Bea Karp Walnut Middle School Testimony

Institute for Holocaust Education Author

04/21/2022 Added

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Holocaust survivor Bea Karp's testimony at Walnut Middle School.

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[00:00:00.960]Okay.
[00:00:02.370]Excellent. Okay. Hi, Walnut Middle School.
[00:00:07.050]My name's Kael Sagheer.
[00:00:08.310]I'm the education coordinator at the Institute for Holocaust Education.
[00:00:12.720]And you're going to be listening to Bea Karp today.
[00:00:15.480]She is one of our Holocaust survivors that lives here in Omaha,
[00:00:19.290]and we were just chatting before and she was telling me that she really feels
[00:00:23.490]compelled to share her story because of all the prejudice and hate that is still
[00:00:27.960]going on in the world. This is something that means a lot to her.
[00:00:31.800]So if you could give her your full attention for the next 45 minutes or so then
[00:00:36.090]she's going to take some questions when she's done. Okay? Okay.
[00:00:40.800]Thank you. I'm going to move the computer.
[00:00:48.630]And you can sit back if you want to - don't feel like you need to strain. I'll make it,
[00:00:52.680]see
[00:00:52.950]you, right.
[00:00:55.080]All right.
[00:00:58.650]Hello everybody.
[00:01:02.730]A very long time ago.
[00:01:05.460]I was born in Germany in a small town by the name
[00:01:10.440]of Lauterbach.
[00:01:14.030]My family consisted of my parents and a
[00:01:18.770]sister who was younger than I am by 3 years.
[00:01:26.150]We lived in a, in the smallest town, Lauterbach was a small town.
[00:01:32.420]But sadly enough there was a lot of antisemitism.
[00:01:38.060]And after a while my parents decided they had
[00:01:42.350]enough. And we left, we,
[00:01:46.450]we moved to a bigger city in Germany by the name of Karlsruhe.
[00:01:51.920]The reason we moved there was we had family there,
[00:01:56.870]it was the father of my father and his family.
[00:02:02.420]When we arrived there,
[00:02:05.330]no one wanted to rent an apartment or a
[00:02:10.220]house to a Jewish family,
[00:02:14.090]therefore we stayed with my aunt and uncle.
[00:02:20.240]And it was not easy because they had three children.
[00:02:25.370]And us two - my sister and I - five children in the
[00:02:29.840]bedroom was bad.
[00:02:39.710]After about a half a year or
[00:02:44.360]so my father was lucky enough to find an apartment.
[00:02:49.940]Um, it was in,
[00:02:52.820]it was a big apartment house.
[00:02:56.970]I remember the first floor was taken over by a bank
[00:03:02.350]and we were upstairs on the second floor.
[00:03:06.880]We had a very small apartment.
[00:03:09.070]It consisted only of a living room,
[00:03:14.380]one bedroom and the kitchen and the
[00:03:18.970]bathroom was out in the hallway.
[00:03:27.310]But we were very happy with it. At least we had a place of our own.
[00:03:32.680]What I missed the most was I didn't have a yard to
[00:03:37.630]play in.
[00:03:39.610]My parents did allow me to play
[00:03:44.620]in front of our apartment house,
[00:03:47.560]but I had to stay there and not go anywhere else.
[00:03:52.540]And so I followed their directions and I made some
[00:03:57.280]friends. As a matter of fact,
[00:03:59.440]one of the girls that she's my age now,
[00:04:04.660]we are still in touch once in a while,
[00:04:08.440]but she lives in New Jersey. So I don't see him very often.
[00:04:15.790]And one day we were playing
[00:04:20.620]in the street on the pavement.
[00:04:24.280]Suddenly I notice two
[00:04:27.970]Nazis approaching us.
[00:04:33.670]And I looked at them and then emotion came over me
[00:04:38.740]that I had never experienced before.
[00:04:41.680]And that emotion was hatred.
[00:04:44.830]I realized I hated them. And as
[00:04:49.470]they passed by, I go to the gutter,
[00:04:52.980]I pick up some pebbles and I threw the pebbles at their back.
[00:04:58.170]Not really meaning to hit them, but they did.
[00:05:03.780]They turned around and started going after us.
[00:05:07.380]And it was just lucky that we knew the alleyways of
[00:05:12.210]course were better than they did and we managed to escape.
[00:05:18.270]When I came back, come back from
[00:05:23.190]downstairs. I opened the door to our apartment
[00:05:28.650]and my mother looks at me and she says
[00:05:33.810]in German du bist dummkopf,
[00:05:37.140]which means you are stupid.
[00:05:40.470]She was very angry with me.
[00:05:43.320]She says I could have really gotten hurt.
[00:05:48.600]So I promised I would never do such a thing again.
[00:05:55.820]Then came Kristallnacht.
[00:06:01.460]And that was a terrible
[00:06:03.500]night because the Nazis were burning all the
[00:06:07.310]synagogues across Germany.
[00:06:14.670]And after that, my parents realized
[00:06:19.170]they didn't want to stay in Germany anymore.
[00:06:23.880]Except my father had doubts.
[00:06:28.520]He kept saying, well, I don't know any other language.
[00:06:32.640]I've never been outside of Germany. It's all I've known.
[00:06:37.320]But my uncle who was a young man, he said, come,
[00:06:41.160]you know what we should do. We should go to Israel.
[00:06:46.770]Well, my father would not go.
[00:06:51.600]We wanted us to stay,
[00:06:54.540]even though my uncle and my grandma left,
[00:07:00.410]I miss my grandma very much also my uncle.
[00:07:04.310]He has been a lot of fun.
[00:07:05.750]He was a young man and he played with me.
[00:07:12.050]So we stayed on. But things
[00:07:15.080]got worse and worse because first of all,
[00:07:19.220]I forgot to tell you, after Kristallnacht
[00:07:22.400]my father had
[00:07:26.240]seen our synagogue burning and he left
[00:07:31.100]to see if he could find any religious articles to
[00:07:36.080]save. Well,
[00:07:40.490]we waited for him to come home that night.
[00:07:44.860]I still remember my mother waiting, pacing,
[00:07:48.610]the bedroom floor back and forth. Back and fourth. Why is he coming home?
[00:07:54.970]Well, he never did come home.
[00:07:59.380]We were really upset and yet we still had hope.
[00:08:04.490]We had hoped that our father would come back.
[00:08:06.950]So we would stand by this door.
[00:08:09.650]Sometimes look out at the window and kind of take turns that way.
[00:08:15.170]But he never came back, not then.
[00:08:23.420]And mother managed as best as she could, but it was difficult.
[00:08:29.090]Then one day there was a knock on our door
[00:08:35.670]and I opened a door and there stood
[00:08:40.620]this man,
[00:08:42.480]all covered with blood and mud.
[00:08:49.120]I didn't recognize him right away. We had a
[00:08:53.110]black wood burning stove right across from the door
[00:08:58.500]and as, he came through the door,
[00:09:02.160]he went to touch the stove.
[00:09:07.650]And as he, as he put his hands on the stove,
[00:09:12.720]I realize it was a father and I scream
[00:09:17.400]Papa, Papa, it's hot.
[00:09:20.190]But my cry made my mother come into the kitchen.
[00:09:25.710]She took one, look at him and took him into the bedroom.
[00:09:31.170]My father was a sick man for quite some time,
[00:09:35.430]but after awhile, and I don't know how long it took he was better.
[00:09:41.010]And he would come home. He would be gone all day in the evenings
[00:09:45.720]he was coming home and he was complaining that his hands
[00:09:51.180]were hurting him again. So one day I said to him, Papa what do you do?
[00:09:56.040]And then he says, I've become a bricklayer.
[00:10:04.110]So I, you know, I thought, okay, he's a bricklayer.
[00:10:10.440]And it didn't bother me too much, I guess.
[00:10:15.900]But I was wondering.
[00:10:20.730]And one day I said to him,
[00:10:24.240]come you're a bricklayer? That is not your profession.
[00:10:29.730]And he says,
[00:10:33.470]That is for what I have to do now.
[00:10:45.080]Yes, life was tough.
[00:10:50.360]And it got tougher.
[00:10:52.590]And suddenly my father was gone.
[00:10:57.900]He never came home and we were wondering,
[00:11:03.660]Why? Where is he? Couldn't understand it.
[00:11:09.240]But I guess the Nazis had rounded up
[00:11:16.080]all the Jews they could find and taking them to concentration
[00:11:20.850]camps. And so we knew that's where our father was.
[00:11:26.940]How long he was gone. I have no idea,
[00:11:31.920]but one day the door opened up and they asked if this man all
[00:11:36.780]covered with flood and mud
[00:11:41.790]and we were absolutely shocked.
[00:11:48.270]And thank goodness, my father, my mother, she had
[00:11:53.200]she had specialized in nursing.
[00:11:57.220]So she was able to get my father well again,
[00:12:02.230]because by then also Jews were not allowed to
[00:12:07.330]employ doctors, unless they were Jewish
[00:12:12.160]and they didn't know it. But my father
[00:12:17.920]then recovered. The next thing that I will remember is a loud
[00:12:22.900]knock on the kitchen door. My mother up the kitchen door and there
[00:12:27.520]stood to gestapo.
[00:12:31.600]My mother was shaking.
[00:12:34.720]I knew she was afraid.
[00:12:38.380]And she says to him to them, and she'd say, uh,
[00:12:42.680]what do you want? And they said, just go pack.
[00:12:47.080]And she says, why, where are you taking us?
[00:12:52.130]They, they said, uh,
[00:12:55.150]to her in a loud voice,
[00:12:58.750]don't ask so many questions, just go and pack.
[00:13:02.290]And that's for two weeks.
[00:13:04.600]So my mother went to the bedroom to pack and I had a
[00:13:09.460]doll that I loved very, very much. And I always had her,
[00:13:16.070]and so I went to the living home to pick up my doll.
[00:13:19.850]I want to take her with me. The Nazi had followed me,
[00:13:24.770]one of them.
[00:13:26.810]And he sees me picking up the doll
[00:13:31.460]and he takes my arm and starts shaking me and saying where
[00:13:36.260]you're going you don't need this doll.
[00:13:40.190]And I looked at him and I thought to myself,
[00:13:43.970]he wants that doll, but out loud I said,
[00:13:50.210]If I can't have that doll, you can have her either.
[00:13:57.050]And so I took my doll that I loved so
[00:14:01.580]much and I threw her on the floor.
[00:14:05.960]I did not want that Nazi to have her.
[00:14:10.760]The doll broke into many pieces. I was very, very upset.
[00:14:19.830]And after a little while,
[00:14:21.750]I noticed my mother in the kitchen.
[00:14:27.600]And I go and join her. And I was upset.
[00:14:31.980]And so I go and get a hold of the
[00:14:36.840]kitchen table leg.
[00:14:38.790]And I wouldn't let go as they were trying to take us out
[00:14:43.560]of our apartment.
[00:14:47.280]I gave my mother a terrible time. I screamed,
[00:14:52.080]I yell all kinds of what shall I
[00:14:56.850]say? Well,
[00:14:57.840]they were cuss words at the Nazis and it
[00:15:02.730]was a terrible time.
[00:15:06.270]They took us to the railroad station after a while.
[00:15:11.100]Well, there were a lot of people at the railroad station.
[00:15:14.610]The station was still filled with people.
[00:15:17.970]Many of them had been there for some time because they were laying on their clothes.
[00:15:25.070]People try to sit down somewhere. It was, it was,
[00:15:29.970]it was quite a sight.
[00:15:33.090]Now this was 1940,
[00:15:38.280]after a long while the train came and it wasn't like
[00:15:43.200]a regular train, not a coach.
[00:15:44.850]Many of us were put onto to the train.
[00:15:49.260]It was very crowded.
[00:15:53.970]And then the train started.
[00:15:58.720]And, it went slow, even slower as we turn,
[00:16:03.310]um, you know, like corners,
[00:16:11.260]Some people were sitting in the hallway because they didn't have any place to sit.
[00:16:18.460]After a long while it seems like a lot more often,
[00:16:22.960]actually it wasn't. We were at our destination.
[00:16:29.600]We were in France.
[00:16:35.540]And then we have to change trains.
[00:16:40.280]And on our way to the Southern part of France,
[00:16:45.980]the Nazis searched us
[00:16:48.140]if they found any gold or anything worthwhile,
[00:16:52.790]they would take it from you.
[00:16:54.290]I still remember my mother had
[00:16:59.690]golden hoop earrings and one of the
[00:17:04.130]Nazis, tore the earrings right off her earlobes.
[00:17:10.310]To this day I can hear her crying with the pain.
[00:17:17.720]And the train kept going all the time
[00:17:22.370]until they reach the Southern part of France.
[00:17:28.250]We got off the train and suddenly the men and the women were
[00:17:32.930]separated
[00:17:36.300]and I didn't want my father to leave. I made a big, big fuss,
[00:17:41.280]but I had no choice.
[00:17:44.880]My father left.
[00:17:47.580]My mother explained to me that actually,
[00:17:51.720]he wasn't very far away that who will only be divided by
[00:17:56.910]off barbed wire. And that I would see him sometimes.
[00:18:01.890]So I calmed down.
[00:18:04.440]Then they took us to a large barracks and then
[00:18:09.420]search again. Well,
[00:18:14.290]when we were done with that,
[00:18:16.470]they told us in which barrack we
[00:18:21.300]were.
[00:18:23.040]They took us to a concentration camp by the name of Gurs.
[00:18:29.240]So we went to the barrack and sure enough,
[00:18:36.920]it wasn't much of a place. There were quite a few people in the barrack.
[00:18:41.660]I think it must have been around 50 give or take.
[00:18:46.160]I'm not sure. There were just,
[00:18:49.580]it was just one bed after the other. That's all.
[00:18:55.850]And so
[00:18:58.670]we tried to make it ourselves comfortable, but it was very hard for my mother,
[00:19:03.200]I'm sure, to sleep because she had two little kids with her in her bed,
[00:19:09.560]so that wasn't very comfortable.
[00:19:13.760]The food was scarce. We didn't have much to eat.
[00:19:22.310]During the day, the grownups would go to work.
[00:19:29.360]And us children, we had to be
[00:19:31.880]sharply at nine o'clock at a certain place. And there
[00:19:36.080]they would have roll calls.
[00:19:41.950]When that was done, then they took us on long walks till about
[00:19:46.850]lunchtime. So then we had lunch. In the afternoon,
[00:19:52.070]we would go to the big barracks where we had come
[00:19:56.720]to and they had,
[00:19:58.750]there was a lady and she would yodel and
[00:20:03.200]sing for us. So I thought, well, she yodels,
[00:20:06.740]she must be from Switzerland.
[00:20:10.280]And one day I went up to her and I said,
[00:20:14.000]you see how we live here? Why don't you do something about it?
[00:20:21.350]And she looks at me and she says things are gonna get better,
[00:20:25.040]things are gonna get better, so I waited for things to get better,
[00:20:29.960]but they never did. One day
[00:20:33.020]I got it into my head that I want to visit our father and
[00:20:37.790]see how he is.
[00:20:40.670]So I took my sister's hand and we
[00:20:45.320]went to the entrance of the camp. Right away the Nazi
[00:20:50.110]comes to, comes out and speaks to us,
[00:20:54.690]say, where do you think you're going? I said,
[00:21:00.040]we just want to go and visit our father and we'll come back.
[00:21:05.320]He must've argued with me because the one thing that I also remember is,
[00:21:11.110]I got real angry at him and I kicked him on his
[00:21:15.940]boot. And I said in French,
[00:21:18.520]sale cochon which means you dirty pig,
[00:21:23.350]and I took my sister's hand and I said to her,
[00:21:27.970]let's go.
[00:21:29.680]And we went outside of the camp and I said to her,
[00:21:35.410]whatever you do, Susie, do not look back or he might shoot us.
[00:21:41.410]So we went to the camp where the men were.
[00:21:46.990]And somebody showed us in which barrack our father
[00:21:51.910]was. But he could hardly believe it that we had come to see him.
[00:21:58.420]We were crying because we were so happy to be with each other.
[00:22:05.740]It was a wonderful feeling.
[00:22:09.400]And we had a good visit. Something happened during that visit,
[00:22:14.290]they were handing out, the Nazis were handing out to everyone, raw
[00:22:19.330]eggs in the shell.
[00:22:20.980]And I could hardly believe it.
[00:22:24.400]We had not seen an egg since we left Germany.
[00:22:28.420]So I could hardly wait to share the egg with my
[00:22:33.190]sister and my father.
[00:22:38.390]As we get the egg, he opened it up
[00:22:45.900]very carefully was it was raw and then
[00:22:49.110]he becomes agitated. And I wonder why.
[00:22:55.270]And I go and look into the egg and low and behold
[00:23:00.430]there was blood in it. Well,
[00:23:03.940]we come from an Orthodox Jewish
[00:23:08.320]family, very religious. And that man,
[00:23:12.490]my father could not eat the egg with blood in it.
[00:23:17.560]But I thought, oh, he'll make an exception
[00:23:19.450]after all, we were starving, to my surprise my father,
[00:23:23.750]he was furious.
[00:23:25.420]He took the egg and threw it against the wall of the barrack.
[00:23:32.710]And that was that.
[00:23:37.270]But to this day,
[00:23:38.980]I have nothing but admiration for my father
[00:23:43.030]because
[00:23:45.980]he believed in his way of life.
[00:23:51.050]And under the most horrible circumstance.
[00:23:55.100]He still tried to do what was right for him.
[00:24:01.370]It's something I've never forgotten when I'm tempted to do
[00:24:05.570]something that isn't quite so good. Oh,
[00:24:10.260]um, I think of my father
[00:24:14.390]and it keeps me from doing what
[00:24:19.310]is wrong.
[00:24:22.010]We got back to the women's camp and
[00:24:26.060]suddenly we were transferred to another camp by the name of Rivesaltes.
[00:24:31.880]And they,
[00:24:32.290]it was more or less the same thing but I got sick.
[00:24:38.450]And my mother had to take me to an infirmary.
[00:24:43.670]It was a small room, one window.
[00:24:46.460]And one day I noticed my father standing
[00:24:51.260]outside of that window and I could hardly believe it.
[00:24:55.910]I was so happy to see him, but I asked him,
[00:24:59.720]how come they let you come and see me? And he says,
[00:25:02.480]it's because I'm being transferred to
[00:25:07.250]another camp. Well,
[00:25:11.460]that didn't make me very happy. We had a good visit,
[00:25:18.720]but I never realized
[00:25:21.450]that that was the last time that I saw my father.
[00:25:27.960]I, I was better after a while.
[00:25:31.080]My mother came for me and
[00:25:37.410]she said, you know,
[00:25:40.470]you cannot last much longer here.
[00:25:43.740]It's time to you leave me. I made a big fuss.
[00:25:48.030]I want to stay with her. I didn't care. I want to be with my mother.
[00:25:53.730]But nevertheless, one day there was a big truck.
[00:25:58.590]And I had to say goodbye to her
[00:26:01.140]it was the hardest thing that I had done up to that point
[00:26:06.120]in my life. I cried.
[00:26:09.870]And I just could only, I can only imagine how hard it was for her.
[00:26:16.200]The truck, drove out of the camp.
[00:26:20.850]And they drove us to the southern central part of France. Uh,
[00:26:27.240]and they, uh, we were living in a chateau.
[00:26:32.910]The people who saved us were
[00:26:38.010]French Jewish people, it was an organization
[00:26:44.190]called the OSE, a French organization.
[00:26:50.270]And they tried to take,
[00:26:54.980]excuse me,
[00:26:58.190]as many children as possible out of those camps.
[00:27:02.540]And they established children homes in the central Southern part of
[00:27:07.040]France. They were big homes, chateaus.
[00:27:12.890]And it was life again was different. It was much better.
[00:27:17.600]Naturally we had better food. We had better care.
[00:27:20.930]We slept just one person in the bed.
[00:27:25.310]And it was nice being there,
[00:27:28.130]but the Nazis were after us.
[00:27:33.650]So, excuse me,
[00:27:38.300]and so we were really never safe,
[00:27:42.080]and we never stayed in one place very long.
[00:27:45.710]I never knew what it was like to make friends.
[00:27:56.910]Excuse me. Friends for instance.
[00:27:57.480]Because we didn't have enough time,
[00:28:01.230]where we were to make friends.
[00:28:05.190]So we had, we didn't have much of a social life.
[00:28:12.040]But, this was better than being in a concentration camp.
[00:28:17.900]And the people were very, very nice to us.
[00:28:22.520]We stayed, excuse me,
[00:28:41.500]with the, with this organization
[00:28:44.270]until 1943. In 1943 Hitler was in a
[00:28:48.950]bigger hurry than ever to kill all the Jews.
[00:28:53.300]We were not safe with this organization
[00:28:55.460]anymore.
[00:28:56.840]And they hid us children wherever possible.
[00:29:02.330]My sister and I,
[00:29:04.250]we were hidden in a convent in France in Millau. Millau was in
[00:29:10.370]a small town northern part of France.
[00:29:16.070]So life again was different.
[00:29:20.240]I didn't know anything about Catholicism,
[00:29:25.430]but I learned because we had to go to church
[00:29:30.500]and we studied the catechism. And I liked it there.
[00:29:35.270]It was okay. At least we weren't running on the Nazis any more.
[00:29:39.860]And because of that, one day I talked to one of the sisters.
[00:29:45.640]She was a young sister and I liked her. We had become friends.
[00:29:50.530]I said, you know, it would've been much easier for me just to turn Catholic
[00:29:57.100]and be safe. I'll just stay with you.
[00:30:01.780]She looked at me for a moment. And then she said,
[00:30:07.750]you know, if you turned Catholic, you would be giving up.
[00:30:14.710]your religion,
[00:30:17.650]you would be given up everything that you have ever known.
[00:30:25.600]And everything that your father taught you.
[00:30:30.880]So I told her, well, I'll think about it.
[00:30:35.320]And I thought about it.
[00:30:36.520]And then I realize that it was the wrong thing for me to do.
[00:30:40.930]I remember my father and the,
[00:30:44.230]I also remembered all the things that he had taught us
[00:30:48.850]and I couldn't do it.
[00:30:51.760]We stayed as a convent for, uh, it was about a year.
[00:30:57.460]The war was almost over with.
[00:31:02.320]And that was wonderful.
[00:31:07.990]And now we had to choose where we wanted to go.
[00:31:12.850]My grandma, she wrote to us.
[00:31:16.720]And I was so happy to hear from her. And I said, okay,
[00:31:20.740]I will go to Israel because that's where she was.
[00:31:24.970]But they discouraged me from that, they said, it's too long of a journey.
[00:31:29.920]You couldn't fly right away.
[00:31:33.880]So you have to go by boat, it would have been a very hard journey.
[00:31:39.770]My aunt and uncle in England also wrote all to us and they wanted us.
[00:31:45.200]So they decided that England would be the shortest route
[00:31:50.270]and it would be better for us to go there.
[00:31:53.960]So we came to England
[00:31:58.910]And it was wonderful. We had enough food to eat.
[00:32:04.280]We lived in a very nice home. And, um,
[00:32:09.140]my aunt and uncle,
[00:32:10.460]they had a little boy and I helped them take care of him.
[00:32:15.920]And also I started going to school.
[00:32:20.540]I had only one year of schooling in Germany.
[00:32:23.660]So going to school now was a little hard. Um,
[00:32:28.490]and I lasted for about six weeks. And then I decided, no, I'm not going,
[00:32:33.860]I don't want to go to the school anymore.
[00:32:37.490]And I got myself a job.
[00:32:41.360]And what it was it was I knew quite a bit about sewing,
[00:32:46.190]um, so, and, uh,
[00:32:49.310]also I learned how to make patterns and I don't know
[00:32:54.200]what else I think I so a knew how to make, um,
[00:32:58.730]um, uh, button holes.
[00:33:01.230]We used to do them by hand that time. And,
[00:33:05.720]um, I got a job and I worked.
[00:33:10.640]I was thirteen by then.
[00:33:15.000]We stayed in England for three years
[00:33:19.830]and it was, I liked it very much. But then,
[00:33:23.490]and then a letter was found that my father had written to my aunts in
[00:33:28.170]New York. And in the letter,
[00:33:32.490]it says, if anything happened to my mother or father,
[00:33:36.720]we should
[00:33:37.560]come to New York City and stay with my two aunts and
[00:33:41.970]uncle. Those aunts were sisters of my mother.
[00:33:47.770]So we, uh, my aunt told me,
[00:33:51.640]my aunt wasn't told me we had to leave and I really didn't even
[00:33:56.530]want to leave. I want to say,
[00:33:58.600]I like everything about living there.
[00:34:02.500]And I had a very good girlfriend, that I still have to this day,
[00:34:08.290]but I had to leave.
[00:34:12.850]So my sister and I, we left in 1947.
[00:34:18.730]Uh, this is 1947,
[00:34:21.240]it was more like nineteen forty five
[00:34:26.710]we left for England. And,
[00:34:30.970]um, Uh, I got mixed up.
[00:34:35.920]Yeah, we've been in England for two years. Yeah.
[00:34:39.700]Until 1947. And then we came to the United States.
[00:34:46.720]And it was absolutely overwhelming for us
[00:34:52.330]because everything was so big. And there was so much of everything,
[00:34:57.610]um, going to a grocery store
[00:35:01.600]was a big deal to me for instance. There was so much to choose from.
[00:35:08.590]But we got used to it and I had to start going to school
[00:35:14.810]because that was the law. Well,
[00:35:19.220]I went to the highest school near us,
[00:35:24.260]and I told my aunt,
[00:35:26.570]and I don't know how to expect me to go to school after having only the one
[00:35:31.490]year of schooling. And she says, well,
[00:35:34.940]let's see what the principal says. So, um,
[00:35:39.690]went up there to the school and he, um,
[00:35:45.030]gave me a test. What kind it was
[00:35:47.730]I really don't know. But lo and behold I passed it.
[00:35:53.330]So I started high school.
[00:35:58.610]And I had a very nice teenage life.
[00:36:05.540]And after graduating high school, I got married.
[00:36:10.280]I have four lovely daughters.
[00:36:14.480]And eight grandchildren and great grandchildren
[00:36:19.550]and my sister too. We were lucky.
[00:36:24.200]So lucky.
[00:36:27.950]Because six million Jews died
[00:36:34.910]because of Hitler.
[00:36:39.230]It was a terrible, terrible time.
[00:36:46.010]And also when I think about it,
[00:36:50.810]it was easy for him to do what he wanted to do to
[00:36:55.790]get rid of all the Jews,
[00:36:57.980]because the German people were born up
[00:37:04.160]born up hating Jews.
[00:37:09.190]So Hitler had a very easy time.
[00:37:26.260]Prejudice is a terrible thing also hatred.
[00:37:31.380]We should try and have respect for everyone.
[00:37:37.470]Also, if your views are
[00:37:38.580]different than someone else's it's okay.
[00:37:43.170]We don't all have to think alike.
[00:37:48.980]We can be different. It makes things so much more interesting,
[00:37:52.310]when you think about it.
[00:38:04.390]Yes, I was really lucky and that's why I speak out.
[00:38:09.880]Because I want,
[00:38:12.940]I want all of this to be remembered.
[00:38:18.610]Because it's a lesson. And I hope you will remember it.
[00:38:33.150]Thank you very much. If you have any questions,
[00:38:37.690]I'll be happy to answer them.
[00:38:42.460]Thank you so much for your time.
[00:38:48.340]We really are grateful for your time and appreciate you sharing your story with
[00:38:51.820]us. That really means a lot to us. Uh, we'll see if the kids have any questions.
[00:39:05.050]Okay. [unclear]
[00:39:07.060]What was your favorite time before the war?
[00:39:11.260]Um, one of the students asked, was there a time before the war,
[00:39:15.460]you can remember, uh,
[00:39:17.380]do you have any great memories from before this happened that you could share
[00:39:21.400]with us?
[00:39:22.180]Yeah, I can, for instance,
[00:39:26.320]the Jewish holidays, that was a big thing for us. Um,
[00:39:31.120]it's mostly, you know, family things that we did that I remember.
[00:39:39.400]Um, and in Germany,
[00:39:43.960]like I said, things were, um,
[00:39:46.810]hard to live there because I,
[00:39:53.230]Because of the prejudice that they had against Jews,
[00:39:57.220]even my one year that I went to school, um,
[00:40:02.260]I had a very difficult time because I realize
[00:40:07.510]because the kids used to yell at me, a dirty Jew, Christ
[00:40:12.190]killer, and whatnot. And, um,
[00:40:18.300]so that made it very hard. It made me realize that I was different
[00:40:26.000]just because I was Jewish. And I didn't understand that.
[00:40:31.880]And my mother really didn't explain it very
[00:40:36.530]well because I would ask, I would say, why do they, why do they hate me?
[00:40:41.240]What's the matter? And she says, well, they are the others.
[00:40:45.050]That's all she would say. So, um,
[00:40:50.570]it was still difficult, but it's something I've never, never forgotten.
[00:40:55.480]And I taught my kids.
[00:40:58.330]Don't you ever be prejudiced against anyone. Accept
[00:41:02.810]people are what they are and respect them.
[00:41:08.600]It's important.
[00:41:11.900]Awesome. Thank you very much. Let's see if we got another one.
[00:41:19.350]Uh, the question is what brought you to Omaha, Nebraska?
[00:41:23.400]That's a long story. I've been here a long time. Um,
[00:41:27.630]my husband, it was my husband, um, you know,
[00:41:32.070]he always liked the Midwest and he had an opportunity to
[00:41:36.980]work for my father-in-law,
[00:41:39.530]who owned some grocery stores.
[00:41:43.700]And so my husband would go and manage those
[00:41:48.230]stores for him. And,
[00:41:52.630]and we lived in O'Neill for about, uh,
[00:41:55.910]eight years and it was very, very nice.
[00:41:59.630]We were the only Jewish people, but let me tell you, everybody was,
[00:42:04.370]they were all wonderful to us. When there was a social,
[00:42:09.410]um, some, you know, social,
[00:42:12.980]what you might say something going on, uh, for the town
[00:42:19.310]or like we belong to the Masons. Um,
[00:42:24.230]they always made sure that they didn't give us any pork
[00:42:29.030]that they'd have something else for us.
[00:42:32.270]So that meant they had respect for us.
[00:42:36.110]And that was nice, but everybody was quite.
[00:42:42.320]Thank you very much.
[00:42:49.330]Yeah.
[00:42:52.450]Was there a time where you felt very discouraged and you started to lose hope
[00:42:57.550]that things just weren't going to get better?
[00:43:00.610]You know, I never felt that way. I always said how
[00:43:06.940]I am when I look back on it,
[00:43:09.430]I think hope is what kept me going.
[00:43:13.150]It's important to find hope.
[00:43:22.250]Where, where did you find that hope? What did you hold on to?
[00:43:27.710]Um, well, um, I dunno,
[00:43:31.820]I just it's, matter of fact, it happened while I was,
[00:43:36.890]um, earlier
[00:43:38.520]when I was at the convent was so much, um,
[00:43:43.730]you know, uh, different for me. And, um,
[00:43:49.910]and I did have problems with not, you know, not having a,
[00:43:54.950]uh, what shall I say,
[00:43:56.780]a Jewish way of life that I had a different way of life,
[00:44:01.520]but I told him I, I don't have the same ways.
[00:44:04.760]I always felt things things are going to get better.
[00:44:11.210]And I always said a
[00:44:14.090]prayer that you say morning and also night time.
[00:44:18.890]And, um, I think that helped too.
[00:44:26.190]Awesome. Thank you. Um, and we are in a question, uh, how,
[00:44:30.210]how did your sister end up? Does she stay with you in the convent and then.
[00:44:36.000]Whe was with me until
[00:44:39.180]she got married and then, um,
[00:44:43.380]her and her husband move to, um, Israel,
[00:44:49.850]um, yeah, in 1990. Yeah.
[00:44:58.670]Anybody else have any questions?
[00:45:04.700]Uh, what was your reaction to your, uh,
[00:45:07.520]your first impression to the concentration camp for the first time?
[00:45:12.320]The first time, I dunno,
[00:45:14.560]I had looked at it and I thought, oh, what a horrible place.
[00:45:19.490]What, what are we gonna do all day? Um,
[00:45:24.140]but what was worse?
[00:45:27.920]Not so much the looks, but also we didn't have enough to eat. And that was hard.
[00:45:34.790]And I know my mother got thinner and thinner.
[00:45:38.780]She probably gave us some of her food.
[00:45:46.920]Okay. Well,
[00:45:47.790]we just really want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making
[00:45:51.180]time for us today and sharing your story and being vulnerable with us.
[00:45:54.870]It really means a lot.
[00:45:56.310]We're excited to take what we've learned from you and our time at the Holocaust
[00:46:00.000]Museum and make sure that this stuff never, ever, ever happens again.
[00:46:03.870]And we make sure to treat others with love and respect to the best of our
[00:46:07.920]ability. So thank you again.
[00:46:15.090]All right.
[00:46:15.600]Thank you so much. Walnut Middle School. Have a good trip.
[00:46:18.840]When do you go to Washington, D.C.?
[00:46:22.080]They leave next Friday.
[00:46:23.910]Ooh.
[00:46:24.630]You're going soon.
[00:46:26.760]I know.
[00:46:28.800]That will be great.
[00:46:30.210]I think it is going to be a really a good experience for you guys.
[00:46:34.590]And I just wanted to let you know that you will be the last
[00:46:38.700]generation who will get to hear firsthand testimony from a Holocaust survivor.
[00:46:44.040]Your children will not have that privilege. So I hope you remember this.
[00:46:48.450]I hope this is something that someday you can tell your kids or your nieces or
[00:46:53.130]nephews, or maybe your students, if you become teachers,
[00:46:56.160]because we need good teachers,
[00:46:59.580]teachers who understand about empathy and compassion and treating people with
[00:47:04.380]respect.
[00:47:04.980]So have a great trip and thank you for being so attentive and quiet
[00:47:10.170]with great questions. Thank you. Thank
[00:47:13.040]You.
[00:47:14.000]Bye.
[00:47:18.120]You guys did a great job.

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Bea Karp Walnut Middle School Testimony

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