מאגר סיפורי מורשת

אוצר אנושי מתוכנית הקשר הרב-דורי

Land of Liberty

Statue of Liberty
Yugoslavia, until 1992
Here you can achieve anything you want

Rita came to the United States as a displaced person. She was glad to leave her home (Yugoslavia) because the Holocaust was going on while she lived there, so she was very happy to come to the United States. Rita lost her home before so she did not have anything but she had some relatives and cousins in Yugoslavia. They took everything away from them so she did not leave anything behind except her cousins.

She was living in Italy before she came to the U.S. She came on a ship and she remembers that she was very seasick all the time on the ship. It was a very nice ship, a commercial ship. She was coming to New York. On the ship there were a lot of cars because in Yugoslavia there were not a lot of cars in Europe. She came to New York and there was a lady who welcomed them and they went to a hotel. She lived in New York for a couple months with her family. Then they moved to New Jersey and lived there for two years. She lost a lot of her family in a concentration camp. When she came from Italy she did not leave any family behind except her cousins and they stayed there. She fell in love with the U.S. The language was very hard for her she spoke Italian and Croatian. She studied very hard to learn English it was very hard for her. The Jewish community helped them a lot because they were immigrants. They gave them a place to live.

She had private lessons in English. Then she started to go to a school in New Jersey. Her tutor became her only friend. Now she is a citizen of the U.S. She can understand Spanish better than English, because Spanish is similar to Italian. She adjusted after a few years and at that time she went to school. She went to school at night so she can work during the day. That was very hard for her. She thought that the U.S. was much richer than Europe.

She was 9 years old when she lost her father in the concentration camp. Her mother remarried in Italy. When they came to the U.S. her step father did not want to take her to college but her real father would have. Her step father only believed women can be wives and mothers. She worked in a television factory. She had no choice and had to work there but she was making a lot of money. Later on she got a job in an office. It was a wine and liquor wholesale. One of her favorite foods where hot dogs. Her mom also cooked different foods. Overall she fell in love with the land of liberty. It's wonderful because you can achieve anything you want to here.

 G2G: Generation to Generation

2016

מילון

D.P.
Displaced Person

ציטוטים

”Overall she fell in love with the land of liberty“

הקשר הרב דורי