Selected text
After six months we went there to visit them. It was after Rosh Hashanah and before Yom Kippur. The customs official in the port, in Haifa, asked us where we intended to spend Yom Kippur. And I say, 'At home, I think - we'll make it.' There was such a control, it was awful. Like never. Well, by then it was that unsettled time. That first time the whole family went, my son, my daughter-in-law Danuta, and my granddaughter Dominika, a year older than Paulina. We were there two months. By car to Greece and then by ferry to Haifa.
And on the ferry, we looked, and there was this family, and with them a little girl who latched onto my granddaughter. It turned out they were French people living in Israel. And so I'm talking to this Frenchman - how was I to know if he was a Jew or a Frenchman? And we were talking about the occupation. And we mentioned the Blechhammer camp [56]. In the sheet metal works. He was a prisoner there and was liberated on the same day as me! A strange coincidence. And I ask him how life was. And he says that he didn't want to live in France, because there was anti-Semitism there. That's why he and his whole family had gone to Israel. He's retired, has a very good life, because he had a high-ranking position. And we sailed to Haifa with them.
That was an unforgettable trip, really. I don't know, what plan I had? To see. To see Israel, for the first time in my life. It was hard to imagine it all, how people live in Israel. I was impressed with Israel, that it was so beautiful. Well everything was beautiful, really. Well, sea like sea, but the shops and the cafes - it was a totally different life from ours. In Poland, it was still a bit of a mess back then. They still weren't doing to well for themselves at that time. They didn't have work yet, at first they were on this kind of benefit and they were living in this big apartment block for immigrants. We'd taken them a bit of money in dollars: well, how could we go to visit our children without taking them anything?
My daughter and son-in-law didn't have a car back then, so we did the sightseeing on the bus. That time I tried to find my name there in Yad Vashem [57], but there was no way, because there are so many names there. I happened to be there with a guided tour, and we didn't have too much time to look through all those names. But even my grandson looked there afterwards, and he did say that there were some names, Glaser, Glazer, but I say that I don't think I can have anyone in Israel. Definitely not. But we did find someone else there. My wife said to me once: 'You know my production boss, Ustianowski, he's called, from back in Gryfow, and his father hid a Jew or some Jews. And I know that sometime back he used to go to Israel somewhere.' So I say OK, let's look for him, because in Yad Vashem, if nowhere else, there must be some tree of his planted or his name listed on plaques. And we found the plaque. We took a photograph and when we got back we sent it to his son, because his father was no longer alive.
And on the ferry, we looked, and there was this family, and with them a little girl who latched onto my granddaughter. It turned out they were French people living in Israel. And so I'm talking to this Frenchman - how was I to know if he was a Jew or a Frenchman? And we were talking about the occupation. And we mentioned the Blechhammer camp [56]. In the sheet metal works. He was a prisoner there and was liberated on the same day as me! A strange coincidence. And I ask him how life was. And he says that he didn't want to live in France, because there was anti-Semitism there. That's why he and his whole family had gone to Israel. He's retired, has a very good life, because he had a high-ranking position. And we sailed to Haifa with them.
That was an unforgettable trip, really. I don't know, what plan I had? To see. To see Israel, for the first time in my life. It was hard to imagine it all, how people live in Israel. I was impressed with Israel, that it was so beautiful. Well everything was beautiful, really. Well, sea like sea, but the shops and the cafes - it was a totally different life from ours. In Poland, it was still a bit of a mess back then. They still weren't doing to well for themselves at that time. They didn't have work yet, at first they were on this kind of benefit and they were living in this big apartment block for immigrants. We'd taken them a bit of money in dollars: well, how could we go to visit our children without taking them anything?
My daughter and son-in-law didn't have a car back then, so we did the sightseeing on the bus. That time I tried to find my name there in Yad Vashem [57], but there was no way, because there are so many names there. I happened to be there with a guided tour, and we didn't have too much time to look through all those names. But even my grandson looked there afterwards, and he did say that there were some names, Glaser, Glazer, but I say that I don't think I can have anyone in Israel. Definitely not. But we did find someone else there. My wife said to me once: 'You know my production boss, Ustianowski, he's called, from back in Gryfow, and his father hid a Jew or some Jews. And I know that sometime back he used to go to Israel somewhere.' So I say OK, let's look for him, because in Yad Vashem, if nowhere else, there must be some tree of his planted or his name listed on plaques. And we found the plaque. We took a photograph and when we got back we sent it to his son, because his father was no longer alive.
Period
Interview
Leon Glazer
Tag(s)