Helen and Sol Krawitz Holocaust Memorial Education Center

MEMORIES OF AN ISRAELI CHILDHOOD

I have one sister Cila. I was born in what is now Slovakia in a little town Michalovce, my famlies’ hometown. We moved to Israel when I was a year old, in 1949, and was housed in tents with hundreds of other families. After a few months we moved into an old abandoned Arab house with other relatives. Years later we moved to Moshav Tzafaria, a new village constructed for 80 refugee families. The school I attended was in a shack in our village. My father, Ferdinand worked in a local grocery store, and my mother, Rose raised geese in our backyard to help supplement our income. My mom’s brother and sister lived near by in the same moshav.  Another of my mom’s brothers settled in a kibbutz, Sdai Eliyaho. Where we lived in the Moshav, there was no indoor plumbing or electricity. We used an outhouse and kerosene lamps. When it rained or was muddy outdoors my sister, four and half years younger, needed me to carry her to the outhouse. 

We moved to America in 1962. My father found employment in a plastic factory for all of $40 per week. My mom worked in a factory as a seamstress for about the same of weekly wage.

Editor’s Note:

Rose, 18 years old at the outbreak of the war, will not speak about the past to her son, Andrew. She refuses to relate stories of her childhood, growing up years and war experiences. Andrew knows only his mother’s date of birth, her place of birth, and that she was an inmate in Auschwitz. As of 2017, the time of the families' interview, Rose was 96 years old and had not broken her silence. Refer to Rose's Survivor Registry.

MEMORIES OF AN ISRAELI CHILDHOOD

I have one sister Cila. I was born in what is now Slovakia in a little town Michalovce, my famlies’ hometown. We moved to Israel when I was a year old, in 1949, and was housed in tents with hundreds of other families. After a few months we moved into an old abandoned arab house with other relatives. Years later we moved to Moshav Tzafaria, a new village constructed for 80 refugee families. The school I attended was in a shack in our village. My father, Ferdinand worked in a local grocery store, and my mother, Rose raised geese in our backyard to help supplement our income. My mom’s brother and sister lived near by in the same moshav.  Another of my mom’s brothers settled in a kibbutz, Sdai Eliyaho. Where we lived in the moshav, there was no indoor plumbing or electricity. We used an outhouse and kerosene lamps. When it rained or was muddy outdoors my sister- four and half years younger- needed me to carry her to the outhouse. 

We moved to America in 1962. My father found employment in a plastic factory for all of $40 per week. My mom worked in a factory as a seamstress for about the same of weekly wage.

Editor’s Note: Rose, 18 years old at the outbreak of the war, will not speak about the past to her son, Andrew. She refuses to relate stories of her childhood, growing up years and war experiences. Andrew knows only his mother’s date of birth, her place of birth, and that she was an inmate in Auschwitz. Rose is 96 years old and has not broken her silence.