">college</span>, then we will have some wonderful people. </sentence><sentence id="3002">deg5 Thomas P. Lantos </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="3089">Q: Thank you. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="3091">A: You're welcome. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="3093">Q: You had told me before the interview about Raoul and being with people. </sentence><sentence id="3094">Could we go back to the war? </sentence><sentence id="3095">And go back to your early working with Raoul. </sentence><sentence id="3096">I know he went to the <span class="building">Yellow Star houses</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3097">Can you tell us about, about -- alright, can you tell us about your going with Raoul to help people? </sentence><sentence id="3098">You had told me several stories. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="3105">A: Yeah. </sentence><sentence id="3106">Not to <span class="building">Yellow houses</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3107">He never went to the <span class="building">Yellow Star houses</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3108">He went to the <span class="building">houses</span> what he set up with the Swedish flag. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="3113">Q: I'm sorry. </sentence><sentence id="3114">You're right. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="3117">A: Alright? </sentence><sentence id="3118">I actually didn't go with him in this. </sentence><sentence id="3119">I was in the <span class="building">hospital</span> many times with him because that he needed help there, the nurses and the sick people. </sentence><sentence id="3120">And I was a hostess at the <span class="building">Embassy</span> when these people came up to the <span class="dlf">door</span> to ask, "Please help." </sentence><sentence id="3121">And then I took their picture and I went to the Ambassador and he would sign. </sentence><sentence id="3122">And the <span class="env feature">Danube</span>, as you know, and mostly I helped up in the <span class="building">Embassy</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3123">Whatever I could do. </sentence><sentence id="3124">I was not a secretary, I was a gofer -- "go for this" and "go for that." </sentence><sentence id="3125">And it was wonderful. </sentence><sentence id="3126">But we always knew what Raoul did, and then on my own, I also collected some people and said, "Do you want to be saved? </sentence><sentence id="3127">Give me a picture." </sentence><sentence id="3128">And then I took it back. </sentence><sentence id="3129">And sometime it come out very embarrassing because you don't remember the people you help, but they remember you. </sentence><sentence id="3130">And this happened to me when I arrived. </sentence><sentence id="3131">If you are interested, I arrived to this <span class="country">country</span>, and I had something wrong with my tonsils, and I found a Hungarian doctor of all places up and near <span class="dlf">West End Avenue</span> in <span class="populated place">New York</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3132">And one day, I'm sitting in his <span class="interior space">living room</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3133">His <span class="interior space">living room</span> was his <span class="interior space">waiting room</span>, and people come up from his <span class="interior space">bedroom</span>, his family. </sentence><sentence id="3134">And I'm sitting there reading a book, and suddenly a fat gentlemen walked by and start screaming, "You saved my life. </sentence><sentence id="3135">You saved my life." </sentence><sentence id="3136">And I looked around. </sentence><sentence id="3137">I forgot the war you know. </sentence><sentence id="3138">Who thinks of the war? </sentence><sentence id="3139">But he comes suddenly, and he sits down and starts kissing my hand, and talks Hungarian, and I said, "Uncle, what are you doing? </sentence><sentence id="3140">Who are you?" </sentence><sentence id="3141">You know, and looking frightened. </sentence><sentence id="3142">And then he told me the story you see. </sentence><sentence id="3143">The <span class="building">Embassies</span> are -- whether there's a war or not, they close at three o'clock. </sentence><sentence id="3144">Okay? </sentence><sentence id="3145">Three o'clock, a knock at the <span class="dlf">door</span>, and there stands this gentleman with four pictures and he said, "Please. </sentence><sentence id="3146">Please. </sentence><sentence id="3147">Would you give us the paper." </sentence><sentence id="3148">And I said, "I'm sorry. </sentence><sentence id="3149">We are closed." </sentence><sentence id="3150">And he started to cry. </sentence><sentence id="3151">I said, "Okay. </sentence><sentence id="3152">Okay. </sentence><sentence id="3153">Uncle. </sentence><sentence id="3154">Just a minute." </sentence><sentence id="3155">And I went over to the Ambassador and I said, "Ambassador, just these four more." </sentence><sentence id="3156">And he said, "No. </sentence><sentence id="3157">No. </sentence><sentence id="3158">No. </sentence><sentence id="3159">I have a date." </sentence><sentence id="3160">I said, "Please. </sentence><sentence id="3161">Just sign your name." </sentence><sentence id="3162">He did. </sentence><sentence id="3163">And I handed it back to the man. </sentence><sentence id="3164">It happened to be the son the, the brother-in-law of the doctor. </sentence><sentence id="3165">Okay? </sentence><sentence id="3166">And I was so embarrassed. </sentence><sentence id="3167">And it was him. </sentence><sentence id="3168">They all survived. </sentence><sentence id="3169">Per Anger had the same thing happening to him years after in <span class="populated place">Vienna</span> in 1956 when the uprising in <span class="country">Hungary</span> happened during the Russians. </sentence><sentence id="3170">Well, in this uprising the only people who run away, was some Nazis who were left over and some Jews. </sentence><sentence id="3171">And he was then already Vice Consul in <span class="populated place">Vienna</span>, and the people came on the <span class="spatial object">boats</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3172">So he thought, "Well, if Raoul could do it then, maybe I should go down to the <span class="dlf">riverside</span> and help these people out." </sentence><sentence id="3173">And he goes in with this little light, and suddenly a lady comes off a <span class="spatial object">boat</span> and starts running. " </sentence><sentence id="3174">Mr. Anger, you saved me from the Nazis. </sentence><sentence id="3175">Now you're saving me from the Russians." </sentence><sentence id="3176">And he still -- he was -- you know, it was, it was a terrible -- it's a beautiful feeling. </sentence><sentence id="3177">To <span class="populated place">Raoul</span> it happened once. </sentence><sentence id="3178">When the Russians took him, and it's also you not like to hear that, he right away went. </sentence><sentence id="3179">He came back once with two Russian officers behind him and the only person who saw him was our electoral in <span class="populated place">Budapest</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3180">And he came back and he said, "I don't know whether I'm ordered back to the <span class="building">Russian headquarters</span>, but I don't know if I am going as a guest or as a prisoner." </sentence><sentence id="3181">This was his last words. </sentence><sentence id="3182">But he said, "I have to tell you a story. </sentence><sentence id="3183">On the way here now, we saw a little old lady with still the yellow star that she was carrying bread in her bag. </sentence><sentence id="3184">And I got out and I said to her, "Do you speak German?" </sentence><sentence id="3185">And she said, "Yes." </sentence><sentence id="3186">And I said, "I am Raoul Wallenberg." </sentence><sentence id="3187">And she said, "I know," and she pulled out the <span class="dlf">pass</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3188">And he said, "I started to cry." </sentence><sentence id="3189">He said, "At least one person I know is alive." </sentence><sentence id="3190">So I'm glad that it happened to him at least once that he found someone who lived because of him. </sentence><sentence id="3191">And you know, and it happened a few -- a year ago, I think, I spoke to a big group grownups in a <span class="building">synagogue</span>, I believe, in <span class="region">Pennsylvania</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3192">And I was telling them the <span class="env feature">Danube</span> business, and suddenly an old gentleman got up and he says, "Stop." </sentence><sentence id="3193">And he looked around to the people. </sentence><sentence id="3194">He said, "Everybody can see this little scratch here?" </sentence><sentence id="3195">And the people said, "Yes." </sentence><sentence id="3196">He said, "Well, I was lucky. </sentence><sentence id="3197">The bullet hit me there, and that's the girl who pulled me out and I froze. </sentence><sentence id="3198">I said, "No, I didn't." </sentence><sentence id="3199">He said, "Yes, you did." </sentence><sentence id="3200">Because you know, after awhile you don't believe it yourself because years going by and I was sick and it was frozen. </sentence><sentence id="3201">But I was the only woman. </sentence><sentence id="3202">So and that is a life. </sentence><sentence id="3203">And I thought it was a wonderful life and I am glad I lived through it. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Question"><p><sentence id="3291">Q: Thank you. </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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<dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="3293">A: You're very welcome. </sentence></p><p><sentence id="3294"> [Technical conversation] </sentence></p><p><sentence id="3295"> [Displaying photographs] </sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="3296">A: Well, you see, we worked for Raoul, 350 of us, and we all got working papers, and this is mine. </sentence><sentence id="3297">And the working paper is written in two languages, in Hungarian and German, and thanks God, everything is signed by Raoul, himself. </sentence><sentence id="3298">In Hungarian up there he signed and in the German, too. </sentence><sentence id="3299">It says exactly that we are working under <span class="building">Department B</span> or some of </sentence></p><p><sentence id="3300"> them work for <span class="building">Department A</span>, plus the <span class="building">Swedish Red Cross</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3301">And this we always carried with us the all time. </sentence></p><p><sentence id="3302"> [Technical conversation] </sentence></p></dialogue><dialogue class="Answer"><p><sentence id="3303">A: Well, this is before Raoul arrived to <span class="country">Hungary</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3304">The Swedish Government, itself, gave out 800 of these passports. </sentence><sentence id="3305">They are real <span class="spatial object">Swedish passports</span>. </sentence><sentence id="3306">When the <span class="building">house</span> doesn't have the hard cover, they give you this. </sentence><sentence id="3307">And I was one of the lucky girls to get one, because I was evidently engaged to a Swedish gentleman and he said if the war wouldn't have come, I would be his wife. </sentence><sentence id="3308">So I am Swedish and that's my paper. </sentence><sentence id="3309">And I traveled along. </sentence><sentence id="3310">All the visas on the back, you can see. </sentence><sentence id="3311">I traveled with this passport until I arrived to <span class="country">Sweden</span> and then -- "makuleras"" means "<span class="dlf">void</span>." </sentence><sentence id="3312">But I didn't need it anymore. [ </sentence><sentence id="3313"><span class="dlf">Schutz-pass</span> for Arnold Mandl is displayed] [Conclusion of interview] 26 Cancelled (Swedish) </sentence></p></dialogue> |
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