The director wasn't there that day, she'd gone somewhere
and two soldiers came to the children's home.
Not soldiers, French policemen.
And the nurse standing in for the director
asked them what they wanted.
"You have these two girls. I have orders to take them."
- Ah, the order had your names on it? -Yes, yes.
With our names.
- And what did they say?
They said they were moving the parents to another place and they didn't want to separate...
"So to keep the families together
"we are taking the children."
So they took both of us
And they took us to Annecy.
- Just you and your sister? Not the other sisters?
- Not the others. They only had...
Afterwards we found out that from one of Mother's letters
they discovered the address, so they came for us.
The policeman took us to the train first.
He went to the train station to organize something.
He gave us a little money and said: "Go and buy yourselves a sandwich because it's a long journey."
And we came to the camp.
When Mother saw us,
someone saw us and she went and told Mother that we had arrived.
Mother passed out immediately.
But then she ran to her [Friedel Bohny-Reiter] and said, "Look, they brought me my girls."
She [Friedel] was shocked, she said they had no right.
This place is Swiss territory, what do you mean they brought the girls?
She ran to the commander of the camp
and he said to her, "I can't just remove two names.
"You have to bring me the names of 2 other children.
She said, "How can I send more children away?"
I can't do it.
, So she wrote in her report,
she ran to him four times,
and in the end, the next day,
we were already about to get on the train.
In the end he was angry with her and he said to her:
"Get out of here, take the girls, hide them in your barracks,
and I don't want to see you again." Just like that.
-As we say here, "Get out of my sight." -Yes.
So she came running,
because there was very little time before getting on the train.
She ran
and from afar she called us, me
and I ran. I knew that she was always trying
to contact the director of the Red Cross
and that she couldn't reach him.
The lines were busy.
I ran to her
and she said: "Quickly grab your sister and bring her."
I took Hannah by the hand.
Mother didn't know what was going on, we didn't even say goodbye to her.
Nothing, we both ran.
She took us and put us in the storeroom,
with the cheeses and the rice and all the supplies she had obtained,
and she ran back to the train and took out more children,
including little children, and brougt them to me to look after.
She said: "Make sure they don't cry so that you won't be discovered."
-How many children? -I don't know.
-But really small ones? -Yes.
-You mean... -Young.
Four, five-year-olds. -Already able to understand that they mustn't cry?
-No, but I had to occupy them,
so that they wouldn't cry, to do anyting I could so that they wouldn't cry,
until the transport left, until the train departed.
She told me later that not everyone wanted to give her their children.
But some did.
We were there for three days until she got the permit.
Eventually she contacted the director of all the children's homes in France,
and he went to Laval, you know who Laval was?
-Pierre Laval. -Vichy.
-The Prime Minister. -Yes.
And he explained that this was Swiss territory
neutral, and that it could not be done, and they understood very well.
So they agreed to let us go, with a few more chidren
and in this way we returned to Pringi.