Holocaust Survivor Eva Schloss on Life after WWII and Telling her Story — Transcript

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1. 0:05but I was still very unhappy in
2. 0:07Amsterdam and OT knew somebody in London
3. 0:09who had a photographic studio and he got
4. 0:12me a place here in voban place was a
5. 0:17nice studio and um I became here an
6. 0:20apprentice for a year and I lived in
7. 0:24kickle wood in a little boarding house
8. 0:27and um a cck woman had
9. 0:30was made her living she had about six
10. 0:32seven people living there and there was
11. 0:35a boy from Israel who came to study
12. 0:38economics and we became friends and we
13. 0:42went for long walks we both didn't have
14. 0:44any money and um we talked about all
15. 0:47kind of things but never about who we
16. 0:50were about our past and um um and then
17. 0:56um after about six months he said to me
18. 0:59Eva fall in love with you will you marry
19. 1:02me and we can start a new life um go to
20. 1:05Israel and I said to them no no thank
21. 1:08you and um I said why I said well I've
22. 1:12got a widowed mother in Amsterdam we
23. 1:15were very very close as you can imagine
24. 1:18um be phold all the time and wrote all
25. 1:21the time and she knew everything what
26. 1:24was going on and and I confided in her
27. 1:27with everything I said you know I'm
28. 1:29going back to
29. 1:31Amsterdam I can't leave her on her own
30. 1:34and then Otto he had some businesses
31. 1:36here and he looked kind of um looked a
32. 1:39bit after me came over one day and I
33. 1:42told him that and he said but I told him
34. 1:45that um your mother and me have fallen
35. 1:48in love as well and once you get settled
36. 1:51we like to get married so I said okay
37. 1:55okay I was bit surprised at that and um
38. 1:59so I went to the this young man and said
39. 2:00to him you know you can marry me
40. 2:03now and um he was quite shocked and you
41. 2:08know um we didn't really know each other
42. 2:10not at all I had told him I was Dutch
43. 2:13which I wasn't um because I didn't get
44. 2:16nationality I was still stateless really
45. 2:19um he said we he was Israeli which I
46. 2:22thought was quite uh
47. 2:24interesting um and he wasn't he was
48. 2:27really German but uh Refugee and um but
49. 2:32you know we have been married 63 years
50. 2:35so it shows you it was after all the
51. 2:37right of decision you know people get
52. 2:40engaged for 10 years and then they're
53. 2:42marryed and then they get divorced but
54. 2:44we knew each other for six months and it
55. 2:48seemed to have been all right you know
56. 2:50um so um we got married in Amsterdam and
57. 2:54then when my mother met him she asked
58. 2:57him not to take me to Israel because at
59. 2:59said time in the 50s um you didn't fly
60. 3:03it was very expensive and um you know it
61. 3:07was far my mother said well it's my only
62. 3:09child and you know stay in England
63. 3:12because otherwise I won't see my child
64. 3:15anymore and especially when you get
65. 3:16children so we stayed here which was
66. 3:19after the war not so difficult to get
67. 3:22papers so we became British and um I
68. 3:26worked as a
69. 3:27photographer and um we um our first
70. 3:32daughter was born in 1956 we have three
71. 3:35daughters which became Oto grandchildren
72. 3:38my mother of course of course was a
73. 3:40grandmother but so Oto had again a
74. 3:43family so
75. 3:46um yeah this is basically and I never
76. 3:49talked about what has happened not to my
77. 3:52children not to my husband um people
78. 3:56didn't talk about it you know and um in
79. 4:001986 in the meantime in Amsterdam the
80. 4:03Anna Frank house became a museum and the
81. 4:06people in Amsterdam decided not
82. 4:09everybody can come in Amsterdam to see
83. 4:11the history not it was not just Anna but
84. 4:14about the war and all that persecution
85. 4:17and um so they made a traveling
86. 4:20exhibition and the first one in
87. 4:231986 came to
88. 4:25London and um of course M Oto had died
89. 4:29he had died in 19 um 80 he was 91 years
90. 4:32old my mother was 17 years younger than
91. 4:34he and um so she had come over here she
92. 4:38still lived in Switzerland and we were
93. 4:40of course invited was Ken Livingston who
94. 4:42organized this
95. 4:44exhibition and um there was um fig in
96. 4:48this room and there was a Podium and the
97. 4:50set about five six people and they all
98. 4:53spoke very movingly about that event and
99. 4:56what had happened about the exhibition
100. 4:58and the all kind of things
101. 5:00and then he said to me um Eva will um
102. 5:03come and sit with us at the head table
103. 5:05which I'm just did and then at the very
104. 5:08end he said and now evil will want to
105. 5:10say a few words to you well I didn't i'
106. 5:13had never spoken I was still very shy I
107. 5:16wanted to hide myself really under the
108. 5:18table but I got up and everybody looked
109. 5:22very expectantly at me and eventually um
110. 5:27after 40 years everything kept flooding
111. 5:30out and they couldn't stop me and that
112. 5:33was for me really a water shed I
113. 5:36realized that people were interested
114. 5:38afterwards many people came to me
115. 5:41wanting to know more and um it was
116. 5:45important and then this exhibition
117. 5:48traveled all over England and um they
118. 5:51always asked me to open it well I wasn't
119. 5:54a speaker um my husband wrote a speech
120. 5:57to me which I read badly and nervously
121. 6:00always had to take a a tranquilizer
122. 6:03before I had to do that and um then I
123. 6:06didn't like how he put it you know a
124. 6:08woman says it in a different way from a
125. 6:10man So eventually I changed thing and
126. 6:13eventually I just found my own voice and
127. 6:17then people said you know you have such
128. 6:18an interesting story yourself you should
129. 6:21really write a book and that did said
130. 6:24send the first book which came out um
131. 6:26Eva story
132. 6:281988 and after I've written you know I
133. 6:31could let go because till then I knew
134. 6:34really every little detail it was
135. 6:36imprinted in my brain but afterwards and
136. 6:4010 days later when people ask me a
137. 6:42little detail I very often said oh I
138. 6:44have to look it up in my book and that
139. 6:47was really you know a relief and um then
140. 6:51you know I will tell you about my second
141. 6:53book A Promise um well I that is really
142. 6:57about my brother mainly um I told you he
143. 7:00was um so a sensitive boy when he was 12
144. 7:04years old um he said to me one day um
145. 7:08what will happen when we die I'm afraid
146. 7:11and I said well I don't know but let's
147. 7:13ask Our Father who answers to everything
148. 7:16and we went to him and he said puppy
149. 7:19what will happen when I die my father
150. 7:21said well if you have children you will
151. 7:23live on in your
152. 7:25children and then this 12-year-old boy
153. 7:27said but what if I die before if any
154. 7:30children and my father s a minute and he
155. 7:33said well I promise you whatever you
156. 7:36have done whatever um you have achieved
157. 7:41somebody will remember we are all a link
158. 7:44in a big in a long generation which goes
159. 7:47on and on nothing is ever lost and so um
160. 7:53he had to accept this answer and so a
161. 7:56few years ago I decided
162. 8:00I'm going to keep the promise to hands
163. 8:01of my father that he won't be forgotten
164. 8:04like having given the paintings to the
165. 8:06museum when many many people can see it
166. 8:10it has been actually now in the west
167. 8:12London synagogue at copies made and some
168. 8:16of them were shown there and perhaps I'm
169. 8:18going to bring it once here to the
170. 8:20Jewish Museum they're really amazing
171. 8:22pictures and as well the the poems they
172. 8:26of course in Dutch and uh and um but for
173. 8:30this book I had some translated and I'm
174. 8:32going to end with um reading one of it
175. 8:35to
176. 8:38you don't cry mama mama do I have to die
177. 8:42already I heard the doctor say so please
178. 8:46Mama don't cry Heaven is such a
179. 8:48beautiful place and soon we'll be
180. 8:51together again Mama what will my little
181. 8:54sister say when she wants to play with
182. 8:56me again please Mama don't cry
183. 9:00after all I'll be seeing dead again he's
184. 9:03been waiting up there so long
185. 9:05already remember to take good care of
186. 9:08the kitten she loves me so please Mama
187. 9:11don't cry do you still love me as much
188. 9:14as ever are you still with me please
189. 9:17tell
190. 9:18me please hold my hand for just a minute
191. 9:22it seems so Misty in the room please
192. 9:26tell me mama don't cry mama just one
193. 9:29more s please kiss me
194. 9:32goodbye he was just 17 years old when he
195. 9:36wrote that