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50 - 950 West 41st Ave, P: 604.264.0499 |
 survivor testimonies |
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Liberated Jewish orphans assembled for emigration |
DP Camp (Continued) A very powerful bond developed amongst the children. All we had was one another. Looking back, I realize what a blessing it was that we were together. They were my family. It took us a while to realize that we could go outside the gates of Buchenwald. At first we didn’t dare to leave the camp but then we started to go on little excursions around Buchenwald. We really savoured this newfound freedom. As a group we were headstrong, angry and unmanageable. They called us “les enfants terribles.” We resisted going to classes and disrupted cultural events organized for us. Later on I had a chance to read some of the reports written about us at that time which concluded that we had seen and suffered too much and could not be rehabilitated. They said that we were without redeeming value and likely to end up in jails as criminals. Obviously experts had no understanding of our trauma. As it turned out none of us ended up in jail. Many of us became professionals, doctors, lawyers and many of them in the helping professions. My friend Jezyk became a well-known physicist. Another member of our group, Elie Wiesel, won the Nobel Prize for literature. One day an expert was brought in to talk to us. When he came in, he took off his jacket and very deliberately began to roll up his sleeves. When we saw his Auschwitz number, there was a complete hush. I think our silence shocked him a little. He seemed taken aback and it took a while before he could begin. He looked at us and finally he said, “Mein tiere kinder,” (my dear children) and started to cry. That was the first time we openly shared a tear. I cried for the first time in five years. It is still very emotional to me. After that, things changed, even though I am not sure I realized it at the time. From then on I suddenly understood that this was my life and I had to make something of it. My toughened attitude was broken. Eventually a group of about eighty of us was taken to Vesinet, a town outside of Paris, where we attended a regular school. I think they had decided that the sooner we were integrated, the better our chances to resume normal lives. I remained there for about three years. I worked very hard at school. I had so much catching up to do. I graduated high school. During this period a prominent Jewish couple, Jean and Jane Meyer, came to our school and offered to adopt me. They introduced me to the opera and the theatre. But I felt very strongly about not giving up my name and I think that I had already decided to turn my back on Europe. The memories were too strong. They were devastated when I applied to Canada for a visa. We remained close until they passed away.
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