Interview — Describes fleeing from Germany to France while posing as a non-Jewish child [1996 interview].
[Interviewer] You, just before you go on about getting to Paris you described to me a, just an incident that was a very dangerous one that occurred on the train as you were going from Germany to Paris, you might just say a few words about that, because you were posing as, I assume, posing as her children.
[Susi] Yes. Yes, exactly. I’m glad you brought that up. The lady, I don't remember her name, but the lady said to us, "listen, you are supposed to be French children, and we are going to go across the border, and what you are to do is you are to be fast asleep when those Gestapo people come in the train and check out who's on the train and checks out all these passports." And my brother and I said oh yes, we're going to follow your direction. So what happened is, I think we'd, it took a long time, even though it's not a big distance now but to us, and in those days it was a long time, it was 1939, so just so you can get a perspective. It was right before Germany invaded Poland. And so, maybe it was in August of 1939. So what happened is we woke up in the middle of the night, we heard this big commotion. My brother's heart is pounding, he’s sleeping right next to me, and I’m shaking, and the Gestapos are coming into the compartment, and they are talking to the lady in French and my brother and I did not know how to speak any French. So, what happened is evidently she must have shown them the passports and shown that we were her kids, I don't know how she did that but she did. We were her kids. And finally they left, and so that's...
[Interviewer] So you safely got to Paris and to your cousin's apartment?
[Susi] Yes, yes.
