Soeurette Joseph Part VI: The Germans vs. The French

In this section of the interview, Soeurette answers questions regarding some more sensitive topics.

(Can you describe your husband?)

Yes. He was very kind, extremely kind, very much loved by other people, people liked him a lot. He was very sweet. He adored his children. After everybody was so afraid that he would not like children, because everybody said to me they were afraid because he was never interested in children. But once he had his own it was a big difference. He suffered a lot when they left, I didn’t. I took it very well. I was a little relieved, you know. They were in that age where Sylvia went to too many parties and too many things that I was happy she left. And Jean-Paul, with him it was a little more difficult because he was very homesick. He was even homesick when he had to leave home to go to the Escuela Americana. Everything was too much. He would have lived the rest of his life in his room. He didn’t need anybody. He wanted to be in his room. But Sylvia liked to be outside and Andre was worrying much more than I did and very unhappy that they had left.
It belonged to the tradition in Salvador. I don't know if we were right to send them away.

(But they loved to visit?)

They liked to come home, of course.

(What did you do when they left? What kind of things did you –did you take on any new?)

No, I didn’t do anything new. I just went on with my life the way it was.

(Now what was it like coming to Salvador after the war? Did people ask you about what you went through?

Oh, they never asked anything and I was told not to talk about it. I never said a word about all those things ever. Nobody knew anything about me. I was told not to say a word.

(What about your husband? You husband knew.)

Yeah, but he didn’t want anybody else to know it. It was not interesting for anybody. They didn’t care. They didn’t want to hear things. They didn’t want to hear what happened during the war and what – they didn’t want to know.

(Why do you think?)

I don't know. Just “Leave me alone. I don’t want to hear. Why do you speak about atrocities?” People didn’t want to hear anything because there’s a lot more to tell. There’s a lot more visits to the camps and things like this. There were camps in France where they had taken the people that I had to go and visit and very often speak to the people who were in charge to see if I could get somebody out and so on and so on. All these people don’t want to hear about it. They were happy in Salvador. Don’t talk. No.

(How did that make you feel?)

Strange. I must say that sometimes I resented it. Sometimes I resented it. The people didn’t want to hear about anything. They just didn’t want to hear about anything.

(Did you ever think that maybe they were afraid to ask?)

No. They were not afraid to ask, absolutely not. They just didn’t care, that’s the whole reason. They didn’t care. No.

(What did you think of the other people in the community? What were they like? Were the German Jews different from the French?)

Very different but we were – a few of us only mixed with the German Jews. There were others who never mixed with the German Jews. And we were very friendly with your grandfather (Ernesto Reich). We were friends of Herta (Freund), very good friends of Herta. And for me it was absolutely no problem. Everybody was very nice to me and I had no reason whatsoever not to be nice to other people. Tante Paula (Widawer) treated me like a daughter. I had never met, really, Doña Irma (de Liebes) because I was reading your report and I didn’t know her really because I don’t remember having ever been invited to the house. Life was very agreeable. I find – I liked it very much, I felt very comfortable.

(How were the German Jews different from the French?)

They are different anyhow, they’ve always been. It’s a completely different upbringing. Much stiffer, maybe, I would say and different…...

Transcription by Claudette Allison, Word-by-Word.com
Ruth Reich de Alpert participated in this section of the interview.