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We Want Nothing To Do With You

Lisl Schick interview by Dr. Carolyn Ellis

LS: My non-Jewish friends would not speak to me, and I couldn’t understand why. They said, “No, we will never talk to you again.” I said, “Why? We didn’t have a fight. What did I do?” They said, “You didn’t do anything, but you’re a dirty Jew, and we want nothing to do with you.” I just couldn’t understand it. And then they said, “If we did, our parents will get into trouble, so forget it. This is it. We’re not speaking to you again.” So, you can just imagine. I was ten years old. That was almost the end of my world at that point.

So then, we tried to do the things that we normally do. I told you how protective my mother was. My mother picked us up from school every day, and we would go to one of the beautiful parks in Vienna and we’d play for a little bit. We got to the park, and there were big signs, “No Jews or dogs allowed.” So, we were on the same level as an animal...