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The first book I read when I returned to Thessaloniki was ‘L’ histoire d’ Anne Frank’ [French: The Diary of Anne Frank]. But it was when I visited Auschwitz and lit candles and recited the Kaddish for my beloved ones that my soul was put to rest. I saw everything in Auschwitz. I saw even the boxes with the poison [Zyklon B] that they were throwing from the window at the crematorium in order to kill them. Everything in Auschwitz was very well preserved. I was there during the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
My sister Jema was sent to work from Auschwitz to Birkenau. It was two and a half hours walking distance. [Editor’s note: The distance between Auschwitz and Birkenau is approximately 1.5 km. However, because the people were sick, weak, starved and exhausted as well as terrorized and beaten by the Nazis along the way, it took them longer to cover that distance.]
I did the same distance in a wheelchair because I couldn’t walk. When I arrived at Birkenau I fell on the crematorium and started crying. I was screaming: ‘they were burned; they were burned’ just at the same place that they were reciting the Schema before being burned. [Shma Israel (Hebrew: Listen Israel): the first two words of the major Jewish prayer]
I did Haskavah. I lit candles for my siblings, Jema, Isidor and Renica, and two for my mother and my father. I started screaming: ‘Mamica mia regalada [Judeo-Spanish: Mother, my beloved one] salu buena Mimi’. Mimi has some health problems. Mimi for me is better than a son. Then I started saying the names of my beloved ones. I could not stop crying. My daughter Lucy didn’t know how to take me away. But I did what I felt I had to do. And now I can die in peace. This was the reason that I went to Auschwitz.
When we left from Birkenau it was raining. Mimi, my daughter Lucy and Morris Chatzis were pushing the wheelchair. I liked Morris because of his nice way of talking. I also read his journal ‘Krissara’ [25]. In an issue dedicated to our trip to Poland he had a picture of me in the wheelchair.
My sister Jema was sent to work from Auschwitz to Birkenau. It was two and a half hours walking distance. [Editor’s note: The distance between Auschwitz and Birkenau is approximately 1.5 km. However, because the people were sick, weak, starved and exhausted as well as terrorized and beaten by the Nazis along the way, it took them longer to cover that distance.]
I did the same distance in a wheelchair because I couldn’t walk. When I arrived at Birkenau I fell on the crematorium and started crying. I was screaming: ‘they were burned; they were burned’ just at the same place that they were reciting the Schema before being burned. [Shma Israel (Hebrew: Listen Israel): the first two words of the major Jewish prayer]
I did Haskavah. I lit candles for my siblings, Jema, Isidor and Renica, and two for my mother and my father. I started screaming: ‘Mamica mia regalada [Judeo-Spanish: Mother, my beloved one] salu buena Mimi’. Mimi has some health problems. Mimi for me is better than a son. Then I started saying the names of my beloved ones. I could not stop crying. My daughter Lucy didn’t know how to take me away. But I did what I felt I had to do. And now I can die in peace. This was the reason that I went to Auschwitz.
When we left from Birkenau it was raining. Mimi, my daughter Lucy and Morris Chatzis were pushing the wheelchair. I liked Morris because of his nice way of talking. I also read his journal ‘Krissara’ [25]. In an issue dedicated to our trip to Poland he had a picture of me in the wheelchair.
Interview
Mirou-Mairy Angel