Holocaust Survivor Eva Schloss on Life in Amsterdam in 1940-44 and Hiding from the Nazis — Transcript

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1. 0:05so he had tried all the time for us to
2. 0:07get a visa in amsterdam
3. 0:09so in holland so eventually he got set
4. 0:13for us to come in february 1940 to visit
5. 0:16him for three months
6. 0:19so um
7. 0:20he so we went to amsterdam my father
8. 0:23taken a furnished apartment on the
9. 0:25marvada plan this is how it looks now
10. 0:28but i have a picture how it looked then
11. 0:31well i'll show you later anyway of the
12. 0:33merida plan a beautiful square with
13. 0:36apartments on both sides there were no
14. 0:38trees it was all open space at the time
15. 0:41and certainly no cars
16. 0:43and
17. 0:46all the children from the whole
18. 0:47neighborhood jewish and non-jewish
19. 0:49children came out to play there
20. 0:51and one day
21. 0:53a little girl came to me and introduced
22. 0:55herself and her name was
23. 0:58anna frank
24. 1:00of course at that time she was nothing
25. 1:02special she was just one of my many
26. 1:04friends the dutch were lovely
27. 1:07they all welcomed us they were all
28. 1:09interested in me where you came from how
29. 1:12is it in austria and you know i could
30. 1:14speak a little bit of dutch because
31. 1:17belgium is a two language country
32. 1:19flemish and belgium and french
33. 1:22and we had to of course learn both
34. 1:25languages but it's not quite like dutch
35. 1:28and i didn't know a lot but a little bit
36. 1:30so
37. 1:31we became friends she took me up to her
38. 1:34apartment and i met her family her
39. 1:36mother father
40. 1:38and her older sister but we were not
41. 1:40best friends because i told you i was
42. 1:42really a tomboy
43. 1:44i liked to play with the boys
44. 1:46rounders and
45. 1:48rough games and ani was really a
46. 1:51sophisticated little girl said this
47. 1:54people was 11 she was one month younger
48. 1:56than me
49. 1:58and
50. 1:59she was interested in her
51. 2:02hairstyle in her clothes
52. 2:04and always on boys already was 13 years
53. 2:07old when i told her i had an older
54. 2:10brother i asked her very big and she
55. 2:13asked when can she come
56. 2:16to my apartment
57. 2:18my brother was three years older he was
58. 2:20not interested in little girls at the
59. 2:22time
60. 2:24my brother by the way he was
61. 2:27ready when he was a little boy he was a
62. 2:30very very talented musician the talent
63. 2:33came from my grandfather he's four years
64. 2:36old he could already play he has a
65. 2:38perfect ear but you sang or whistle the
66. 2:41tune he could find it and play it
67. 2:44and
68. 2:45in this apartment there was a it was a
69. 2:47furnished apartment belonging to a
70. 2:49christian that's very important
71. 2:52and
72. 2:53there was even a piano so he got piano
73. 2:55lessons again he got an accordion he had
74. 2:58the guitar he formed a little band and
75. 3:01we settled down and we were very happy
76. 3:04but the happiness didn't last very long
77. 3:07because in may so after three months
78. 3:11in the night we heard guns and shooting
79. 3:14and
80. 3:15we put the radio on and it said terrible
81. 3:18news the germans are trying to invade
82. 3:20our country
83. 3:22holland was not in the war in the first
84. 3:24first world war because it's under sea
85. 3:27level and that just flooded the country
86. 3:29and the germans bypassed it so they say
87. 3:31we are just going to open our dikes and
88. 3:34hitler can't come in
89. 3:36but of course the war had changed there
90. 3:38were aeroplanes and
91. 3:41just landed with parachutes behind the
92. 3:44flooded land and as well it was the
93. 3:46first time in this year war
94. 3:49that um a civilian city had been bombed
95. 3:52rotterdam
96. 3:543 000 casualties
97. 3:56and
98. 3:57within five days a dutch gave up we
99. 4:00still tried to escape to the harbour to
100. 4:02take a boat to england but it was too
101. 4:04late
102. 4:05so we went back and we thought well
103. 4:07we'll see what happens now
104. 4:09and nothing happened so we thought oh
105. 4:11well you know they are not going to do
106. 4:13anything in holland and the dutch said
107. 4:15don't worry we are going to protect you
108. 4:18but the germans just didn't want to
109. 4:20alienate
110. 4:21dutch and those event very careful
111. 4:24and as well started to be quite a big
112. 4:26nazi party that is not always known in
113. 4:29holland through the diary of anna frank
114. 4:32people think everybody in holland was
115. 4:34good well it wasn't there was quite a
116. 4:36big nazi party not immediately but
117. 4:39slowly and it looked at first you know
118. 4:41that hitler was going to win the war
119. 4:44because by 1941 practically the whole of
120. 4:47europe was occupied by it
121. 4:50norway denmark holland belgium france um
122. 4:54greece the whole balkan the whole europe
123. 4:57was and poland of course was occupied by
124. 5:00hitler so those nazis thought well when
125. 5:02the war is finished they're going to get
126. 5:04good positions
127. 5:06but the majority of the dutch people
128. 5:08hated and the germans hated to be
129. 5:11occupied
130. 5:12and
131. 5:13they started to be like in all the
132. 5:15occupied countries a big resistance
133. 5:18movement
134. 5:19and those people were then later the
135. 5:21ones who helped us
136. 5:23in hiding
137. 5:24but we are not so far yet so
138. 5:27slowly the measures against the jewish
139. 5:29population started to appear after
140. 5:32several months and it was not too bad
141. 5:35you know we could live with it for
142. 5:37instance you were not allowed on public
143. 5:39transport well everybody at the bicycle
144. 5:41and amsterdam is not so big you can walk
145. 5:44really everywhere
146. 5:46then you were not allowed to concerts or
147. 5:48cinema or children swimming pools and
148. 5:51things like that which was a nuisance
149. 5:53but it didn't really matter too much
150. 5:57um then you were there were school few
151. 5:59in the morning you were not allowed to
152. 6:01go out early or late in the evening so
153. 6:03it started to become more and more
154. 6:05difficult but not dangerous yet
155. 6:10and so all the time something else
156. 6:12appeared then we had to wear the jewish
157. 6:14star that became already more dangerous
158. 6:17because one day
159. 6:19say
160. 6:20cordoned off a part of amsterdam and
161. 6:22took away arrested all the jewish boys
162. 6:25and men who were in that part of the
163. 6:27city
164. 6:28and those people were never ever heard
165. 6:30of again
166. 6:33only after the war it went here they
167. 6:36were taken to mauthausen you might have
168. 6:38heard of that camp an austrian desk camp
169. 6:41really horrible
170. 6:42and they were just thrown down from the
171. 6:44cliffs there
172. 6:46but luckily we didn't know that that's a
173. 6:48time
174. 6:49then we had to go to jewish schools
175. 6:51which by itself wasn't bad but again the
176. 6:54nazis knew there are a lot of jewish
177. 6:57kids which they really wanted to get
178. 6:59so they came with trucks went into a
179. 7:02classroom told the children
180. 7:04go down on the truck
181. 7:06and they disappeared the parents waited
182. 7:10in the evening for the children to come
183. 7:12home
184. 7:12never turned up
185. 7:14went to the police went to different
186. 7:16institutions rivers and nazis
187. 7:19nobody gave them information and again
188. 7:22only after the war did we hear again
189. 7:25they were sent to mouth house and just
190. 7:26murdered there
191. 7:28so it became really scary to go out to
192. 7:31go to school to do anything
193. 7:34so we lived in fears it was 41-42
194. 7:38we lived in fear so every evening we
195. 7:40were still together as a family we were
196. 7:44you know
197. 7:45i wouldn't say happy but i'm content
198. 7:48that nothing had happened but scared
199. 7:51and then in in june 1942
200. 7:56about ten 000 young people between the
201. 7:59age of about 16 and 25 got the call-up
202. 8:03notice to be deported to germany to work
203. 8:07in german factories you know they never
204. 8:09said things as a real name it always
205. 8:12something which didn't sound bad
206. 8:15so many people sent their young people
207. 8:18but they never went to germany they
208. 8:20never were heard of again
209. 8:22and but that was the time my brother
210. 8:23heinz god said and
211. 8:26ana's older sister margot
212. 8:29and that is when our parents obviously
213. 8:31we didn't know had prepared to disappear
214. 8:34go into hiding
215. 8:36so
216. 8:37we had a week
217. 8:39till my brother would have to go so my
218. 8:41father called us together one evening
219. 8:43and he said
220. 8:44hence is not going
221. 8:46and we are going to go into hiding
222. 8:48well i must say i didn't quite get going
223. 8:51to hiding adults going high you know it
224. 8:53was a um i said i know
225. 8:56game hide and seek but what do you mean
226. 8:58we're going hiding am i fat explain we
227. 9:01are going to stay with wonderful people
228. 9:04from the resistance we sometimes don't
229. 9:06even know them who are willing to risk
230. 9:09their life to help
231. 9:11jewish people
232. 9:13and as i said there were many of those
233. 9:15but he said
234. 9:18nobody can really take a one stick a
235. 9:20family of four so we have to split up
236. 9:24i me you go with um muti with my mother
237. 9:27and heinz will go with him
238. 9:30i didn't want to be separated i said no
239. 9:32no please let's stay together he said no
240. 9:35if we go into different places a chance
241. 9:38that two of us will survive is greater
242. 9:41and that hit me so survive i said well
243. 9:44you mean there's danger that we might be
244. 9:47killed
245. 9:48and my father said yes
246. 9:50and that was you know for a 13 year old
247. 9:53person quite quite scary as i say you
248. 9:56know things had been bad but
249. 9:59parents protected us and never said how
250. 10:02dangerous is going to be but at that
251. 10:04time i really knew then our life is in
252. 10:07danger
253. 10:09well we went um so we departed and went
254. 10:12to different hiding places the people
255. 10:14from the resistance came and looked over
256. 10:17every hiding place we had to change
257. 10:18about
258. 10:20six seven times
259. 10:21and built a hiding place within the
260. 10:24hiding place because the nazis did house
261. 10:27searches in the night they knocked on
262. 10:29doors
263. 10:30dutch people had to open the doors they
264. 10:33had to let them in they had to let
265. 10:35search their homes
266. 10:36um if they fenced it and articles they
267. 10:38just took it away
268. 10:40and
269. 10:42searched for jewish people because they
270. 10:44really wanted to catch every jew it is
271. 10:47really amazing how much effort they put
272. 10:50into all this
273. 10:52all their
274. 10:54soldiers all their work all the
275. 10:56transports to go to the camps all the
276. 10:59building of the camps
277. 11:01you know it's amazing and even till when
278. 11:03they knew practically they were losing
279. 11:05their wars they were still
280. 11:07going after the jews it is that's really
281. 11:09uncomprehensible
282. 11:12so we had the hiding place and in the
283. 11:14night when they knocked
284. 11:16we quickly went in there and you can
285. 11:18imagine we didn't dare to sleep properly
286. 11:20and it was very very scary and so people
287. 11:24where we were staying became scared as
288. 11:26well so that's why after six months or
289. 11:29sometimes even after several weeks they
290. 11:31said you have to change hiding place
291. 11:34so
292. 11:35we were hiding for two years
293. 11:37until 44 when my father phoned my mother
294. 11:41one day and said the woman where they
295. 11:43are hiding is blackmailing them for more
296. 11:46money
297. 11:47and
298. 11:48our money was running out so my father
299. 11:51said please live in the country within
300. 11:53amsterdam please find us a new hiding
301. 11:56place
302. 11:57so by 44 it became already very
303. 12:00difficult many people were arrested
304. 12:02money didn't want to do it dutch people
305. 12:05went into hiding as well
306. 12:07so took my mother three weeks to find a
307. 12:10contact who knows a safe hiding place it
308. 12:14was a dutch nurse
309. 12:16but it turned out this dutch nurse was
310. 12:18really a double agent
311. 12:20she
312. 12:22really worked for the nazis pretended
313. 12:24she was a member from the resistance
314. 12:28so that's a bit of a complicated story
315. 12:31but um
316. 12:32on a tuesday it was my 15th birthday we
317. 12:35had just moved as well to a different
318. 12:36hiding place we had a knock on the door
319. 12:39in the morning
320. 12:40and the nazis stormed in
321. 12:42and
322. 12:43took us away my mother and me