My childhood in Germany before
Hitler was a perfectly normal-
middle-class childhood.
It changed...quite a bit
from the beginning.
I was the first child born to
Edmond and Friedel Kann. 
We had a maid, a beautiful
apartment with a beautiful-
you know, garden area.
One day in the morning, there
was a telephone call-
from the Gestapo.
"You are going to be deported
tomorrow go home."
And then came October 22nd, 1940-
when the police appeared, the
Gestapo appeared-
and arrested us.
So, we were taken to the
railroad station.
Little did we know that we
would be taken to-
a concentration camp.
And eventually we were put on a
train-
no idea where we were going.
We knew we were going to France,
and there were trucks-
and these trucks took us to
Gurs, to Camp de Gurs.
So we got into Gurs, wooden
barracks, totally bare.
The barracks by the way had no
windows-
they had some flaps you
could open-
if you had something to prop it
open with.
It was horrible, we lived
in mud.
Yeah there was even one woman at
the time-
when it was raining and-
she fell in the mud and died
because she couldn't get up.
Yeah, she pitched forward.
She pitched forward on her face.
And the soil in Gurs was clay,
pure clay, and it rained a lot.
We had lice and fleas
and bed bugs and rats-
and one day the Red Cross came
to put these caps on us-
to get rid of the lice-
and that was pretty awful,
you know pretty painful.
The conditions were abominable.
I like to say that Gurs was
really...
the antechamber to Hell.
We had water only three
times a day.
I don't think you can describe
the feeling and the atmosphere-
that gripped us.
Lunchtime was a watery soup...
it had some root vegetables,
sometimes some chickpeas-
occasionally a morsel of meat...
that was it.
Starvation food.
And the same was actually the
evening-
sometimes it was only tea.
So you had to be very careful-
with that little bit of bread
you had.
To make it last for 24 hours.
You had some straw.
We were given straw.
Which we put on, it was put on
the floor and that was it.
Many, many people were on
the floor.
And one day actually-
a group of nuns came and took
us out for a day-
and they took us on a hike
to the Pyrenees.
And that's the first time-
looking down from the Pyrenees,
from the height-
onto this vast array
of barracks.
It's the first time it I really
became aware of what a-
miserable, miserable place
I was relegated to.
And the fact that you know here
I was free, for a moment-
but I was going back to-
incarceration, imprisonment,
barbed wire.
Well, I think the first time I
met Max-
in spite of the horrible
conditions-
there was a get-together for
young people.
To make their life a
little...more interesting.
And that's where I met him.
And the second time I met him I
heard him play the cello-
because there was a cultural
life eventually.
And I liked the way he
interpreted the music.
So here we are, 72--no--76
years later.
Yeah.
There were social service
organizations-
that could function in Gurs.
Their social workers were in
camp...
and my mother was approached,
whether she would let me-
leave the camp, to go to
Le Chambon.
Who knew about Le Chambon?
Nobody.
And we would be placed in a home
run by the Swiss Red Cross and-
Did I want to go?
Yes, of course. Who wouldn't
want to leave this place?
We were seven young people who
left together-
and we came to Le Chambon.
We came to that little house.
I had a letter from a relative
in Gurs-
to come and see my mother-
because she had been very ill.
And so I went.
And that was August the 6th,
1942.
On my way- I had about an hour
with my mother, it was...
was...how can you describe it?
A terrible situation.
It was the last time I saw or
heard from my mother.
On my way back, I went to see
Max and told him-
“If you are not safe here,
come where I am."
Yeah.
Instinctively I knew...
that he would be, or we would be
safe in Le Chambon.
And so one night he came.
Yeah, now where do I find her?
So Gurs went on as I described.
Little by little the camp was
emptying out.
But very often some of the
people-
were coming back to the camp.
Because France was in such chaos
at this point-
that nobody knew where to go.
