Nineteen forty-six is when I came to the United States at 17 years old. I was lucky to have my sister Ellen living in the Bronx. She immigrated to the United States in 1939 just before World War II started. In fact, she couldn’t go to the city of Mukačevo to catch a train to Prague; it was already occupied by the Hungarians, who were allied with Nazi Germany. So, she had to go through mountain roads by horse and wagon to Slovakia, where she caught a train to Prague and picked up her visa for America. Two weeks later, Germany occupied the Czech lands, including Prague. She made it to Sweden and caught a ship to the United States.
After my sister Cilia and I were liberated from the camps, Cilia got in touch with Ellen and she, in turn, looked up our father’s distant cousin who was in a position to sponsor us to be admitted to the United States. As a result, a year after liberation, we were in the United States of America. Ellen’s husband, Willie, got me a nice room within a one-family house. After I was there for a while, they came out with a new system for playing records, referred to as a “stereo,” so I purchased one and enjoyed it immensely. On Sunday when no one was home, I turned on the volume very loud. One could hear the vibration of the classical music I played.
Years later, after I was married and lived in my own house, I treated myself to a Bang & Olufsen system, which had a beautiful design, and I enjoyed it for many years. I found that sometimes simple things in life are very satisfying and worth having.
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