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Testimonio

Irene Hizme
Nació: 1937, en Teplice Sanov, Checoslovaquia

Describe la vida en un orfanato en Francia durante la posguerra [Entrevista: 1995]

La transcripción completa:

I got shipped, um, got shipped to France and finally wound up in a, in an orphanage in Fublaines. It, which is just on the outskirts of Paris. And I was one of the youngest children there, and I didn't speak to anybody except Miriam [a friend of Irene's], who was about, I guess about seven years older. She seemed like almost a mother figure in a sense to me, because she would, I had these long curls and she would fuss with them and she just was very compassionate, and I, um, the other children--I was the only child there with a number, so I also felt that there was something wrong with me. I felt that I had done something horrible, that I had gotten the number and nobody else did. Most of these children had escaped somehow by hiding, or their parents had temporarily given them over and some were subsequently reunited with parents, and some just had family members and they were just waiting to be shipped to, and you know, things like that.

I got shipped, um, got shipped to France and finally wound up in a, in an orphanage in Fublaines. It, which is just on the outskirts of Paris. And I was one of the youngest children there, and I didn't speak to anybody except Miriam [a friend of Irene's], who was about, I guess about seven years older. She seemed like almost a mother figure in a sense to me, because she would, I had these long curls and she would fuss with them and she just was very compassionate, and I, um, the other children--I was the only child there with a number, so I also felt that there was something wrong with me. I felt that I had done something horrible, that I had gotten the number and nobody else did. Most of these children had escaped somehow by hiding, or their parents had temporarily given them over and some were subsequently reunited with parents, and some just had family members and they were just waiting to be shipped to, and you know, things like that.

Irene y su hermano mellizo Rene nacieron Renate y Rene Guttman. La familia se mudó a Praga poco después del nacimiento de los mellizos, donde vivían cuando los alemanes ocuparon Bohemia y Moravia en marzo de 1939. Pocos meses después, soldados alemanes arrestaron a su padre. Décadas después, Irene y Rene se enteraron que fue matado en el campo de Auschwitz en diciembre de 1941. Irene, Rene y su madre fueron deportados al ghetto de Theresienstadt, y después al campo de Auschwitz. En Auschwitz, los mellizos fueron separados y sujetos a experimentos médicos. Irene y Rene estuvieron separados por mucho tiempo después de su liberación de Auschwitz. Irene fue mandada a varios orfanatos de Europa. El grupo Rescate de Niños la trajo a los Estados Unidos en 1947, donde se reunió con Rene en 1950.

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