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Coming to America


Once I asked Sonya and Yetta, "What was the most difficult moment on your journey to America?"

Sonya's reply:

At first I thought it must have been in Riga, Latvia. The officials wouldn't let us board the boat because little Harry had ringworm. We had very little money and we used it us as we waited for another boat of the Homeric Line to take us to England and then to America.

But this wasn't the worst part of the trip. That came in England. The government officials and all the dockworkers were prejudiced against Eastern Europeans. In addition to being Eastern Europeans, we were hated Jews.

The worst moments were during the delousing process. I was a young girl, a virgin. My modesty was ignored. They watched me naked like I was a stupid animal in a zoo. It was dehumanizing.

Yetta's reply:

It was the seasickness. I suffered so as we crossed the Atlantic. I thought I would die. I wanted to die, but I was too sick to go up the stairs to the deck and to throw myself into the ocean. Thank God Sonya was not sick and she was able to take acre of my child.




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Bubbe Flo
Part of From the Old World to the New
along with: From the Old World to the New    |  Life in Koshovato   |  Zeide Shlomo and the Goat   |  The Boys of Koshovato   |  Sonya Goes to School   |  The Picture Bride   |  No Gambling Here   |  Choosing a Rabbi   |  Welcome to America   |  The Business Trip   |  The Reluctant Soldiers   |  The Rabbi is Not In   |  Pogroms   |  An Engagement Agreement   |  Zionism   |  The Border Crossings   |  Sonya Travels to America   |  A Meeting in Pittsburgh   |  My Hands Are Cold   |  The Passover Dishes   |  Coming to America   |  Rose Moves to New York and Meets her Beshert   |  The Visit   |  I Want Turkey   |  Abi Gezunt (As Long As You Are Healthy)   |  Aunt Lybba Comes to Visit   |  Visits to Stroudsburg   |  Passover Memories   |  Appendix   |  A little History ... A little Geography