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This is a little bit further back, but I
read that you got arrested. I was just wondering what you did?
OK.
The Germans moved in in 1940. Holland is defeated in five days. I have
a bicycle - the Jews don't have to turn their bicycles in until 1942.
So in 1941, I'm being all of 17 - I guess that's your age here isn't
it? I asked permission of my parents could I go to the recreational
area of Holland, which is called the Veluwe, which is about
30 miles south of Amsterdam, and my parents say "Go!" I went
on my bicycle and my rucksack, I went down there and I met about four
young women, also about my age, And we met up, and I became infatuated
with one of them. And we corresponded back and forth. She was Catholic,
but didn't know I was Jewish, and I - not being important at the time
- I never made mention of it. Being in Holland, it wasn't important
what religion you were, you know, you left it alone.
So,
now, the Jewish edicts come into play, and I go into hiding, after
my sister has been picked up in December of 1942. She had just turned
16. Who's 16 here? She had just turned 16 on the 24th of November,
and she was gassed in Auschwitz on the 10th of December. I just want
you to think about that for a minute - all of you who are 16. My mother
went out of her mind, tried to commit suicide, tried to throw herself
out of the window.
My
father decided I should go into hiding. And a hiding place was found
for me, and I went there, in Amsterdam. I continued to correspond with
the young woman, the young girl, and where I was in hiding, every night,
a man would show up who came to dinner, and then he would leave. So
one day I ask him, "Would you mail this letter for me?"And
he did, and so he took it. He ate his meal, went, that night he was
arrested, they found the letter.They came looking for me. Because of
an infatuation with a young woman I wound up in Auschwitz. That's how
I got arrested. So love is blind.
Did they take you to jail?
No!
The day that they came looking for me, the son of the people where
I was hiding happened to be at the window, and saw the car or the police
arrive, and he said "Max, the police is here!" and I ran
up to the roof, across the roof, and hid behind a skylight. It was
early evening. They came looking for me with flashlights, they couldn't
find me. And about ten o'clock somebody came up, and said, "Max,
come down, come down." And I came down, and they gave me a satchel
with my clothes in it, and some money, and they gave me a safe house
address. So, its at night, I know I don't wear a star, or anything,
and I go there, and I ring the doorbell, and the guy looks at me, and
says "I know you. You used to live in this neighborhood. I know
your father." I said "yes," and he said, "come
in, quick." So I was in the safe house, and they were looking
for another hiding place for me, and they couldn't find any. I told
them, "look, I know where the key is to the apartment of my aunt
who has already been picked up. Why don't I go get the key and go live
there?" So they thought that was not a bad idea, so I went down,
with my satchel, went to that address, found the key, opened the place,
went in, and lived there.
And
I would go out and do shopping and go in and try to make the appearance
that there's no one is living there. No lights on. I'd sleep, and I'd
just, you know, whatever I had to eat, I cooked very quickly. Then
one afternoon the doorbell rang, and I wouldn't answer it, and they
kept persistently ringing the door, so I opened it and he said "You're
Max Garcia." And I said no I'm not, you've got the wrong person,
and they said "We know that your Max Garcia, and so I pulled out
my ID, and said no that's who I am, and he said, "No, those are
false papers, we know who you are, come with us." So then I went
to the police station, and that's where I got my first beating. Then
I
was taken over to the assemblage point in Amsterdam where I got my
second beating. Then I was just tossed among the poorer people waiting
there. Later on - about a week or two later - I was sent off to the
camp that I just mentioned, that the Germans had first come in as immigrants,
and then from there I was sent off to Auschwitz.
After all these deaths and all this, what
did you do with your emotions?
I
had no emotions. I had none. It is so weird to tell you that. But,
you are so caught up in this whole thing, there is no time for you
really to start thinking about all that. You know, your sister has
disappeared. She went out in the morning, we had breakfast together,
and that was it. She was gone. And then, you know, you sit there, your
mother cries all night, all day long. Sisters come over to console
her, neighbors. But you're working. You're out there. You don't come
home till about 6 o'clock. And somebody has to cook dinner, and you
eat it, as I said there's no television, there's no radio- there's
nothing to do. So, its, it's a time warp in a certain sense. Emotionally.
And it's very difficult to explain. But, you feel kind of blank,
maybe, but emotionally involved in the sense of breaking down and beating
your head against the wall, no. I don't recall that at all.
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