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Yes, there was always bombing during that time
while we were in the shelter, we could hardly ever come out.
My mother couldn't stay in the public shelter, only in her private shelter.
And during February '45 my mother and brother received notice
that they would have to report to the East train station.
They had written instructions on what they could take,
supplies for 3 or 4 days.
During February '45
we had already heard about the Americans landing in Normandy.
We heard about all of that.
My father pondered about taking us somewhere else, but where?!
They didn't have a clue.
Did they stay in a hideout? -Yes.
They considered the possibility of suicide.
It was a very difficult situation.
We were very devastated.
Then they packed a bag.
My brother was 13 at the time.
My father was devastated
and didn't want to go with them to the East train station.
I wanted to go with them.
We arrived at the East train station,
it was around 2 pm.
I heard a siren
and hid in a bunker over there.
My brother and mother were at the market place.
That's where they gathered the Jews back then.
They were forced to pay for train tickets.
Do you remember how many people were there? Probably not many by then.
No, mostly spouses from mixed marriages.
The rest of the people weren't there anymore.
We were told that they would receive work assignments outside of the city.
That's the excuse they made back then for reporting there.
By '45 the city was ruined... -Yes.
Rubble, right? -Yes, exactly.
Also the Third Reich had already been destroyed, but nevertheless...
Jews were given the task to deliver these notices.
A Jew delivered the notice, not an SA man.
They always used to do it, they wrote the notice,
passed it on to the Jewish community and ordered them to hand it out.
It's strange since the Jewish community had been liquidated.
Right.
But nonetheless there were...
Yes, yes, there were still lists in some office
that indicated who else could be taken.
My mother hoped that she wouldn't be taken
because of her young daughter.
Initially, she thought of taking her with her but immediately regretted it.
She knew what the travelling conditions were in those transports,
and especially with a child, in February of '45, in the winter.
The daughter was six months old and surely couldn't survive the ride.
My mother converted to Catholicism during the mid 30's
because it was already apparent then that there were going to be problems,
and she hoped that by being baptized Catholic she would be saved.
When she received the notice to go to the East station
we took the notice to the local priest,
it was Mr. Herr at the time, and asked him to help.
He was an elderly and fatherly figure and I expected a lot from him.
He immediately called the secret police
and returned disappointed and said
that he could not help us.
I had hoped that he would invite us in, that we would be protected there.
I must say I was very disappointed in him back then.
They packed their belongings with tears and deep sorrow
and we went to the East station.
And then they started bombing and we heard a siren.
When it was all over, I exited the bunker, and this group arrived...
There were...
300 people, yes, 300 people.
They came from the market square and marched along the East station
over to the cargo ramp.
Cargo trains stood there.
Around 45 people entered a cargo car.
They went in there, they stood there a while longer
and then they closed the doors.
That was for me...
I was 11, 12 then...
It was the most horrific experience.
Throughout the years I thought
that I shouldn't have gone to the East station.
What was so horrific in this situation?
They cried inside, the others cried outside,
and the feeling was that we would never meet again.
You thought you'd never see your mother again?
No, no... -Did you think about that all the time or at that moment?
In fact, it struck me at that particular moment
when the doors were shut and locked.
In addition to that I was afraid to be the next in line.
We feared the future,
my mother and brother weren't with us anymore,
my little sister was sent to an orphanage.
And my father went to Volkssturm.
I found myself all alone in Frankfurt.
At 12. -At 12.
You couldn't go out because of the bombings.
This uncertainty. We didn't know where they were taken.
At that time we knew about Auschwitz, not only us, everybody knew.
No one hid you? No one helped? -No, no...
It was right towards the end of the war. -Yes.
It's almost inconceivable that there was no one to help... -No.
Surviving those few weeks left. -No.
There were no acquaintances or close friends left.
I was alone. I didn't have anyone.
Who could I possibly turn to?
I had no one. I was practically alone.
When did you find out where your mother and brother were sent?
Only at the end of the war when people from the Jewish community told us
that the last transport had gone to Theresienstadt.
That was the last transport that left Frankfurt
with people from mixed marriages.
The transport arrived at Theresienstadt and everyone survived,
except for a few who died of exhaustion during the ride.
I think they were on the road for two weeks.
We were so happy...
And then they told us that there were diseases in Theresienstadt
and once the quarantine is lifted they will send trucks
to bring back all the city's Jews.
Do you remember the liberation? How was it? -Yes, I remember.
Two days before the Americans arrived
cars with speakers drove through the city
calling for people to leave the city, of course on behalf of the Germans.
They claimed that Frankfurt would turn into the main battlefield.
I was alone and I thought that if I left my parents would never find me.
So I thought, I don't care that all the residents of the building left,
and I stayed all alone in the apartment building.
I thought, no matter what, if someone is alive,
they'll come looking for me right here. That's why I stayed there.
I stayed at the shelter, I had some dry bread.
We were frugal and endured the hunger somehow.
And then I heard a knock on the door
and someone was speaking a foreign language.
For me it was... I already thought that...
He was black and I was a bit startled, and also didn't know English.
I opened the door for him, he wanted to check the building.
Then he asked me if I was alone and I answered that I am.
And he said, "The war is over, the war is over."
In fact, the war wasn't over but he thought so.
As far as I'm concerned, it was the end of the war.