I vaguely remember the people who spat at us. So I was fixated on my mom. We had learned this morning that she was not allowed to come with dad, my sister and me. She was considered an Aryan, Papa a Jew, and my sister and I were first-degree hybrids. I held Mutti's hand and tried to memorize her face as best I could.
I think my parents guessed what awaited us after the transport. My grandmother, a strong, stately woman, had been deported in 1942. But they said nothing. They probably did not want to scare us.
On the tracks they father, my sister and me in a cattle car. Other people in the car lifted me up so I could see my mother one last time through a crack. Then I saw how my mom was crying. That was the worst day in my life.
I was very afraid of the separation
The transport lasted for five days. We did not know the destination. Our emergency we did on newspaper, which we then threw out through the gap. It stank beastly.
My father had written a postcard, which he addressed to our mom and also threw on the track through the gap. Much later, I learned that the card had actually reached our mother.
When we arrived in Theresienstadt, my sister and I were separated from my father. We had to strip naked, our hair was cut short. Then I fainted. In the children's hut in the "Little Fortress" I came to myself again. My sister kept saying, "Stop crying or we'll be separated."
The guards were brutal
Before that, I was very scared. About two weeks later, they actually separated us. My sister was ten and a half years old, and children over ten had to work: pounding stones, weeding weeds, cleaning wagons.
I came to another barracks opposite the barracks where my father was housed. As if by a miracle, we also met my grandmother in Theresienstadt. I hardly recognized her again. My strong, handsome granny had become a sick, emaciated woman.
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Witnesses of the Holocaust: "We are free!"I remember the guards constantly watching us. We often had to stand for a long time, without food, without reason. The guards were brutal. If one of us fell over, we were not allowed to help him, otherwise we would get blows ourselves.
I had to scrub boards with a toothbrush without getting anything to drink. In the evening, the guards celebrated. I know that because my dad had to smear the cuts.
Then I embraced my mum
Never will I forget the night of liberation: First of all - and I did not realize that until later - the guards had not been there for a while. I lay on my bunk and was awakened by screaming and shots.
From the window I saw several trucks, soldiers with guns and Bengali fire. It was the Russian army. I stayed for a while, then my dad came with my sister, grabbed me and shouted, "We're free!"
I ran across the yard between my dad and sister. I was terrified. The whole time I thought: Immediately the guard comes and brings me back. But she did not, we were really free.
The most beautiful memory: back in Frankfurt, I saw my mother again. The feeling of being able to embrace her again is indescribable. When you have experienced so much suffering, you do not believe in something so beautiful anymore.
Today I feel good here
Frankfurt has remained my hometown even after the war. It will always be that way. Although I know contemporary witnesses who left Germany after the Holocaust, most of them returned to their hometowns. Besides, it was out of the question for us to leave. It would have needed money and papers. And my mom wanted us to go to school, learn a profession.
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Peter Holle
Edith Erbrich I have not forgotten how to laugh: her life story - recorded by Peter Holle
Publishing company:
edition momos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
Pages:
115
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I always say: Would my life and my fate have been different in another country? No. And I feel good here. For my work as a witness, I get so much gratitude especially from students and teachers whose classes I attend.
I have fulfilled my wishes - the memorial path next to the former collection point in the Frankfurt Grossmarkthalle, for which I have long struggled, is one of them.
The witnesses of the horror: The magazine SPIEGEL HISTORY is dedicated in the current issue of the topic "Jewish life in Germany" and has visited survivors of the Shoah - Jews who escaped the killing machine of the National Socialists in very different ways and decided after the war despite everything, continue to live in Germany. Further protocols can be found in the booklet.
