Suzana Dauber

This is my cousin Suzana, who was nicknamed Coca, in December 1956.

My mother's sister, Etty, married David Dauber. They had three daughters; my cousins' names were Roza, born in 1924, Suzana, nicknamed Coca, born in 1926, and Sarah, nicknamed Sally, born in 1932. Aunt Etty died in May 1940, before the deportation [to Transnistria]. Uncle David Dauber and his three girls were deported at the same time with us. My mother ended up in the same camp with Roza, while Coca and Sally were taken to an orphanage, as they were younger. We found out from Sally's letters how she and Coca witnessed the end of their father. The girls were boarding a ferry when David Dauber rushed to take Sally in his arms, to help her get through the mud; the gendarmes hit him in the back with riffle butts so hard, that his lungs broke. He died the following day. Roza became ill and my mother watched over her in the camp's infirmary. She died in 1944. Coca and Sally survived the Holocaust and left the country - but I couldn't tell you when or how they left. Coca is now living in Spain; I never met her again. She has a son who was born in 1950. Sally is living in the US, close to New York City.

After the Revolution, my cousin Coca wrote to me that our old house in Sipot had been demolished and that a Gypsy family had built a new one in its place. It hurts me to remember all these things I have been through from 1940 up to this day. My mind shudders. That camp and everything that followed left deep marks.