Arriving in Atlanta

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"About three or four o’clock in the afternoon we came into Atlanta Terminal Station in downtown. And we sat there on the train. The train stopped. I guess if the train had a different destination than Atlanta, we would have gone on. We didn’t know we were in Atlanta, so for about two and a half hours we sat there. There was nobody on the train, just us. Finally a gentleman from the Atlanta Jewish Welfare Federation came on the train and said, “We’ve been looking for you.” He introduced himself and got us off the train.

We got in a car with him, and [he] took us to the Jefferson Hotel. It’s right across the street from Superior Court in Atlanta, and I remember we were on the fifth floor in the corner room of the Jefferson Hotel. There’s the five of us--one bed, and there was an actual bathroom inside. First time we’d ever been in a room where the bathroom was actually inside the room. We were there for about two and a half weeks.

Then they were able to find us a permanent residence with a family. Jewish family. I guess they volunteered to take immigrants into their homes.