Bella Simon Pasternak
Urisor, Romania
My name is Bella Pasternak. I was born in Romania on November 7, 1928. In 1944, I befriended a police captain. A week before a round-up of Jews, the captain warned me to get my family out. My family didn’t believe me until they knocked on the door and said we had 5 minutes to gather our things. We were shipped in a cattle car to Auschwitz. My mother, father, a sister and 2 brothers were sent to the gas chambers. I was shipped to a labor camp in Estonia.
The Russians liberated me in 1945. We walked home to Hungary. We walked from January 21 to March 17. I came to America in 1946 and met my husband in 1952. We had 3 sons. I am alive to see my grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. I survived.