Mr. Gavriel Blau – Part V

You and your older brother, with whom you’d survived the war, had been separated right after the liberation. When you were reunited four weeks later, what did you do?

We began planning our trip to return home. Two weeks later, we started out on our travels. There was no room on the trains. The only option was to sit on the roof, which was quite dangerous. Many people lost their lives that way.

When we arrived in Budapest, I began asking around if anyone had seen my younger brother. I finally came upon someone who said that a short little boy like the one I was describing had left just three days earlier, headed for Romania. My brother and I immediately got back on a train and arrived the next day in Romania where we found him. When we arrived home, we were informed that my sister had been liberated in Bergen Belsen and that she, too, was on her way home.

Before the war, my oldest brother had been in a forced labor camp. He had made a business deal with a man who bought food for the Hungarian and German armies and had sold him six wagon-loads of hay. We shipped the man two loads and these were paid for. My brother had signed a contract to deliver the other four but before he could do so, he was drafted into the army. My father said we could not renege on the deal, so we prepared four more wagons of hay and sent them.

My brother was liberated in January 1945 by the Russians. The Russians were just as bad as the Germans. They put 38 Germans and 12 Jews in a cattle car and shipped them to Siberia. My brother had a pair of high boots in which he was able to conceal a pocket knife. He chipped away at the wood of the wagon door until he was able to open the latch. He turned to two of his friends and asked them if they wanted to jump off the train with him. They declined and he jumped off alone. He was shot by the Russians but he survived. He returned back to the camp to retrieve his tefillin and then continued on to Budapest. There, he was stopped by a man on the streets who recognized him. He was the man to whom we had shipped the hay. The man said, “We did business before the war. I paid you for two bundles of hay and now I’d like to pay you for the four bundles that your father shipped me while you were in the army.” And he gave my brother the money.

How long did you remain at home?

After a short while at home, I realized that under the Communist regime there was no future for us there. I came up with an idea. I went to the village secretary and asked him for a letter granting us permission to travel in search of our parents. He willingly gave it to me but said that we needed to go to the police station in Satmar to have the police stamp the document. The following morning after davening we walked to Satmar. The police refused to sign our papers. Once outside I told my brother that I refused to leave. Half an hour later, a gentile boy came to ask who needed papers signed by the commissioner. I told him we did and he miraculously got all our papers signed. The next day, at 12:00 noon, the three of us — my older and younger brothers and I — crossed the border to Romania with just the shirts on our backs. My oldest brother was already married by then and he couldn’t understand why we were leaving. My sister remained behind as well.

We wanted to go to Budapest but there were no trains. We decided to wait. At three o’clock in the afternoon a train rumbled by carrying lumber. The conductor did not stop but he slowed down and we jumped on. We traveled for four or five hours and then the train stopped in Debrecen. The conductor informed us that this was his last stop. We continued on by foot to the main road.

At five a.m. the following morning, we arrived in the outskirts of Budapest. We were caught by a border patrol but when they saw our papers they apologized and released us. The guards promised to get us to the building where the Jews were congregating. We bribed someone with cigarettes to have him translate our documents into four languages and stamp them with the official stamp. In the fall of 1948, I returned to Satmar to get my sister.

What gave you the strength throughout the war to continue on?

We had very strong bitachon and we just didn’t want to give up.

I don’t know what gave us the chizuk to survive, but we survived. We were zocheh to come forth from the ashes, get married and build families. I brought up a son and a daughter to be ehrlich. I work in Manhattan together with gentiles. They respect me and I respect them. I never give 100 percent of myself; I give 110 percent.

Many times I have to pinch myself and say it is true what happened, it is not a dream. It is important for the youth to learn about the Holocaust, that it should not be forgotten.