My family was taken from our home to the Lodz Ghetto.  We were the first ones taken because we were close to the German border.  I was in the Lodz Ghetto only for a few days.  My brothers were taken to a labor camp, the girls to another.  I was taken to a labor camp in Posen and was there for about one year.  From there I was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  They took us out everyday for a roll call.  We were naked, they had Selections.  I was in Auschwitz for two years building roads and working in an ammunition factory making hand grenades.  When the Russians came closer, we were told we would have to march.  We were taken on a death march to Ravensbrück in January 1945.  From there I was taken to Malchow, (a subcamp of Ravensbrück), where I was liberated in April 1945.  The Swedish Red Cross was there under Count Folke Bernadotte and took us to Sweden to recuperate.  I suffered under the Nazis for six years.

 

It was so terrible; I try not to think about it.  I was so sick when I was liberated.  I was maybe 90 pounds, I almost died.  I don’t know what helped me to survive.  I was lucky I guess; I was young and strong.

 

After liberation, they took me to Sweden to recuperate.  I was there for two years.  I learned how to sew, how to put pockets in coats and pants.  After Sweden, I went to England where I my older sister Dina was living.  The World Jewish Congress helped me find her.  Dina moved to England before the war.  There were three older sisters who I did not know who had left home when I was young.  Etel was killed in Belgium; my sister Leah who lived in France survived and later went to Canada, and my sister Dina was in England.  My brother Harry also went to Canada. I was the youngest in the family. I did not really know my siblings who were much older than me.  

 

I later met my husband in England who was a survivor of a Stalinist Labor Camp and from there he joined General Ander’s Army, (the Polish Brigade of the British Army after the Soviet Union became allies with Britain).  My husband and I had two children who were born in England.  In 1951, we moved to New Orleans where he had two stepsisters.   My husband had wanted to go to Israel.  He felt that there was no future in England; life there was very difficult after the war.  

 

My husband had fled from the Nazis to Russia during the war.  With General Ander’s Army, he went to Egypt, Palestine, Italy, Scotland and then later to England.  He fought at Monte Cassino, Italy.  

 

I hardly ever talked about the Holocaust because I wanted to get it out of my head.  It was too upsetting. After the war, I was friends with other survivors, everyone had the same past.  We had children, we raised our families, we learned the language and we started a new life.  And it wasn’t a bad life, it was a nice life.  But later the men died and then Hurricane Katrina came.  I moved to a new state, Michigan, to be with my daughter Linda.  I had to start a new life again.  I’m now 88 years old (July 2010).  

 

I want my children and my family to be well. I love my family, that's the only thing I have.