Veronica Willbanks- Holocaust Survivor

Kristine Keren her original name is Krystyna Chiger. She was born in Poland on October 28, 1935. She lived with her mother, father, an younger brother. She was born in an apartment building were they lived when the war started. Her brother died in 1978 he was in the Israel army. He was born May 18, 1939. Her mother played the piano they owned a big beautiful piano. They heated the apartment with ceramic fireplaces by burning coal in it. When the weather was nice out she would go outside and play in the courtyard or go to the park. Her grandparents lived three streets away. Her father owned a fabric store. Her favorite color was yellow and her favorite toy was a doll. She remembers that her brother was born on a Sunday and when she seen her mother after he was born she ask her how her brother came her mother said that she left sugar outside the window the stork took the sugar and left her brother. She went to school after the liberation started kindergarten in 1941. In 1939 the Russians took her fathers store so he started working two jobs. The Russians stayed until 1941 then the Germans came. The Germans came in and took their home  and took all their belongings. They moved from place to place moving mostly at night. Her father witnessed her grandfather being killed. Her family and seven other Jews hid in the sewer. Took her father and two others to dig a tunnel to the sewer. Her father gave money to some sewer workers to help them. One of the tunnel workers Soha (not sure if it is spelled correctly) helped them make the tunnel more professional. She was wearing new sandals and wanted to wear them into the sewer and her mother told her no and she said "I want to wear these sandals mama". When they were going into the tunnel she asked her father " Daddy were are we going, were are we going". She explains the tunnels as being a smelly city underground. They lived in the sewers for fourteen months. Soha would bring them food and take their dirty clothes home and his wife would wash them. Soha was a Catholic man and when it was safe for the Jews to come out of the sewers he was waiting for them and he shouted "These are my Jews I saved them". She went to Israel in 1957. Went to Jerusalem to study for dental. She married her husband Marion in 1960. They moved to the United States in 1968. They had two sons. She believes that her experience surviving the holocaust was a positive influence on raising her own children. It strongly effect her everyday. Has dreams, wakes up in cold sweats, wont step on man holes walks around them, and watching movies about Germans with their foot steps gives her cold chills. She believes in taking the bad things in life and turning them into something positive. Her message for the future generation is " Not to forget what happened to the six million Jews during the holocaust.