Frida Goldberg de Gutreiman

Transcription

"Appreciate freedom; it is the only thing that can give you strength to keep living."

"I thank God that I am still able to remember because not everyone is that fortunate". 

 

“I was born in Poland. When I was twelve years old, the town that I lived in was burned down. They took my parents and I to Siberia, we traveled for six weeks on a train, although it was not a train, they were freight train wagons. There were about three thousand families on the wagons, with children, elders, and young people; for six weeks. At each stop, the Russians fed us boiled water and bread. We were very hungry. We were in Siberia for six years. Our address in Siberia was [she states the address in Russian]. That is the address where I lived with my parents.”

 

Katherine Gutriman Rubins, Granddaughter

“Her town was burned down and destroyed, and she was taken to a concentration camp for forced labor in Russia. There, she had the privilege, which few people did, of being with her parents and three siblings, the rest of their extended family was killed. There was no one left except for them. There were no cousins left, no nieces, nephews, nor grandchildren. There were the sole survivors.”

 

Frida Goldberg de Gutreiman, Holocaust Survivor

“I was lucky that I had my parents. It was forty-five degrees below zero in the barracks. It was cold for nine months, and warm for three. During those three months we ate off of the delicious mushrooms that grew in those forests, mushrooms and blueberries. We would pick these for the winter. Once a month we would bathe in a sauna, every month; there were separate saunas for the men and women. But even with all of this, we were better off in Russia than in the concentration camps. They did not hit us, and now we are here today, fortunately. After three years of being in Grudziądz, we were freed, but we were not allowed to travel anywhere, we had to stay around this city, so we went to Nikolsk... I am fortunate, because two of my sisters, one with three children, and one with one child, remained in Poland, and they were killed there. It's sad, being without a family. I was lucky because I was able to study. There were three thousand families total, and they took my friend and I to study in a Russian school. After three... four... it was after five years of being in Nikolsk, the last year, that they took us to Odessa. It was in the City of Odessa, in a town called Veresivka where we remained for a year and then from Veresivka, we left to Poland. My husband left with many other people who were taken on a train to go to Treblinka. He escaped through a window on his way there.” 

 

Max Gutriman Goldberg, Son

“The story that impacted us the most was when my father jumped off the train. He jumped off with his brother, and the rest of his family members were all killed in Treblinka. That has made me emotional many times, and we are all very aware of that story.” 

 

Frida Goldberg de Gutreiman, Holocaust Survivor

“He arrived in the town where he was born. He knew Polish people, who gave him shelter, and he was in hiding there for two years with his brother, who had lost his wife and two sons.” 

 

Katherine Gutriman Rubins, Granddaughter

“My grandfather lived every day and every minute remembering his past, which did not let him live in peace, but he always took it as a kavod, as a great respect for his family.” 

 

Frida Goldberg de Gutreiman, Holocaust Survivor

“In Poland I married my husband, may he rest in peace, who no longer lives. We were in Germany for three and a half years; my daughter was born there. Then, we left to Bolivia and lived there for twenty years. Now I am here in this very fortunate country of Costa Rica.”

 

Max Gutriman Goldberg, Son

“There were many times when we felt as though we had lived through the Holocaust. I remember that since I was very little they would tell me, sometimes daily, details of what had happened during the Holocaust, how they had survived, and then the following year they would tell us again. So I think that we have every cell and every vein engraved with the pain and memories of the Holocaust as if we had lived through it. We have the fears that have been passed down to us by our parents, during that time in which they were experiencing a lot of fears and insecurities. We have also had to face the aftermath of the war, with all of those fears, but also with courage that they taught us, to move forward in life.” 

 

Katherine Gutriman Rubins, Granddaughter

“I would like the world to know that being the grandchild of a survivor is not something to be prideful of; it is a privilege. It is an honor to be their grandchild because they are very special people. They are tireless fighters! As survivors, there was truly something very special about them that helped them survive such a tragedy. It is an honor to be the grandchild, or great-grandchild of my grandparents, but being here is a privilege that God has given us. I hope that whoever has the opportunity to see this will understand that we cannot allow this to happen again; not only to the Jews, but to anyone else in the world. People should report any kind of extermination. We should feel proud to all be equal human beings.”

 

Max Gutriman Goldberg, Son

“Being able to remember all of this is very important because it could prevent future acts like these from happening again."The only way to deny the Holocaust is by lying; we must investigate this period of great tragedy for humanity."

 

Frida Goldberg de Gutreiman, Holocaust Survivor

“Sometimes when I talk about this, I don’t believe it’s true. It can’t be possible that human beings harm and do horrible things to others. I myself cannot believe that I lost my two sisters. Everyone in the town was my family, no one was left alive. Do you understand? This is my story and here I am, still going. I am very fortunate to be surrounded by my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.”