Announcer: This program is brought to you in part by the... Woman: [Speaking Greek] Lucas: It was cloudy, dark, cold--below zero-- and the snow was about two feet down on the ground.

They used to mention that when the black snow is going to come, something is going to happen to us.

Lena: In our eyes, Kastoria was the best town in Greece because of the mountains and because of the lake.

We loved Kastoria because we grew up there.

We had friends there.

We never knew any problems.

We were very comfortable.

Nothing was missing to us.

We were very happy.

As young people, we wanted... to have good time.

Lucas: Kastoria was a small town.

In Kastoria, nobody separate the Jewish from the Christians.

It was a good life that we have together.

They feel like one family.

Moshe: [Speaking foreign language] Lena: My father had 6 brothers and 4 sisters.

They all lived in Kastoria.

In 1918, my father went to United States as a young man for 9 years.

And he went to business as a skirt manufacturer.

He loved the United States.

He spoke English perfect.

And he spoke German and French and Greek.

He was a polyglot.

And then the sisters, they came to the United States in order to get married because no young men were left in Kastoria for the girls to get married because they were coming into the United States to find jobs to work or for different reasons.

So my father was in charge to take the sisters and marry them.

He wrote to my mother because they were neighbors in Kastoria and they loved each other.

In those years, there were no telephones available.

They corresponded very, very slow.

Then he asked my grandparents to send my mother to the United States so they can get married.

Beni: But the father of my mother says, "I'm not giving my daughter to America.

If you want to get married, you have to come back."

So he came back from America and married my mother.

We were 5 altogether.

Lena was first.

Second was Vital, my brother.

Third I was.

Fourth was Moshico.

And fifth was Selly, the little one.

I loved the little one.

My grandfather was in the business of the flour mill.

The waters was coming from the mountain and coming right straight in this wheel, and that's how it was working originally.

When my father took over, he bought a big machine, and that was the power.

I loved to go to the mill, and I learned how to start the machine, how to grind the wheat and how to pack it and how to do it.

We used to go a lot, and my father used to stay all day in the mill.

Lucas: The villagers, they come with the wheat and corn, and they take in bucket the flour.

All around was a garden, and the sitting there pleasant.

It was a beautiful place.

Lena: Many people from Kastoria used to go for picnic in our mill and sit around this walnut tree.

My father used to have, like, benches all around, a big place, very cozy.

And everybody, they used to come there.

My father used to come to make them very comfortable, to make a fire, and they used to make, like, barbecue, or they used to bring food themselves and says, "Go, cut some tomatoes, cut whatever you want."

Everybody was dreaming.

"We're going to the mill of Calef."

[Speaks Greek] You know, they used to say.

Near Calef Mill was a place they call a... [Speaks Turkish] It's a Turkish word.

It means the water come out from the rock and goes to the lake.

It was a very well-known place.

Nitsa: [Speaking Greek] Man: [Speaking Greek] Summertime we used to go swimming down in the lake.

The girls, we were not supposed to go swimming.

[Speaking Greek] No one was supposed to see a girl with a swimming suit.

Sally: And of course we didn't have bathing suits.

Took the skirts, and we made it like a bathing suit.

You show your legs.

It was...a big deal.

Beni: There were some winters years ago, the lake used to freeze.

[Speaking Greek] Beni: I remember one guy, he was ice skating.

For us, ice skating, we never saw ice skating.

They used to go with the horses from one side to the other to exchange certain things with others, sell some things in order to buy.

[Speaking Greek] Lena: They used to buy grapes and make wine in the house.

[Indistinct], feta cheese, yogurt.

Used to make everything in that house.

My other used to tell me, "You have to learn how to iron.

"You have to dust all the furniture and all the mirrors, it's your job."

Very strict.

Very strict.

I came back late.

It was 8:00.

It was dark, pitch black.

My mother, she used to go and hit us, say... [Speaks Greek] "At this hour?

In the streets?

Where were you?"

So this is the mentality of Kastoria.

Girls, they were not supposed to do nothing else but concentrate to be good girls, to get married and have a family.

Lucas: In Kastoria, there is no radio.

You heard all the local news from the men.

Benjamin Honen, he was the town crier.

He used to go to all the neighborhoods and announce any kind of news.

A lot of people could not afford newspapers.

And some people couldn't read neither.

They call him [Speaks Greek], the announcer.

He was a big, Jewish man with a very nice voice, strong, and he'd stop on each side of the street, and he says... [Speaking Greek] "Listen, civilians."

And when the people heard him, they would run to the doors, to the windows.

You know, for the kids, it was amazing.

Andreas: [Speaking Greek] Every Monday, all the farmers and whoever sold things used to go the bazaar.

It was like a flea market.

There were a lot of people, the whole of Kastoria.

They used to come from other cities also.

They used to bring stuff to sell.

We had two sections of Jews, which one they call La Toumba, where was the school.

And there was the Tsarsi, which is where they have the boutiques and shops.

[Speaking Greek] Most of the Jews, they had the clothing business, hardware store, and they were not furriers; they were serving the furriers.

On Metropol Street, it was all the Jewish stores.

Brickers, shoemakers, bakers.

Noti: [Speaking Greek] And the fruit market was a man who was Kucho, who was a very nice old man.

The people, they love him.

[Speaking Greek] Down further was...[indistinct].

He used to sell fabric dyes.

[Indistinct], he had like a 99 store, all small things, you know.

[Speaking Greek] [Speaking Greek] [Speaking Greek] Noti: [Speaking Greek] Beni: Next to high school was the Jewish community.

Man: [Speaking Greek] Any holiday, and they'd say, "We'll shake hands next year in Jerusalem."

They were Zionists and Bet Harim, and so we had a club.

We had meetings.

They spoke about Israel, "The life of Israel," they used to say.

Sally: [Singing in Greek] Lena: In school we learned Greek, French, and Hebrew.

We spoke Hebrew very well.

Ladino was the language that we spoke in the house.

Outside the house, we spoke Greek.

We were very friendly between the Jews and the Christians of Kastoria.

We were in a mixed school with Greeks.

And as children, we played around the streets, we played around the schoolyard.

We were very close friends.

I still have them.

[Speaking Greek] They used to come for Passover in our house and give them the matzas that we used to bake in the house.

Special matzas of a wine and sugar and the coppettas and all the sweet things that we used to make.

They used to love it.

The same thing it used to be for their Easter or the Christmas, we used to go to their house.

[Greek music playing] [Man singing in Greek] [Speaking Greek] The Jews for Purim, they used to give a big dance party.

It was a ball, but many Christian people will come and with music and dancing and eating and everything.

And not only that, we used to get dressed up like carnival and used to have band music.

Again, we're laughing and we're saying jokes.

We had fun.

[Man, singing in Hebrew] Noti: [Speaking Greek] [Speaking Greek] [Man singing in Hebrew] Beni: We are like one family with the Jewish people.

We live together in one city.

It was a good life we have together.

[Singing continues] [Man speaking Italian] Beni: When the war started, Mussolini asked to surrender Greece, and Metaxis says no, and the war started.

The Italians came from Albania because they had occupied Albania.

And that's where it started the war towards Kastoria with Albania is very near, next to.

So the Greeks start winning, and they occupy half of Albania.

[March playing] Hitler called Mussolini and says, "Stop it, what are you doing, "because you're going to lose the whole Albania.

We'll take care of it."

And the Germans declare war to Greece.

[Newscaster speaking German] Fire!

[Newscaster speaking German] February 15, 1941 was the Battle of Kastoria.

Gus: It was a beautiful day.

We were outside of the houses watching the war.

It was like you see in movie.

Was a little bridge outside Kastoria.

They call it [indistinct].

And there is an opening there to go to the Aliakmonas river.

The Greek artillery blew the bridge a couple of times with the tanks on it.

The battle was going on all day.

The Germans were approaching the bridge, and the Greek artillery was bombing the Germans.

They stopped them.

Lucas: The Germans, they tried to pass that bridge 5 times.

That day the German planes, 40 Stukas, they come in the afternoon.

Suddenly those German airplanes started diving and dropping bombs.

They bombed the Greek artillery that was on the outskirts of Kastoria, and many, many got killed.

That building where the Greek army was, two bombs fell there, and we saw the building fell on top of them with the feet outside.

Lucas: And then the German planes, they throw fliers to the Greek soldiers into the city, and they say, "If your troops doesn't go back or surrender, they will burn the city."

But we knew the soldiers can't stand against the Germans.

We have to go back.

Gus: Greece--part of it the Germans kept.

Part of it they gave it to Italians, part of it gave it to Bulgaria.

The Italians expected that the whole of Greece would be theirs, that the Germans were helping them conquer Greece.

But the Italians found that they were pushed aside constantly by the Germans.

And the Germans effectively were asserting themselves as in complete control of everything.

So Kastoria is in an Italian zone.

We were lucky that the Germans left and they gave it to Italians, so we were occupied by Italians from the moment the Germans left till almost the end, almost the end.

Bracha: During the Italian occupation of Kastoria, the life was moderately peaceful because it was about a time after big hungers.

I mean, everybody was hungry.

[Speaking Greek] Many times there were some poor people that would pass by, and the soldiers would give them food.

You know, at that time, nobody had food.

They were very generous.

The Italians, as you know, they're always very jolly people and friendly.

But being under the Germans, the Italians, they had order to pick up a few people that they were suspicious that they were helping the partisans with food, with guns, with whatever.

Lucas: Well, the Italians were frightened of the partisans.

They used to kill them in front of the Kastoria cemetery in the afternoon.

And we'd watch them.

It was far away, but you can see it.

The people standing and... falling down after the shooting.

It's very bad.

As children, we wanted to see execution.

And hide in a bush there.

Two people, one I knew him, my neighbor.

The execution squad came there.

They gave the order.

With the first shot, they died right there.

Then the other guy, they put him in the garbage car, and the guy started moving again.

3 policemen, they came and they shot him 3 times again, and I saw that from that bush.

I was horrified.

[Speaking Greek] Gus: But the oldest brother, Benny, he was among the young Jews who were ready to go to the resistance.

They had an office behind the mill.

They used to meet there and talk.

But it's not easy to abandon your house, your friends, your mother, your father.

Real easy to talk, but you don't leave your family like this.

Say good-bye.

The Italians did not like the Germans, and they weren't happy with German racial laws particularly.

When the Italians surrendered in 1943, immediately the Germans moved into Kastoria.

Lucas: The Germans ride into the city.

The first were motorcycle people with one in the front, one in the back, and one next to it with the machine guns.

Glasses, helmets, you know.

See, I was only a kid, 15 years old, and the kids would salute them, and my mother says, "Don't get close to them.

You don't know what could happen."

They came with the tanks and the soldiers, trucks.

Many, many soldiers, and they started living in the houses.

You know, they see some nice house, you know?

They says, "You have to go out.

We have to take it."

Beni: Our house was exactly opposite the courthouse.

The Germans found out who they were, the partisans.

They needed the information.

The court had some files, so the easiest way for the partisans was to burn the whole courthouse.

We were sleeping.

In the meantime, the flames are exactly on our room.

Lena: Yes, yes.

My father got up.

"Fire!

Fire!

Out!

Everybody out!"

Burned.

It burned, the whole house.

Beni: And one day I was going to gymnasium, and all the boys in the school, they're looking around.

"What are you looking?"

He says, "Take a look."

And they brought army, the Germans, all around Kastoria in the mountains.

You couldn't go anyplace.

That day when the Italians were leaving the city, the Germans, they executed 3 Kastorians in cold blood for no reason with a pistol right in the center of the city.

The first one was a guy whose name was Bikalis.

They execute him right there near the palladium, and then they killed another person somewhere.

And then there was an old man that was helping the Italians to load a few things before they left.

And the German with the motorcycle grabbed him, put him against the barber shop.

He killed him right there without asking anything.

And the rumors spread, and we all got scared to death.

Andreas: [Speaking Greek] Right away we were restricted of going anywhere.

First of all, we had to wear the Jewish star on the sleeve.

Bill: [Speaking Greek] Well, life was miserable.

You couldn't even go to work.

Any business that you had, they took it away.

Anything good that we had in the houses, just took it.

Sotirios: [Speaking Greek] Moshe: [Speaking Greek] We were prepared that something is going to come and pick up the Jews and send us who knows where to work.

So you have to prepare for each person of the family a bag to have everything.

The underwear, a sweater, a coat, shoes, something, you know, like crackers, you know.

So these sacks were, my mother made, for each of us individuals to prepare when we have to leave.

Gus: That day we bury my grandmother.

I was following the hearse to the cemetery.

The cemetery was right behind Calef's mill.

I saw Calef walking home from the synagogue because it was Shabbos.

He knew our family.

I remember him taking his hat off, putting it on his heart as respect for the dead.

Then later on I remember when the undertaker cover my grandmother, the snow came down black completely.

Noti: [Speaking Greek] [Speaking Greek] Noti: [Speaking Greek] [Speaking Greek] Man: [Speaking Greek] Beni: At that time I was collecting money from the bakers, that we used to sell the flour.

And I see outside of the store Greek police and Germans, they're starting going to the houses and collecting all the Jews.

So I said, "Now what do I do?

Should I go to the mill?"

I hear that the mill is closed.

You can't go.

So if I go down to the lake, then go around, maybe I can go.

But I said, "How can I go?

Alone?

My Mother?

My sister?"

I said, "I'm gonna go home, "and I'm gonna tell them that I'm gonna go, and then I'll go."

I went home, and then in the back of me came the Germans.

They came in, the Germans, to pick us up.

First came my grandfather, Nono Konfino.

He was in the store, and the Germans went and took his keys.

And on the way to go to the house, he passed by our house to see us, what is gonna be.

And I remember his words.

"They took my keys.

I don't care.

"Let them take everything, "just they should leave me my children, all of you.

"Let them take everything what I have.

Don't worry."

Nitsa: [Speaking Greek] [Speaking Greek] [Speaking Greek] Man: [Speaking Greek] Different man: [Speaking Greek] That day, Vital, my brother, and his friends, they were in the mill.

And they decide to escape, to go with the partisans.

They went all the way, but in the meantime, the Germans, they had put guards all around the mountains, so they got caught like everybody else.

In the end, they caught us all except Maurice.

Lena: Maurice Russo.

I know him because he was gallant, he was very...gentleman.

He was in the downtown bazaar.

He left the store from the back door, and he saw a big barrel.

And the barrel was open.

So he went under, and he stayed there until it got dark.

Lena: So at midnight, start going up in the mountains where he had some Greek friends.

But the Germans, they announce, "If we find any Jew "hiding in one of the Greeks' houses, we're gonna kill the whole family."

And all of a sudden he heard noise.

And it was a Greek policeman.

He found him.

"Don't worry.

I'll take you so you can go."

And he says, "Why are you taking me over here for?

You told me you're gonna take me to the lake."

He take the gun behind him.

"You better walk."

He brought him where we were all and told the Germans that, "He's a Jew.

I got him."

So the Germans, they start hitting him.

"What is your name?"

"Maurice Russo."

"Where were you going?"

Many other questions, and they start beating him.

The policeman, then he felt guilty, and he says, "Please, stop.

He came to me.

"I did not get him.

He came to me and asked to take him to where his family is."

He felt guilty, but it was too late.

Now they have him there, and we were upstairs, and they call my father.

He cannot remember all the children of everybody.

Says, "Do you know this fella?"

He looked.

"Sure, I know him."

"What is his name?"

My father could not remember.

The start beating him again.

And my father...[Speaks Greek].

Please!

I remember.

It's our child.

Again he could not remember.

"I know he's Russo, Russo."

"What's the first name?"

He could not remember.

And Maurice was trembling, looking at my father lips to remember his name.

Finally my father said, "Wait, I know.

Maurice Russo."

"Ok, you can go up."

And when Maurice came up, my father made a little speech, and he said, "Friends, brothers and sisters, "let's hope how God liberated this boy, we should all be liberated."

Noti: [Speaking Greek] Bill: [Speaking Greek] Sally: March the 25th, we were... they got all in the school, and there came the trucks, you know, and they pick us up.

Bill: [Speaking Greek] [Speaking Greek] Bill: [Speaking Greek] Lucas: All the Kastorians, they feel very, very bad.

And when we lost them, Kastoria was empty.

It seems like Kastoria have a heart attack.

Nikos: By 9:00 in the morning, the Germans had gone through all of the houses and taken out the sheets and china and everything they wanted personally for the soldiers.

And by late afternoon an announcement was made that anyone who wanted to move into a Jewish house could go into it and register and take over the house.

So these are the cleaning up of the last Jewish communities in Greece, and Kastoria got it toward the end.

Rebecca Bisililo was a nice girl.

We were close friends.

And we were related also, like second or third cousins.

And when the Germans took us to Salonika, she was pregnant.

While we were in this camp, she start having labor pains, and the Germans took her to the hospital to give birth.

She gave away her child, Esther, to the nurse to take care of the child.

And the Germans took her back to the camp, and they... they killed her.

We were in a concentration camp there that they had in Salonika maybe 10, 15 days.

Then they put us in trains, and we went up to Auschwitz.

And there started the selecting.

Select.

Beni: As you were coming from the train, they used to tell, "You here, you here, you here, you here, you here," selecting.

They wanted people who can work.

So if they see even a young man that he doesn't look like he can work, they used to send it with a car.

They say, "You gonna go with the car.

You don't have to walk."

You cannot walk.

It's too far.

When the train stopped in Auschwitz, they open up the doors, and then came some men with the stripes-- prisoners, Jews.

And they said, the Germans, "They're coming to take out your packages, to help you."

As they were bending down, the Jews, they said to us, "Laissez les enfants.

"Laissez les enfants.

Laissez les enfants."

Leave your children.

They kept repeating and repeating.

Which mother will leave their child?

Which mother can leave their children?

No mother.

They selected women separate... and men separate... for work.

And the women that had children were young, they did not let them go into the camp.

We had to be on line.

And my mother took Mosheko, my little brother, and I took Selka in my hands.

And I said, "Why are they doing this to us?

"Because I was born Jewish?

I didn't do anything!"

When he came to me, he's asking me in French... [Speaks French] I could not answer.

He repeated again.

3 times he repeat.

I let him repeat.

In the meantime, I'm thinking.

[Speaks French] I said, "No.

She's my sister."

He grabbed my scarf from my face to see how old I am, and then he realized.

So he said, "Where is your mother?"

I said, "There, with my little brother."

"Send your sister with your mother."

And I was holding on her.

I put a big sweater of mine on her, and I let her go.

I went into camp, and that's the last one I saw them.

Beni: Well, they took us in, and we undressed.

They give us showers.

They put us on line, and they put us in number.

Lena: Yeah.

Beni: And after that, they give us the uniform, and we went into the barrack.

I was with my father, with Vital, with many other Kastorians.

We tried to be together.

They put the guards, all around was wires, you know.

Every morning you stay in line, freezing and everything.

Lena: Freezing.

3:00 in the morning.

Beni: And they keep you there 2, 3 hours, 4 hours, freezing, no food.

Finally once in a while they give you a little soup.

Finally they start telling us we're gonna go work.

Some people went under in the tunnel, inside to break the mountain.

They were building some tremendous holes inside the mountain.

Others they took to build the railroads, others to build some houses, to fix it.

Snow, cold.

We were going-- it was very bad.

Lena: The other Jewish people in this camp, they start saying, "What are you doing here?

"You're not even Jew!

You don't talk like Jewish people."

Says, "Yes, we are.

You, I think, you are not Jewish."

Because they were talking like a different language, which they called it Yiddish.

We thought that all the Jews all over the world, they spoke Spanish.

We could not understand this.

If they're Jewish, why don't they speak Spanish?

We had an argument, and at the end I said, "Listen, we are Jewish, and I'll tell you, I speak Hebrew, and I'll tell you..." [Speaking Hebrew] Then they believed us.

Newscaster: Freedom comes back to Greece.

A better day dawns for Athens, ancient birthplace of democracy.

Athens is free.

The hold of the enemy on the Balkans is crumbling, while the Allies push north in the Mediterranean, the enemy is threatened in the rear by the Russians.

[Cheering] Crowds gather around the Allied soldiers and hail the forces of liberation.

Beni: We were in Auschwitz 9 months.

And then the Russians start hitting the Germans, and they were progressing.

The Germans were losing the war.

All of a sudden there comes an order, and it says, "You have to take all these prisoners away from here."

Because the Russians.

We could hear the cannons of the Russians.

So one day, they told us to come out early in the morning.

They gave us a piece of bread like this, and we started walking back to Germany.

And that's where most of the people died.

They perished.

We started... my father, me, Vital, and a few others.

We were about 20 Kastorians there.

So we started walking.

What can I tell you.

We walk all day.

Now, if you fall down, you're finished.

They put you in the... car, in the back, and you were dead.

We were weak.

We didn't eat anything.

They didn't give us anything.

And water, they wouldn't let us drink water.

Luckily it rained the day before, and I went down to drink the filthy water, but I got one on top of my head.

I almost died.

You're not supposed to stop.

You have to walk all the time.

So this walk lasted maybe 15 to 20 days to reach Bergen Belsen.

We made a lot of stops.

Every night when it gets dark, we used to stop to a different concentration camp.

And they used to pull the rope together.

It was raining.

It was cold.

Nothing.

You couldn't change anything.

We were skeletons.

And on the way, people were dying.

So we started 1,000 people.

We arrived maybe 200.

We went by foot, and we went by train in the end.

Before we came to Bergen Belsen, my father says, "I can't go anymore.

I need water."

We didn't drunk water for 5 days.

They said people die in two days or...

So he die right inside the wagon.

And I said, "Pop, I have to go because I cannot stay."

And he die, and I continue.

We walked a little bit, then they put us in trucks, and the trucks brought us to Bergen Belsen.

Bergen Belsen was the biggest lager in Germany.

I was there.

I was there for two, three months.

One day, we were in line, and the guards start hitting everybody, and they hit my brother, and he fell down, and he was very bad.

And one day I says I have to go and see him.

How I'm gonna go?

They don't let you go out from the two barracks to the other two barracks.

And I see a guy who had a band that they allow him to go between one and another, although he was also a prisoner, but he was like a capo, you know.

So I said, I'm gonna do also like this.

But I didn't have the...

Band.

Band.

But I acted, and I was waiting, you know.

When he turned this way, I went through, you know.

I go there, and I find out where my brother was.

He's lying down.

I say, "Vital, come on, get up."

He couldn't.

He was very bad.

In the meantime, it got dark, and I couldn't go back.

So I slept with him.

When I woke up in the morning, he wasn't next to me.

I saw him, like, one yard away on the corner there.

Somebody pulled him.

I don't know.

And he was dead, and I-- I remember I took his belt.

Yes.

It was his belt, and I said, "Vital, I'm taking your belt.

I'm sorry I have to go now."

Lena: The Germans, no matter what, they were bad, but they were working also.

And they were looking for some kind of... not entertainment, A little change.

And they used to call me the Griechenland.

"Where is the Griechenland?"

To sing for them.

And they used to give me a piece of bread, used to give me some... a piece of ham or bacon or whatever they-- a potato, even the skin of potatoes I would take.

This is how I survived, by singing.

Woman: [Singing in German] Beni: At that point, the Germans were losing the war, and they were approaching Bergen Belsen.

They were taking 100 people from each two barracks every day, and the next morning, they used to burn.

And we knew that.

And everybody was screaming, "I want to die!

I don't want to live!"

That day on April 13, they came to our two barracks.

They took me, they took a few other Kastorians.

And Yezer, my friend, he was next to me.

And I said, "Come on, let's go."

"I'm not going!"

But otherwise they gonna kill you.

You see, they were with the...

Bat.

big bats.

And they hitting you in the head and break the... "No, I'm not going!"

So I went in line.

And then Yezer I hear.

They're hitting him.

"Oh, oh," he screamed!

I said, "Yezer, get out and come here!"

"No!"

He thought that it's gonna go away.

They killed him right there.

So they took us, and they brought us to a big barrack next to the crematorium.

Now we know that we are going for... To die.

to die.

Now this was already 7:00.

It was dark already.

And half of us were half dead already.

In the morning, about 6:00 in the morning, a guy comes in with force and he yells, "The British are here!"

You know, half they were dying, half we were asleep.

So he says, "So what?"

It took like half a minute or a minute.

All of a sudden everybody got up.

"What did you say?"

"I said the British are here!

We are liberated!"

Zoom!

Everybody out.

Like even we didn't have any...

Strength.

strength.

And I'm going out towards the kitchens where they had the food.

The Russians that already were there, they clean up everything.

Nothing was left.

The Russian was.

And all of a sudden, there come about 6, 7 soldiers, Hungarians, dressed in khaki, not like the Germans.

But they were with the Germans.

They were fascists.

And start killing.

[Imitates machine gun] 6 in front of me down.

I run... Back.

Run.

I couldn't walk actually, but they almost-- almost they kill me.

And sure enough, after half an hour, the British were just coming in.

They took the Hungarians, took the guns.

So now again I go out.

There was a ground, and under they had potatoes.

Everybody was with their hands taking potatoes.

I go there.

I take 3 potatoes here, 3 potatoes.

I can't walk.

They were heavy, you know.

So I go slowly, slowly.

We clean the earth...

Soil.

And we were eating raw.

And then, in the meantime, the English start giving food.

They did something that they thought is good, but our stomachs were tight.

We didn't eat for how long?

And they gave us very fat things, and everybody got sick.

But you have to eat.

Whatever you find, you eat.

So I start eating, little by little.

Then I went where the women were.

First time I saw women on the other side.

And I asked, "What happened to Lena?"

They said, "They took her yesterday to another lager."

And that lager had a bad name.

The way they told me, like, said, "Don't expect anything."

But I knew Lena would be alive because I felt.

I don't know.

I had a feeling.

Lena: We were in Mauthausen because it was a crematoria there.

And the Germans took us there, and before us, people were killed.

They were burned.

Now we come in next, and I remember Jana.

She went in the group first to that and says, "I'm dying and good-bye, girls.

I'm leaving."

And she was sick also.

And we're crying, and we're crying, and we know this is the end.

Then we see she's coming out.

And she says, "Girls, no!

It's not gas!

It's a shower!

Don't be afraid."

And we came out.

We were nude.

Nothing to wear.

And it was cold.

And they took us to a place down the hill.

They gave us maybe a little blanket or something to cover ourselves.

And Jana was very sick.

We are sitting around her.

Then we hear that we are liberated, and we see from the mountain on top the American soldiers are coming, and we hear them.

Bam!

Boom!

Bam!

Boom!

And say, "Jana, we are liberated by the Americans!

Hold on!"

"Liberation for you girls, not for me," she said, and she died.

It was in May, and we know now that we are liberated, but we are sick.

We don't feel like a... we don't see nothing.

All of a sudden the doors of the lager opens up.

And we see some soldiers are coming, but they are not dressed like Germans.

First they were women, two women.

And we don't know what they are, but they are not Germans.

They're looking all around.

You see, they could not believe what they're seeing.

We were... skin and bones.

No hair, no... Horrible.

Skeletons!

They could not believe what they see.

After they passed by, the women, and they start coming, the rest of the Americans, Madam Mathilda, the only mother that we had at that time with us, said, "Girls, these are Americans!

"They are liberating us!

Come on!

Clap your hands!

Clap hands!"

And we start clapping hands.

The American women were proceeding.

They start laughing.

And we says, "Americans!

Bravo!

Americans!

Yes, yes, Americans!"

And right away they took us, they examined us, and they put us into a convalescence home.

And all what they give us... a piece of paper, a pen, lipstick, and cigarette.

We looked to one another.

"Why don't they give us food?

"We're dying.

"What can we do with a paper and pencil and lipstick?

Who wants lipstick?

Who wants cigarette?"

Then they explained to us.

The cigarettes because they believed you take out a puff, and that will take care of you.

We didn't know how to smoke.

We start smoking.

"Secondly, we give you the paper and the pen "to write down if you know any relative of yours, "any friend of yours that is in the United States.

"Put your name down, "and even if you don't know any address.

"And we give you the lipstick "because you need some color on yourselves.

"And just to look to one another, you're gonna look much better."

And this is how it was.

Beni: In the hospital, it was to Bergen, which is a city next to Bergen Belsen, I was very, very sick.

I couldn't move.

They were treating me, and there came the English officer.

And he says, "Do you want to go to Sweden?

"They want to take care.

The best hospitals," and this and that.

So I went to Sweden.

Time was passing.

We were getting better.

We were maybe 50, 60 people, you know, in that place.

And every day they used to call Mr. So-and-so, Mrs. This-or... you have a letter.

Me?

Nothing.

Nothing.

I think maybe for 6 months that I was there I never got anything.

One day, all of a sudden, he says, "Beni Elias, you have a telegram."

"Telegram?"

I open up, and I see it's from Sal Haze.

And he said, "For sure you know that Lena is in Belgrade in Yugoslavia."

And I said, "Oh, my God."

I started dancing.

Lena: I emigrated after the war, and I went to Yugoslavia.

And one day I got to the house where I used to go in Belgrade to my Aunt Lara.

And I ring the bell.

I open the door.

And [indistinct]... "You got my telegram that Ben is alive?"

The first thing, Ben is alive.

I passed out.

I passed out.

They took me in.

And I was sure that my brother... Beni: And from that day, you won't believe.

Whenever I used to dream of Lena... A letter.

I used to get a letter.

If I dream, I used to get a letter.

We thought we want to go to see-- To find out who survived.

Who survived.

We want to go to Kastoria to see what happened to our house, and maybe someone survived.

There was no transportation.

Everything was destroyed.

From town to town, from town to town, it took us 10 months to come to Greece, walking.

We were the last ones to come in.

The last ones.

They didn't expect us to...

They thought we were dead.

Sure, yeah.

Beni: I stayed 4 years in Sweden.

Then I went to Israel, and I stay a year and a half in Israel.

And then I came for the first time after the war in Kastoria.

Nitsa: [Speaking Greek] Beni: Well, when I came, the mill was broken up.

You know, nothing was working.

It looked dead, you know?

But I said, "I'm gonna build."

So I got some partners, and we bought some machinery, we fixed.

We brought some mechanics.

And we start the mill working.

Next to the mill we had this piece of land, and I put cherry trees.

I put apricots and strawberries down.

Just for fun, and my friends used to come.

I used to give them-- take everything, whatever you want.

Life came back.

I wanted to see the mill to work so I can remember.

But...it wasn't my father.

Lena: I always wanted to come to the United States.

I heard so much about my father being into the United States, and then we used to go to the movies and see what is America.

I emigrated after the war and kept going to school to learn English and worked during the day.

I was working in the factory in New York at Mr. Mayo, Bocko Mayo.

There were many employees, and one of them was also from Kastoria.

So one day he got a letter from his nephew, Maurice Russo.

But it was written in Greek, and he did not know how to read Greek, so he came to me.

I read it to him, then he says, "Now, how can I answer him?

Can you write to him?"

And said, "Sure.

You tell me what you want."

Underneath the letter, I said, "I'm Lena Elias.

"I'm working together with your uncle, and he's the one who's asking me to write this."

The next time, you know, he wrote me direct, and this is how we kept in correspondence one another.

At that time I think Maurice was in Italy.

While we are correspondent, I told him now I became an American citizen, and I'm gonna get my passport because I have to come back to Greece to seen Ben, my brother.

Going to the pier with my friend Nina, she says to me, "I'm gonna write to Maurice, my brother.

"If you are lucky and he gets the letter, I'm sure he's gonna come to meet you on the boat."

It was the "Independence."

I made friends on the boat, and I told my friends that I'm expecting somebody to pick me up in Genoa.

"Who?"

"My boyfriend," I said.

Because I didn't know how to say.

I went out on the deck, and I see a man standing down on the pier facing the back, I see.

Exactly the shape of Maurice's father.

It cannot be that this is Maurice.

But what do I have to lose?

I have a strong voice.

I'm gonna call.

Let's see.

"Maurice!"

He turns around.

That's him.

And he says, "Come, I'll take you to Milano.

"I'll take you to see Italy, and then you'll have time to go to Greece."

We went to Milano the next day.

He introduced me to his friends.

5 days he did not let me go.

"You have to marry me first."

And then we're going to Greece with Ben, and we'll get married there in the synagogue.

And this is how we did it.

Man: [Chanting in Hebrew] [Greek music playing] Beni: Before the war, it was a... a really beautiful place, Kastoria, for us.

And when I came back the first time, it's like I was somebody that doesn't belong there.

There was no Jew.

They went to America.

I was the only Jew... except for [indistinct].

Then Lena came down.

And she said, "Well, you have to come to America."

She said, "What are you gonna do alone here?

"You don't have anybody.

There, I'm there.

We have aunts and uncles and cousins."

So I said, "Well, I'm gonna go, and that's it."

Jack: I was brought up in the town of Kastoria as the only Jew.

I know from history that we are Sephardic Jews, so we all came from Spain, I think the year around 1500.

My grandfather was born here in Kastoria.

My father was born in Kastoria.

I was born here in Kastoria in the house where my grandfather lived.

He was the president of the Jewish community in those days.

The store where my father used to work, this is the same store I maintain myself even today.

Nobody can claim more locality than our family.

Unfortunately today it's impossible to have Jewish practice in Kastoria because there's no other Jewish family in this town.

[Speaking Greek] [Speaking Greek] They were a vital part of Kastoria.

We grew up with them.

We went to high school.

My friends.

After that night, I never saw them again.

And I was crying because I feel empty.

Man: [Speaking Greek] [Chanting in Hebrew] [Speaking Greek] We from Kastoria still cling to each other, We help each other.

Like I said, when I first came to America, there were Kastorians that helped me, and I can't forget them.

I was actually born in Salonica but registered and grew up in Kastoria.

I love Kastoria.

I love--I dream about Kastoria, and I feel good.

There were the cousins and the brothers and everybody together, and we used to have Friday night Shabbat.

You know, and the holidays, we used to observe the holidays.

[Speaking Greek] When I got here, I kind of fell in love with the city.

It was unbelievable.

I took a walk by the lake.

[Speaking Greek] It was more like a country town, you know, where you had mills.

My father had mills over there.

[Speaking Greek] You cannot get enough of... [indistinct] of walking around, really.

The time is flying.

The time is flying.

I came to [indistinct] after tomorrow.

Good enough?

[Speaking Greek] Announcer: This program is brought to you in part by the... More information about "Trezoros," including additional interviews, bios, histories, and other materials can be found at our website, www.Trezoros.com.