“The Handsome, Good-Looking and Lucky One”

His name is Alfred Caro and he is the Handsome, Good Looking and Lucky One.  He was born on July 27, 1911 in a small village in Poland called Sampter to his father and mother Sally (father) and Frida (mother) Caro.  He had three sisters: Nola, Cecilia, and Jenny.  He had three brothers as well: Ivan, Alex, and Egbert.  His father was a store owner and a butcher and his mother was a homemaker.  When he was asked who he was closest to he replied “I was close to them all.”  Although his family was one of conservative Jews, he began to study Zionism.  To understand why that is important you must first understand what Zionism is.  Zionism is a movement that supports a Jewish nation in the land of Israel.  It advocates the return of Jews to Israel and states that Jews should uphold their identity by staying with their own kind.

Mr. Caro states the relationship between Jews and Gentiles was always good before the Nazi regime, claiming “people didn’t pay attention, or just didn’t care.”  He says that he was a normal teen - he went to dances “and flirted with all the pretty girls."  He played sports and said that he was quite good at them.  He enjoyed running track and boxing, although boxing was his favorite.  Mr. Caro attended public school and noted that he like it very much.  Students did not pay attention to whether you were Jewish, Catholic or Protestant; they liked you for you.  Mr. Caro said that until he was about nine years old he had never heard of who Adolf Hitler was and what he supported or advocated.  Even when he was old enough to know who was and what he was about, he never thought “that the moron could influence as many as he did.”

In 1933, Hitler came into power and the policies against the Jews began.  The Jewish people in Mr. Caro's community began to wonder who was friend and who was foe.  People he had always been friends with were no longer friends.  His father lost his business because people quit coming in since he was Jewish.  Mr. Caro says that when the Nuremberg Laws went in effect in 1935, Jews were no longer considered humans.  The police would break into people’s houses pretending it was a “political investigation.”  This is the year that he became a full-out Zionist.  He says that it had always been that “first they were German, and second they were Jews,” but not anymore.  Mr. Caro explains that the police had allowed the Nazis to take one person from the home for an investigation, which was usually a male.  Someone came to his home and asked his mother how many men were in the family.  This scared him so badly that he ran and hid for a few days with some friends and then an aunt.  When he heard that someone from his home had to come in for an “investigation,” he knew it needed to be him so he went. 

 Hours into the investigation, with not one question asked, he was sent to the police station in Berlin.  He went into a small room with about 400 or 500 men in it and stayed for about two days.  He and the others were then transported by truck to a concentration camp.  Mr. Caro says that he was in two different camps.  The first was Sachsenhousen in Berlin, and the next was Oranienberg which was near Berlin.  Once he was told to get out of the truck he recalls “that is when the day went dark.”  The Nazi soldiers began to hit them for no reason.  He says they were brought into a room where a speech was given, and the entire speech was nothing more than cussing and belittling each and every one of them.  Then they were throw into a barrack.  In the mornings they were marched out for roll call and then sent straight to work to move sand and stone.  When they were lucky enough to eat,  their meals consisted of: water for breakfast, watered down soup for lunch and a slice of bread for dinner.  Keep in mind this was the case only if they were lucky enough to eat.  Mr. Caro states that if you were lucky you died of malnutrition.  He said that “the dead were the lucky ones.”  While the prisoners were marching, they were threatened with machine guns, and if they stepped out of line the Nazi soldiers would shoot them.  Some of the Nazi soldiers would call them out and make them turn and turn until they were dizzy and then make them march.  They would obviously step out of line from being dizzy, and would be shot.  Most of the time the dying would be moved before they could die, so as not to dissolve the morale or just to make them wonder what really happened to their friends.  Still through all of this, most of the people thought this was only temporary and that it would all be over soon.

The next part is amazing!  This is is the part of the history Mr. Caro begins to call himself "the lucky one.”  Mr. Caro's mother began to question what was going on and ended up at a police station where a young man who had known the Caro family all of his life served as a policeman.  She begged him to send a release order and he did.  Mr. Caro was taken to an office to sign papers and then taken to the police station where he was called out and told he was free.  He was only there for about six weeks.  He went in on June 16, 1938 and was released sometime in July or August of that same year.  He went home and began to work with the Hicem.  The Hicen was a power of people that helped to bring the Jews out of the concentration camps and get them somewhere safe, or at least somewhere safer.  He considered himself privileged to help such an organization.  They lived in Belgium for two weeks, but that was as long as they could stay there so they went to Paris next.  There was an organization similar to the Red Cross that was there to help, but the communication barriers sometimes posed a problem.  This is when he volunteered to go overseas in the Foreign Legion.  Ernando Tellez of the South American consulate gave him permission to live in and work in Columbia.  Thus began his path to healing.  While working in a gold mine, he contracted malaria, however, he did not know it until he became ill on a train ride to help his friend, who was a dentist, to start a business in Bogota Columbia.  This is where he began to plant his seed, and although he didn’t stay,he did start a business and did very well. 

He left Columbia in 1952 and came to New York in 1953. This city is where he met his wife, Helen.  She had been married before and had a son.  She owned a little country store and was Jewish as well.  They had one child, a daughter, named Alicia.  At the time of the interview he had no grandchildren and lived in a small Jewish community In Anniston Alabama.  Some of his Christian friends purchased a big menorah to go on the front of the synagogue where he worships.  He states that he is an active Jew again, has many friends and is no longer afraid to go into public.  He helps in the community, and at one time he owned the nicest restaurant in Anniston.  He tells that he has been back to Germany only one time and did not recognize it.  He did call on a friend named David Norman and since then  has been able to keep in contact with Mr. Norman and his wife.  Mr. Caro says that he will never forget and will never forgive, but he no longer hates the Germans for what they did and what they allowed to happen.  Mrs. Caro died in 1967, and Mr. Caro has never remarried.