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Zipora: I’m talking about World War Two, exactly two weeks after the Germans declared
war they were already in that town. I was not born at the time. He took the family,
back packed with slides, ski slides as if going skiing. He bribed a Pole to cross the
border and they went down towards Romania. They joined other Jews and with some money
they purchased a dilapidated, I don’t know if you can call it a ship. It’s not even
a ship. It’s like a boat. They mounted on the boat 519 people, but this ship broke down
to pieces basically, very close to Rhodes. The island in those days it was under Italian
regime, under Mussolini. My birth certificate has Mussolini’s stamp. We were sent to Southern
Italy, to a really existing concentration camp. In 1944, we were probably the first
concentration camp opened by the British military that came from North Africa. So that’s the
story. I call it “The Miraculous Survival of My Family”.
I came to Charleston to start a 300 level, which I did. This is the second year that
we have a 300 level. You cannot learn a new language if you do not work hard. You don’t
need to have brains. For a language you need this; and I honestly believe that I am here
for them and not the other way around. I honestly believe so.