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Oral history interview with Allen Moskowitz

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1993.A.0088.20 | RG Number: RG-50.002.0020

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    Oral history interview with Allen Moskowitz
    Transcript
    Good morning.
    I am Joseph Preil, co-director of the Kean College Holocaust
    Resource Center, assisting--
    working with me this morning on today's interview
    will be Dr. Mark Lender.
    Good morning.
    Director of grants at the college, and a fine historian
    in his own right, who's been very helpful to us
    in the development of the oral history project here at Kean.
    Our special guest this morning is Mr. Alan Moskowitz,
    a leading member of the Elizabeth Jewish community.
    Mr. Moskowitz, in order to get started, could you
    please identify the members of your family
    and where you lived at the outbreak of the war
    in September 1939?
    At the outbreak of the war in 1939,
    I was in a yeshiva in Czechoslovakia called Šurany.
    Later when the Germans marched in, we had to disband
    the yeshiva and I went back to the place where my parents
    lived, which was Svidník in Eastern Slovakia.
    How old were you at the time?
    At that time, I was--
    in 1930, I was 16-years-old.
    Who were the other members of your family?
    Your siblings, brothers, sisters?
    I had one brother younger than me.
    His name was Hanschl, and had twins, a brother and a sister,
    who were about seven years younger.
    So you're the oldest.
    I'm the oldest.
    Can you tell us something about life in Brusnica?
    Well, Brusnica was the place where I was born.
    I only stayed there till I was about six years old, since it
    was a very small village.
    I was sent to a bigger town, where
    I had an aunt and an uncle.
    And I stayed with them, and I went to school over there.
    And later on, we moved to Svidník.
    And this is the place where I was
    when the outbreak of anti-Semitism
    and harassment of Jews started.
    We moved there in 1937.
    And well, then I went to different schools,
    to different yeshivas, but I always came back to Svidník.
    In 1942, I found myself in Svidník.
    That's when I was first arrested and taken to labor kommandos.
    I just want to know a little bit more about life
    when life was a bit normal, and you
    said you were staying in a yeshiva and so on.
    Well, when I was in the yeshiva, I was 16 years old.
    In Šurany, we were not allowed to go past a certain area,
    which it was off limits, I would say.
    Because they didn't want the student to go to movies or to
    mingle with the rest of the population,
    to concentrate mostly on studies.
    So it was a real yeshiva life in Šurany.
    And I only stayed there about a year and a half.
    And then I went back to Svidník and Bardejov,
    which was a larger town where I could study.
    Also, since the yeshiva was disbanded
    we had private groups where we studied.
    And--
    The yeshiva disbanded in what year?
    In 19-- the Šurany yeshiva at the end of 1939.
    That's what, the outbreak of the war.
    Yeah, the Jews were still be able to have
    their businesses and their jobs, but it just started.
    Different laws were introduced, and we saw it,
    coming little by little.
    The real trouble started in 1942.
    That's when they first took all the youth and sent them--
    they told us they're going to Lublin,
    but actually they went directly to Auschwitz.
    Those are the famous letters that we used to receive,
    how well they are off in Lublin, but they were actually already
    in the concentration camps, in Auschwitz.
    I did not go with that transport.
    I was hiding out.
    I didn't trust them.
    Neither did my-- well, they did not take families yet,
    just the youth.
    My brother and I were in hiding.
    And my parents later on went into hiding
    with the two young girls--
    with the twins.
    How many-- what was the Jewish population of Svidník?
    Jewish population of Svidník was about 25 families.
    So it was a very small town.
    Very small town.
    And some of you understood not to get involved with the
    being gathered together.
    Right.
    Most of them ran away.
    From my town, from the 25, I was the only one
    that did not go directly to the concentration camps in '42.
    I went later in '44.
    But most of them, most of the youths went.
    In fact, all of them that I know of went in 1942.
    The families were taken later in 1943 and 1944.
    How was the decision made that you would not join them?
    Was that your parents or yourself?
    My parents didn't trust them, and I didn't trust them.
    I always liked freedom, and I felt like I can be on my own.
    And because you heard all kinds of stories
    about what was going on in Germany.
    Most people felt, well, the war is not going to last forever.
    We're going to go there.
    We're going to go to work.
    We'll work for a few months, and the war is going to be over,
    and that's it.
    But I felt differently.
    And I was not the only one.
    Quite a few of us did, that were hiding out.
    And later on, we got false papers and traveling
    as Gentiles.
    Did you have specific concerns?
    Had you heard specific stories about what
    was happening to individuals who were sent off?
    Well, I did not know what was going on in Auschwitz.
    I didn't even know that Auschwitz existed.
    I only heard about the letters that were coming from Lublin.
    But you heard Hitler talking on the radio all the time,
    to destroy all the Jews.
    And I felt, how can you trust a man like this?
    What about your gentile neighbors in Svidník?
    And since I know the language very well,
    and I know that I didn't look Jewish at the time,
    and I was able to acquire good papers
    and from one paper another paper and so forth,
    until I worked myself up that they were foolproof,
    because they were actually from a living person that
    joined the London--
    the English Legion, the Czech English Legion.
    And I took his papers.
    Cost me a few hundred dollars.
    And I got myself a yearly card to travel on any train I wanted
    as a salesman and other papers.
    And I was traveling freely.
    Actually, I was never stopped, but I
    was able to stay in hotels and support myself and support
    my family.
    Because my father and mother eventually went into hiding,
    too, and I had to support them.
    But in the beginning, before we were taken away,
    I saw what was coming, because they started--
    anti-Semitism in Slovakia started.
    You heard cases where they were cutting off
    beards, where they put the beard on Fire
    my father was afraid to travel.
    And this is how I became a salesman.
    So my father sent me to-- we still had a business.
    the businesses were not taken away till 1942.
    So my father asked me to travel for him to Bratislava,
    to buy merchandise, to bring it back,
    so we could support ourselves.
    What kind of business was he in?
    Textile.
    Textile.
    So I was doing the traveling.
    And later on, when my father went
    into hiding and my mother and the twins,
    my brother and I were hiding in a different place.
    And there were periods where it was quiet,
    when no transports went.
    And that was the time that they were
    negotiating trucks for Jews.
    [INAUDIBLE]
    In 1942?
    That was in 1943, '44.
    Well, then I was traveling already.
    And during that period, my father
    was finally caught in a basement where he was hiding out
    with my mother.
    They were sent away to a camp in Slovakia called Novaky,
    and later on to Sered.
    My mother somehow slipped out and went to Bratislava.
    We were hiding her out.
    My father went away directly to Mauthausen,
    and then I found out that approximately the time--
    because I am keeping now the yahrzeit.
    So I found out approximately the time
    that he was taken from Mauthausen to the crematorium.
    And my mother was hiding out in Bratislava.
    So from 1939 to 1942, you're part of Czechoslovakia,
    all of Czechoslovakia was under German rule.
    No, they were under Slovak rule, but they were
    collaborating with the Germans.
    All right.
    The Germans did not to come in.
    Well, actually I saw German soldiers,
    because they were going to the Polish border.
    They were traveling through Czechoslovakia
    to the Polish border.
    But the administration was all Slovak.
    There was no German administration.
    The Germans only came in when it was
    time to take all the Jews away.
    That was in '42.
    Well, no.
    In '42, still the Slovaks were doing it.
    Maybe there was a German supervisor telling them
    how to do it, but the Slovaks were doing it.
    When they came to take the families in 1943, then in 1944,
    then the first time that we saw SS men coming in.
    So the Slovaks were cooperating with the Germans.
    They were.
    In terms of getting the Jews to the camps.
    Right.
    And your family went into hiding.
    Right.
    And managed to hide until '42.
    No, they didn't have to hide.
    They didn't start taking families until '43.
    They took the youths in '42.
    Yeah.
    And the families they didn't take till '43.
    So they went into hiding in '43.
    And they were hiding in '43, '44.
    The middle of '43 somewhere.
    And so what happened to you in '42?
    In '42, in the beginning, I went into hiding,
    and I got my papers.
    I got my papers in Bratislava.
    And then I was traveling.
    And I took my mother to Bratislava,
    and I was hiding her out.
    A Gentile woman gave her a room over there.
    And I used to come every week over there and pay for it.
    In your hiding, in you're traveling,
    did you receive any assistance from Gentiles
    or get any reactions from your Gentile neighbors or business
    associates about the state of affairs?
    In Slovakia, very few of them.
    I don't know whether out of fear or they
    just didn't want to do it.
    There were some of them that were hiding out.
    And there was one area in Central Slovakia where
    there were high mountains, and Jews were hiding out
    in the mountains.
    And at night, they were coming down from the mountains
    to get their supplies, and they behaved very nicely,
    some of them.
    A lot of them did it for money.
    Later on, when then the Germans announced
    that if they catch anybody hiding a Jew,
    that he's going to be shot and so forth,
    the Jews had to leave.
    They wouldn't keep them any longer.
    Which I cannot blame them for it.
    But most of them survived in Slovakia.
    Very few of them survived in hiding.
    They only survived in the mountains.
    Hiding out in the mountains.
    Your mother was--
    My mother was with a woman hiding in Bratislava, right.
    Now, why did that woman--
    For money.
    For money.
    Maybe she needed the money, and maybe she also wanted to help.
    I don't know.
    And how long was your mother there?
    My mother was there--
    let's see.
    I'd say about eight months.
    From when till when?
    From the beginning of '44 to about--
    and I was caught.
    I was caught the end of September.
    So let's say from about maybe February, March '44 till
    about the end of September or beginning of October '44.
    So what happened to you, and what happened to your mother
    at that time?
    Well, I used to go out every week to my mother,
    to visit her, and also to pay the Gentile woman.
    On the way back, it was a Sunday,
    going back from my mother.
    I was walking.
    And a car pulled over, and two Gestapo men
    jumped out of the car, and they took me into a hallway.
    And they told me to pull my pants, pull my pants down,
    and they examined me, saw I was circumcised.
    They slapped me, says "Jude."
    And I find out at the time, they were not looking for Jews.
    They were looking for underground, for partisans.
    But the first thing, whenever they caught somebody,
    because in Slovakia, to be circumcised it
    was a 100% sign that you're Jewish, because the Slovaks did
    not believe in circumcision.
    So they took me to the Gestapo, and they
    started to examine my papers.
    "Is this your real name?"
    I said, "Yes, Andre Kolina."
    I was going under that name.
    They say, "how come you're circumcised?"
    I says, "I don't know."
    So I got a few more slaps.
    And then they asked me, "did your mother light the candles
    Friday night?"
    I say, "I don't remember my mother lighting candles."
    So they slapped me around a little more.
    So I figured it's not going to help me, because I realized
    they saw I was circumcised.
    The papers I knew that they couldn't prove anything.
    So I figured maybe if I admit something to give them
    a little help, so I told them that I remembered, though,
    that once you visited my grandmother,
    and she used to light-- she lit candles.
    And they had a lot of them like me over there.
    They didn't have time to do too much examination.
    They were going to send me away anyway,
    so they give me another slap and says "Mischling."
    That means I come from a mixed marriage.
    So they put me--
    I stayed in the Gestapo there a day or two,
    and then we went to Sered.
    In Sered, they had a special barrack for Mischling,
    for mixed marriages.
    And we were treated a little bit better than the rest of them,
    because we were not 100% Jews.
    In what respect was it better?
    Well, it was a little cleaner, because I saw the other one.
    There was lice over there, too.
    But this was just a gathering camp.
    This was not like a concentration camp.
    We still wore our civilian clothes.
    We didn't wear the striped clothing like later
    on in the concentration camp.
    And the other ones went out, the Kommandos to work.
    I don't know.
    They were shoveling snow, doing other work,
    just to keep them busy.
    And I got a job to clean, to shine the shoes
    of Hauptsturmführer Brunner.
    Matter of fact, I have an article over here.
    It was in The New York Times.
    He's in Syria.
    They want to bring him back now.
    So I went there every morning and shined his shoes.
    And it seems that he liked the way I was shining his shoes,
    so he kept me a little longer.
    Because there were a lot of transports going.
    And I did not leave for the camps
    till the end of December 1944.
    Auschwitz was already closed, and I was, as you can see,
    I wrote down over here my first concentration camp was
    Sachsenhausen Oranienburg.
    And that's the one you're discussing until now.
    Beg your pardon?
    Shining the shoes was in that camp.
    The shining shoes was in Sered, in Czechoslovakia.
    Aha.
    That's where Brunner was the commandant.
    Right.
    In fact, he was in charge of all the transports.
    What happened to your mother?
    Now, my mother, I found out that she left.
    I did not know what happened to her,
    but I found out that she's not in that place anymore.
    Somebody that came later on from Bratislava,
    he told me that she's not there anymore.
    How he found out, I don't know.
    But anyway, after the war, my mother
    told me the story what happened to her.
    The following week that I did not show up,
    she still had some money left.
    But I did not show up, she knew that something went wrong,
    that I must have been caught.
    So she was afraid for two reasons.
    First of all, she was afraid that she's not
    going to have enough money.
    They're not going to keep her there long enough.
    And another thing, in case, I had the address with me,
    that they're going to find her and they're
    going to come after her.
    So she packed up, and she started
    to walk until she came to a small village,
    where there was an inn.
    And she walked into that inn and told
    the woman that kept the inn that she's
    running away from the Russian front, which was very common.
    A lot of people were running away from the Russian front.
    She was dressed like a peasant woman.
    And she asked for a job.
    She said she's going to work just for board and food.
    So they gave her the job.
    They gave her a room.
    And she started to work there.
    And came mealtime, my mother was very religious.
    She wouldn't eat non-kosher food.
    So she told the woman she's a vegetarian.
    She'll only eat vegetables.
    Says OK.
    You're the cook.
    You're going to cook, so you can cook yourself
    whatever you want.
    Then came Saturday my mother wouldn't work on Saturdays.
    So she told the woman she's a Seventh day Adventist.
    So the woman respected that.
    She says listen, you want to work Sunday,
    you can work on Sunday.
    And she worked every day.
    And then German soldiers started to come to the inn.
    My mother was very religious, and she
    felt very uncomfortable.
    She was a good-looking woman, too.
    She was uncomfortable when the soldiers made remarks
    or they looked at her.
    So she turned away, and that woman, the innkeeper,
    noticed how uncomfortable she is when soldiers come in.
    What soldiers?
    The Germans soldiers.
    German soldiers.
    So she told her, listen, if you don't feel comfortable,
    I can see you are a very devout Seventh Day Adventist,
    and you don't want to look at strange men.
    Because she told her she lost the husband on the front.
    So she says you can go.
    You can go upstairs and find yourself some work upstairs.
    And this is how she stayed there the whole war,
    till the end of March when Slovakia was liberated.
    And at this time, where were you?
    I was in Sered.
    At this time, I was in Sered.
    Yes.
    And in December, shining the shoes for Brunner.
    And at the end of December, the last transport--
    I thought it was the last transport from Sered,
    but when I was interviewed a few months ago by the Germans
    about Brunner, because they wanted
    me to testify against him, they told me
    that they were still catching Jews in basements,
    and they were bringing them to Sered.
    And the last transport went in the beginning of March in 1945.
    Just a few weeks before liberation,
    they were still sending away Jews.
    Aside from polishing shoes for Brunner,
    did you have any contact with the men?
    With Brunner?
    Yes.
    The only contact I had, when he walked in, in the morning
    I stood in attention.
    I was afraid to look him in the eyes,
    and I never said one word.
    The other soldiers sometimes threw
    me a piece of bread on the way out, the SS men.
    Because they were supervising the shoe shining.
    But the only other contact when he sent me away,
    when there was a roll call, they were going to leave.
    And he went with his stick, counting off.
    And I was right in the front row.
    He looked straight at me and that's it.
    But he recognized me, because he saw me every morning there.
    So that's about it for Slovakia, what happened in Slovakia.
    Unless you want some other details.
    How long were you in Sered?
    In Sered I was only about Oct--
    let's see, October, November, December-- about 2 and 1/2
    months.
    And what happened then?
    Then I was sent away to Germany, Sachsenhausen Oranienburg.
    How many were sent at that time?
    There were about three carloads.
    I mean, what do you call it?
    The trains.
    Trains.
    Trains, yeah.
    So they could have what, about 100 in each car?
    Yeah, about 100.
    Maybe 80 to 100.
    Right.
    And what was your work?
    What was your program in Sachsenhausen?
    Well, this was the first real concentration camp.
    And we arrived to Sachsenhausen.
    First we were told in Berlin, when we came off the train,
    they told us that if anybody's caught with gold or dollars
    in Sachsenhausen that he's going to be killed immediately.
    So right away, everybody took out
    whatever money he had in gold, and we hid it
    underneath the stones on the railroad.
    And this was a ruse, because the guys
    that were going around telling us these things, after we left,
    they were going over there and picking up the gold
    and whatever we were hiding over there.
    The reason why we took some gold, because from the letters
    that we got from Lublin, they told us
    that the Polacks come in once a week to the camp,
    and you can buy things if you have money.
    So everybody took some money with them in order to buy.
    But when we got to Sachsenhausen, the first thing,
    well, "Arbeit macht frei" you see on his.
    And the beatings started right away.
    This is how we got initiated.
    You know, "schneller, schneller," and the Kapos,
    you know, rounding us up.
    The first thing you do, you go, you get undressed completely.
    You go to Entlausung, which means
    to see that you have no lice.
    And they cut all your hair from the head, from the body,
    all hair is cut off.
    And you get a striped uniform with a number on the uniform.
    We did not get tattoos anymore than Sachsenhausen.
    Only it was that in Auschwitz they used to get the tattoos.
    Maybe in Sachsenhausen they got it in the beginning,
    but when we got there, we didn't get tattoos anymore.
    And then they take us to the bunks,
    and every day you go out to work.
    But Sachsenhausen was also only a transitional camp for us.
    We knew we're not going to stay over there.
    Then they just divided us to different places
    where we're going to go from there.
    Did they send you to work?
    Work, whether there was work or no work,
    they always kept you busy over there.
    There was shoveling.
    What did they keep you busy with.
    Over there I think we were shoveling something.
    I don't remember exactly what it was.
    But you had to go to work.
    But in Sachsenhausen Oranienburg we only stayed a few weeks.
    From there we walked to Berlin, part of Berlin.
    I don't know.
    I'm not too familiar.
    This was 1944?
    This is--
    Spring and then through summer?
    No, no.
    This was the end of December 1944.
    I remember--
    Really?
    The war was almost over already.
    Well, over there it wasn't over yet in '44.
    The war was over in '45.
    In May.
    Right.
    So the end of December or the beginning of January,
    we were walking to Heinkel Flugzeugwerke.
    Because I remember we still saw some of the decorations
    from the holidays in the windows.
    How far a walk was that?
    That was a few hours.
    I can't remember exactly, but I know we made it the same day.
    We left in the morning.
    We were there sometime in the afternoon.
    By late 1944, can you describe the conditions, health, morale,
    outlook, otherwise of the other prisoners?
    When you arrived in the camp, how did you
    find the other prisoners?
    Well, in Sachsenhausen at that time,
    I was in contact mostly with newcomers.
    So we still looked like human beings.
    But the Kapos, the ones that were over us,
    they had enough food all the time.
    But we noticed already in the other camps
    that were looking at us, they looked like zombies.
    First we did not know who these people are,
    because they didn't look human.
    They looked like zombies to us.
    We used to call them a Musselman,
    which means he's on the way out already.
    It's his last few weeks.
    Most of these people weighed between 70 and 90 pounds.
    Later on, we all looked the same.
    At this stage with the guards, in comparison
    to later treatment, did the guards act perceptively
    differently at this point?
    In Sachsenhausen, there were beating
    because they wanted to train us, to keep the bunk in order.
    And when the Kapo called somebody,
    you had to jump right away.
    But I did not see--
    at that time, I didn't see any killing yet in Sachsenhausen.
    In the few weeks I was in Sachsenhausen,
    I did not see any killings.
    The people-- I don't like the use of the word "prisoners."
    I don't know what else to use at this point.
    What was the proportion that were Jewish with you?
    With me, 100%.
    The ones that came from Sered were 100% Jewish.
    And how did they live with each other?
    The Jews amongst themselves?
    Yeah, the prisoners.
    The prisoners, in the beginning, as I said, a few weeks
    we still behaved like human beings.
    We shared.
    We shared bread with each other, with somebody.
    Because we didn't know what was going to happen.
    The rations were very small.
    But who was thinking about food at the time?
    Since we were still in Sered, when we left Sered
    we still had enough food.
    There was no prison food.
    In fact, in Sered you could even get private food
    that the community used to send into us.
    So we used to share.
    Or we used to exchange.
    Somebody wanted to get a piece of bread
    and a piece of margarine, and somebody
    would give a half a slice of bread
    for the little piece of margarine.
    And for lunch was watered down soup with
    sometimes you find a little turnip in it, or maybe--
    some said it was dog meat or whatever floating on top.
    That was the lunch.
    And at night, you also got a slice
    of bread and black coffee.
    That was the diet over there.
    The diet was about 350 to 400 calories, I would say.
    At this point, was there any medical attention at all?
    No medical attention over there at all.
    And you were there for would you say how long?
    Just a few weeks.
    I don't know.
    A few weeks, and then you went to?
    Then we walked to Heinkel Flugzeugwerke.
    And how long were you there?
    Heinkel Flugzeug just a few days.
    So it was again a transition.
    Just a transition.
    And then we walked to Siemensstadt.
    How long did that take?
    The walk, I think we walked some in part.
    In part we went by truck if I remember.
    Some of us went by truck.
    I don't remember.
    I part of it from Heinkel Flugzeug to Siemensstadt,
    I remember getting off a truck slightly.
    Siemensstadt was a starvation camp.
    It was also transitionary.
    We were not supposed to stay there.
    But practically no food.
    We were there a few weeks, and a few of us
    died from starvation over there.
    That's when we started to lose all our weight.
    I don't know the reason why, whether they were not
    able to bring in food.
    Because there were raids.
    Every night we heard the American planes bombing Berlin.
    And quite a few of us died in Siemensstadt.
    From Siemensstadt, we went on--
    they put us on a train, and we went to Ohrdruf.
    That took a few days.
    And it was very cold.
    Still Germany?
    This is all in Germany.
    This was all in Germany.
    I remember on one stop, that we stopped
    there was another train going with Russian prisoners.
    And the International Red Cross was handing out some food
    to French prisoners, Russian prisoners.
    On the other side were watching, and we
    hoped when they get through with them, they'll come to us.
    We never made it.
    They never came over to our side.
    They probably had orders they cannot bring any packages
    to Jewish prisoners.
    Were they aware of your presence?
    Yes, they saw us.
    I don't know whether they insisted,
    but they did their job.
    They unloaded the food that they brought in,
    but Jewish prisoners didn't get one meal.
    And then I don't know how many days it took to get to--
    because a lot of times they had to take detours,
    because a lot of the railroads were bombed out.
    So it took a long time to get to Ohrdruf.
    That was my next.
    Now, Ohrdruf was a real working camp.
    And this was, according to some of the prisoners that I
    met there from Auschwitz, they said that this is the worst
    camp that they've ever been to.
    Really?
    And I can see why.
    Why?
    Because the work was so heavy, so little food, and so much
    work.
    And we wore wooden shoes.
    If somebody lost a shoe, he was finished.
    Because he couldn't walk on the ice or on the Snow and we
    had to carry heavy railroad ties, and clean the racks.
    They were building a railroad in the mountains for some reason.
    I don't know why.
    And we had to clean up the area where they want
    to lay the railroad tracks.
    And there were heavy, heavy boulders.
    And we had to pick them up and carry them
    from one place to another.
    And most of the time, the ones that were hit the worst
    are the tall people.
    Because the short ones--
    if the tall ones were up in the front,
    they carried the whole load.
    And the Kapos and the SS men were watching
    that nobody bends the knees.
    So the guys that were in the middle,
    if they were a little shorter, they were lucky.
    They survived a little longer.
    The tall ones went first.
    And over there, there was a lot of beating,
    because if you didn't go fast enough up the hill.
    And this is the place where I got my first beating.
    And I got my first beating during lunch.
    They brought out some soup to feed us.
    And while I was eating my portion,
    a black uniformed Ukrainian-- that was an SS but they had
    special uniforms--
    started a conversation with me.
    He noticed that my hands were not a worker's hands.
    So he asked me what my occupation is.
    So I told him a student, which was the truth at the time.
    I didn't have any other occupation.
    It seems he didn't like students,
    and he hit me so hard on the side over here,
    that to this day, I still feel it.
    The sciatic-a-- the sciatica nerve.
    And over there most of us died in Ohrdruf.
    Very few of us survived.
    I met-- the only reason why I survived
    is I met a cousin that came there from Auschwitz, that
    left in 1942 Czechoslovakia.
    He was one of the first ones.
    He had one of the lowest numbers in Auschwitz.
    And when he came to Auschwitz, he
    claimed that he was a electrician.
    They were looking for electricians.
    A friend of his told him, if they
    ask for electricians, whatever profession,
    just tell them that you know it.
    So he says electrician.
    And once he got in there, he didn't know anything
    about negative or positive.
    But the friends helped him out.
    They showed him around.
    And this is how he became an electrician.
    And he was in charge of the electrified fence
    around the camp.
    They had to check it and see if it's all right.
    And this is how he survived Auschwitz.
    He got a little better food.
    And then he was sent to Ohrdruf.
    When he came to Ohrdruf, he already
    had all his connections with the other officials over there
    in the camp.
    And he found out that I was there, and he brought me.
    Every night he brought me some extra food,
    and this is how I was able to survive over there.
    You said Ohrdruf was the worst camp.
    The worst.
    In fact--
    You were there.
    Yes.
    And you were the only member of your family there.
    Only member.
    You were a young boy.
    Yeah.
    What kept you going?
    What kept me going is, I tell you,
    if I did not believe in God, I would commit suicide.
    Suicide was very easy to commit.
    A lot of them committed suicide.
    In fact, a lot of them gave away a piece of bread,
    and asked the fella, I'll you my bread if you kill me,
    if you choke me.
    And the only reason I didn't commit suicide,
    because I knew it was against my religion.
    If it wasn't for that, I would have probably--
    especially before my cousin came.
    Because the work was so heavy, and it
    was so discouraging in the morning
    to see when they lined us up for the count,
    and you saw all the dead lined up.
    Because they used to line up when they counted.
    The system was like this over there.
    There used to be--
    they used to call them in German a "Schreiber,"
    which means the one that used to write down.
    And a "Laufer" means a runner that
    ran between the prisoners and the office
    with messages, whatever he had to tell
    the leader of that particular barrack.
    Now the Laufer and the Schreiber and the one
    that was in charge, the Jew that was in charge of the camp, not
    the German, they were standing in attention
    before the SS men with all the papers.
    And they were presenting the count,
    how many prisoners are presenting themselves
    this morning.
    And the SS man was counting to see if they were correct.
    So they had to--
    in the morning, the dead were counted in the barracks.
    And the sick were counted.
    Once they were recorded, they were counted in the barracks.
    And the living were counted outside.
    It could be freezing, below zero,
    you had to stand there for hours for the count.
    If the current was not correct, the Schreiber the one that
    was supposed to write and count, he was responsible.
    He could lose his job.
    He could become a prisoner like us.
    Or he could be killed.
    It happened one day, which I witnessed myself,
    where all of a sudden everybody is in line before the SS
    men got there yet.
    They wanted to make sure the count is right.
    Everything was standing five in a row.
    And he had the count right.
    And all of a sudden, somebody comes running.
    He probably had diarrhea.
    He was in the latrine, and he was late.
    And he came running, and he stands over there.
    And he takes one look.
    He says, I got one more.
    He took him back to the barracks.
    And I found later he was killed in the barracks,
    and he was with the dead people.
    So the count of the dead people he could fix somehow.
    But the main thing is, because the SS men a lot of times
    did not go to count the death and the sick,
    but they counted the living.
    As long as the count was right, SS man was happy,
    and he was happy.
    So the Kapo killed.
    The Kapo killed, killed him in order
    that the count should be correct.
    One other time I remember, now this was at night,
    when we got back we were counted again, to see we are all back.
    At that time, we they count the dead
    who are laid down right on the side of the living ones.
    And they counted the living and the dead.
    So I remember one case, a lot of people
    lost limbs up in the mountains over there.
    You know, a rail fell down or a Kapo cut off his leg
    or whatever.
    One SS man was counting the dead,
    and he saw one dead person was laying there
    with a leg missing.
    He carried on there for, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes,
    where that leg is.
    And all the Kapos had to run around
    till they find a leg on a truck, and they brought the leg,
    and this is how we were dismissed.
    Did these guards in their dealings with you
    have any understanding of who the various prisoner
    groups were?
    Did they have any overt attitudes toward the Jews
    or even know who Jews were?
    Aside from the prevalent anti-Semitism.
    Inside the camp, it was all run by prisoners.
    The camp inside was run by the prisoners.
    You only saw the SS men--
    you saw the guards on the towers.
    You saw the SS men.
    And then when it came to count, and to count the prisoners,
    or you saw him sometimes go into the office,
    if there were special orders, if they
    needed a certain group of people to send on a Kommando
    somewhere, or to send them--
    or to send the sick people away to the crematoria.
    Then you saw the SS men coming in over there.
    Otherwise, it was an administration all
    run by prisoners.
    And as far as the Kapos, you had some good Kapos,
    and you had some bad Kapos.
    The German Kapos, I found out, were most of them
    were homosexuals and criminals that were released
    from prisons to become Kapos.
    Some of the Jewish Kapos were mostly
    Polish Kapos, because they had the training before the Czech
    Jews they became Kapos.
    Some of them behaved very nicely.
    In front of the SS men they couldn't behave nicely.
    Sometimes they had to give you a Slap but most of the time,
    they very nicely.
    But some of them were actually sadists,
    and they enjoyed hitting.
    Or they wanted to keep their jobs.
    What was the proportion of Kapos to prisoners?
    I would say--
    I would say about every group of 50 had about two
    Kapos, one on each side.
    Approximately.
    I can't be sure.
    How long were you in Ohrdruf?
    In Ohrdruf I was from January '45, or beginning of January
    '45 till March '45.
    What happened then?
    Then we were marched to a camp called
    Crawinkel, which was underground bunkers, where we stayed.
    Why did you leave Ohrdruf?
    Because the Allies were coming?
    It could be.
    It could be.
    But there was no reason.
    Because there was no reason.
    There was no reason for sending people
    from one camp to another, anyway.
    This whole business of being in six camps in such a short while
    didn't make much sense, because the same work
    I did in Ohrdruf I could have done someplace else.
    What I understood from our discussions,
    why this was happening, it seems that the guards or the officers
    that were running the camps were privileged people somehow
    that did not have to go on the Russian front.
    They had some kind of an in, in Berlin,
    that they were assigned these jobs which were easy jobs.
    They did not have to go on the front.
    And in order for them to show that they are needed
    and they are busy, they are administrating,
    they used to send one transport here,
    one transport there, and this, and keep themselves busy.
    And always they made these decisions themselves?
    They made the decision themselves.
    I can't see what difference does make it
    whether I carry rocks over here over carry
    rocks in another camp.
    It doesn't make sense to me.
    And from Ohrdruf you went to?
    Crawinkel.
    Crawinkel.
    Yeah, that was a camp where we did not work.
    When I walked into Crawinkel, the first thing that I saw
    was about six Russians hanging.
    Over there, there was also a few barracks
    with Russian prisoners.
    So in the beginning, we didn't know what this was.
    In fact, I thought it was like we
    used to have those scarecrows.
    You know, in the fields.
    You thought they weren't people.
    I thought they weren't people.
    Then we found out that they were trying to escape.
    And this was a warning to us not to escape.
    And over there, also how I survived over there,
    I met another friend that I knew from the old country, that
    came from Auschwitz over there.
    And he told me to come every evening
    after I eat my watered down soup to his camp,
    and he's going to give it to me from the bottom.
    You know, there was big casks of soup.
    And thickness, all the good stuff was on the bottom.
    He says that he's going to save me a portion.
    And this is-- that fellow, the older brother,
    he died in this country.
    They're all over here.
    They're called the Berger family.
    They're in the plastic business.
    [? Very nice. ?]
    But he died.
    He died in this country.
    In fact, I met him once, and I told him, you know,
    I owe you some soup.
    I'll take you to the best restaurant
    and I'll buy you the best soup in the restaurant.
    But we never got together.
    This was March 1945.
    As a prisoner, were you aware of what was going on in the war?
    In the war?
    We didn't know.
    We just heard that the Americans are getting a little closer.
    And we already-- you know, the overflights, we knew.
    Yeah, and also at the end, I also heard some of the guards.
    They were talking to us already.
    I don't know.
    Maybe they were trying to justify to themselves.
    They knew the end is coming.
    He says-- he says--
    one guy says, [SPEAKING GERMAN].
    "You will be free soon."
    And we heard already from them.
    And we heard already the artillery.
    At night you could hear the artillery already approaching.
    Did the approach of the Allies, in this case, the Americans,
    did this change the behavior of the guards?
    Yes, it did.
    Some of them.
    Some of them it did.
    Some of them.
    You're talking about the German guards?
    Yes.
    The German guards, some of them did, and some no.
    Some till the last minute.
    I think there were cases where even the commandant already
    called in some of the officials from the--
    not the Kapos but the Blockalteste,
    which was in charge of a whole block
    and had discussions with them.
    And in many cases, they were trying
    to find out how they think they're going to be treated.
    And some of those commandants were
    looking to save their skin.
    And at the last minute, they tried
    to make it a little easier and gave orders probably
    not to officially kill anybody.
    But the plain soldier--
    the one, let's say, when we went on a transport,
    or we were walking.
    Later on, we were walking from Crawinkel
    to Buchenwald, which took us a few days.
    We slept in the fields--
    they were shooting still on the road.
    And they saw already the Americans,
    the American planes over us.
    And if somebody stepped out of line,
    he had to relieve himself, so he went to the bushes,
    you heard a shot, and the person never
    came back till the last minute.
    So you were in Crawinkel not long at all.
    Not long at all.
    A few weeks, maybe.
    And then you went to Buchenwald.
    We went to Buchenwald.
    And when we got to Buchenwald, Buchenwald
    was an organized camp.
    In the beginning, we did not see the crematoria
    and any atrocities that were committed.
    It was very regular, and everybody had to give his name
    and where he came from.
    So the first thing they did, they separated the Jews.
    They said, the Jews on one side, the Polacks on another side,
    and the Greeks on this side.
    We had Greeks, too, over there.
    And I was then with my cousin, the cousin
    that saved me in Ohrdruf.
    His name was Shimon [? Bubker. ?] My name,
    I came to the camp under the Gentile name Andre Kolina.
    So I told him, listen, we survived till now.
    We don't have too much.
    I don't like the idea they're taking
    the Jew separate and the Czechs separate
    and the Poles separate.
    I say, I'm going with the Czechs.
    I have a Czech name.
    I'm gonna.
    He says, what am I going to do?
    My name is Shimon [? Bubker. ?] I say,
    listen your name is now let's reverse it.
    Bobby Shimko.
    Shimko is a Slovak name.
    They don't have records so exact.
    Don't worry about it.
    Come with me, and let's go to the Czech.
    And we went into the Czech barracks.
    That was in the big camp.
    All the Jews went into the small camp.
    Very few of them survived.
    We were there only a few weeks, but few--
    they went into the [? rat holes. ?]
    And many, many of them actually--
    not that-- some of them died from typhus.
    I got typhus later on, too.
    But the Germans, as they were retreating,
    they were killing them off in the small camp.
    They just came with machine guns,
    and would kill them off as much as they can,
    and then they left.
    The Czech barracks, the Czech had a little uprising
    over there.
    A few of very well trained Czechs,
    that were officers in the Czech army
    and were taken to Buchenwald, made an uprising.
    They somehow, they disarmed one of the German guards,
    and then they disarmed another one,
    and they got a hold of one of the towers.
    And the Germans brought in reinforcements,
    and they wiped them out.
    But it was too late.
    They had to leave already.
    So they were machine gunning the Czech barrack.
    I don't know what happened to me.
    I know I was sick of typhus.
    Somebody pushed me underneath a bunk.
    And I woke up three weeks later in the hospital
    under the Americans.
    That was liberation for you.
    You were sick and unaware of what was going on.
    I was never--
    Typhus.
    Yeah, I was never aware that I was liberated.
    So after two weeks of whatever, I was in the hospital.
    After I got out of the hospital, I went back to the camp
    to find my cousin that I lived with.
    I wanted to see if he was still alive.
    And I was all white, and I wore a white hospital uniform.
    And I walked in over there.
    He recognized me, thought I came back from the dead.
    Right.
    And I only stayed there after liberation maybe one week.
    We used to go into Weimar.
    And when we walked in over there,
    one guy says, let's go into this restaurant.
    I says, you have money?
    He says, you don't need money.
    When the owners saw us coming and there were Germans sitting
    there at tables, you know, he told
    them to clean off right away two tables,
    and sat us down, and gave us to eat.
    He says, free of charge.
    They wanted to show--
    And they claimed they never--
    They never knew.
    They never knew what was going on in Buchenwald.
    Now then, after liberation, I saw already the piles.
    The piles of dead were piled up.
    You know like you pile up lumber, firewood?
    You know, one row like this, and one row like this?
    This is is how is was piled up about 8 feet
    high, rows and rows of dead people.
    Your contacts with the--
    I realize that you were sick and unaware
    of what was going on when Buchenwald
    was taken, but upon regaining consciousness or your health,
    did you have any conversations with American military or
    medical personnel relating to the camps themselves
    and what happened?
    Oh, yes.
    Oh, yes.
    Oh, yes.
    Their reactions?
    Oh, they were very friendly with us.
    And they took us.
    There was a ball game, I remember,
    going on in town over there.
    They took a few of us out to watch the ball game, the soccer
    game.
    And they took us over to the American army camp.
    And they gave us chocolate and whatever we
    wanted and took pictures of us.
    Asked us if we have relatives in the United States.
    We sent messages with them, because they could write.
    They behaved very nicely.
    This is the first time in my life that I saw a Black person.
    And he looked so good to me.
    Because normally in school we learned
    there is a Black race, a yellow race, a white race.
    But you know, all you saw is the pictures of them.
    It's the first time I saw a live Black person.
    A GI?
    A GI.
    Did your contact with the American military
    have any influence on your decision
    eventually to come to the United States?
    Well, the reason why I came to the United States after I
    went back to Czechoslovakia--
    by truck we were taken back to Prague.
    I didn't stay one day in Germany after I could leave Germany.
    I went directly to Prague.
    And there was no transportation.
    It took me about a month before I got back to my town
    to find my mother, that my mother was still alive,
    to hear her story.
    My brother was already--
    the name of the town was Bardejov.
    That's where we gathered.
    So my mother was there already.
    And my brother came back from Auschwitz.
    He already left Auschwitz in January.
    And my sister was in Sweden.
    She was taken to Bergen-Belsen and to Sweden.
    Now, my father died in Mauthausen.
    He was caught in Sered.
    He died in Mauthausen.
    The twin of my sister, they were both 14-years-old
    when they came to Auschwitz.
    My sister was lucky.
    She had a cousin, a girl that came in 1942
    and she took her in as a helper, because she
    was taking care of one block.
    And my brother could have gotten a job, too, through my cousin.
    But he says he wants to go.
    He didn't want to go.
    He says, I'm not going to work for the Germans.
    He did not want to work for the Germans.
    He went into the gas chamber.
    14-year-old boy.
    That's David.
    So of your family now, your father
    was killed in Mauthausen, your brother David in Auschwitz.
    In Auschwitz.
    And who survived?
    One brother in Auschwitz, and one brother and a sister that
    were both in Auschwitz.
    And you and your mother.
    And my mother.
    You mentioned the crematorium in Buchenwald.
    Yeah.
    Was that the only camp that had a crematorium that you were in?
    No, every camp had a crematorium.
    Well, the crematoria that was like an assembly line
    was mostly in Auschwitz.
    Maybe they also had it in--
    I'm not familiar with Majdanek.
    Majdanek, Treblinka, that's all they had in some of them.
    But Auschwitz, it was like a production line.
    They got off the trains, and this one
    goes to the left or right.
    They went straight to the gas chambers.
    They got it.
    Over there, mostly the crematorium
    were for the ones that were killed or died in the camp.
    They were burned.
    I doubt that they had a gas chamber in Buchenwald.
    I think we'll get back to what happened
    to you after liberation after they put on a new tape for us.
    In your story, after the liberation,
    you had returned to your hometown in Czechoslovakia?
    Right.
    You found your mother there.
    Right.
    Whom else did you find?
    My brother, and we did not know whether--
    we knew that our sister survived till a certain time,
    but we were not sure yet.
    Later on, we heard that she was taken to Sweden.
    One transport of young children were
    taken, because after Auschwitz, she wound up in Bergen Belsen.
    From Bergen Belsen, they took her to Sweden.
    And my sister came back some time--
    must have been already May or June 1945 from Sweden.
    And we all gathered together, and we made plans to leave.
    Of course, we all wanted to go to Israel.
    We had an uncle that was living in France,
    so our first stop was to go to France.
    I stayed behind because we had some property still
    left over there.
    The house still belonged to us, although we
    couldn't get it back, because it was a communist regime.
    But they let us live in the house.
    And the store was taken over by a Gentile woman,
    and there was no more merchandise left.
    But somebody told us that she was hiding some merchandise
    in her apartment.
    We got back some merchandise.
    We tried to sell out as much as we
    could to make a few dollars so we'll be
    able to leave Czechoslovakia.
    So first, my mother, brother, and sister left for France,
    and they stayed there with the uncle for a while.
    And I stayed back to liquidate whatever we had.
    Then I came to France in 1946.
    They left in 1945 for France.
    I stayed until '46.
    Also, I wanted to go to Israel.
    I found out they had left already for Israel
    with one of the Exodus ships.
    And so I stayed back in France by my uncle.
    And I was in contact--
    I was writing to Israel.
    [INAUDIBLE] My brother wrote me a letter.
    She said, do not come to Israel right now.
    Things are very bad.
    We are struggling over here.
    He says, you better go to the United States
    and make some money because we could use some money over here.
    So I was listening my mother, and by my time
    came to go to the United States in January 1948,
    I came to this country.
    I got a job right away as a salesman.
    I could read and write English when I got to this country,
    but I couldn't speak it.
    Where I learned to speak it is I was drafted into the United
    States Army in--
    it was November 1948, the Truman draft.
    And this is how I learned to speak.
    First, I learned every four-letter word,
    and the rest of the vocabulary.
    And I stayed in the Army.
    We only stayed over a year.
    They had enough volunteers then, and they released us just
    before the Korean War.
    I'm sorry to interrupt.
    When you came from France, came to the United States,
    did you have prior contacts with individuals
    in the United States?
    Yes.
    Yes, I had-- first of all, I had two uncles living over here
    in the United States.
    And I was picked up by my mother's cousin.
    Then when I got here in January of '48, that was the biggest--
    they said the biggest winter in history, yeah,
    the '47/'48 winter.
    It was more snow than there was in Europe.
    So I was taken right away to her house, and then--
    Which was where?
    That was on the East Side.
    In New York City--
    In New York City.
    --the Lower East Side.
    The Lower East Side.
    Then I was taken to Brooklyn.
    My uncle lived in Brooklyn, another uncle in the Bronx.
    And then I got myself a job as a salesmen in the textile line.
    And then I was drafted into the Army.
    We'll come back to the United States part of the story soon.
    I just reminded myself that I know
    you had some connection with one of the real heroes
    of the Holocaust, the rabbi of Nitra.
    Well, the rabbi of Nitra, I knew well.
    But the real hero was his son-in-law,
    Michael Weissmandel, who was working very hard to save
    the few thousand Jews that were--
    about 20,000 Jews left in Slovakia in 1944.
    And he was doing the negotiating with--
    Gisi Fleischman.
    Gisi Fleischman was also active.
    And they were paying off as much money
    as they could get out of the community.
    There were so few people left with money,
    and to postpone the transports as far as they could.
    But it didn't work because they stopped for a few months.
    And at the end, we all went.
    But while--
    Could you describe Rabbi Weissmandel?
    Weissmandel, he was a brilliant man.
    He had a wild look in his eyes, and he was so devoted
    to the course of saving people that many times he just
    had complete disregard of his own safety.
    He fell-- he was the one that jumped off a moving train
    and got into a bunker in Bratislava.
    And even from the bunker, he was working
    to try to find out where all the Jews are hidden, if they
    have any needs, to help them.
    He's a fabulous man.
    I still--
    He was the one who demanded that the Allies bomb the tracks
    and the camp, Auschwitz.
    I was carrying letters between Nitra
    and while i was traveling.
    There's one incident that happened.
    I was once on a train, and a tall fellow with boots
    came over to me, looks me straight in the eyes, and says,
    [HEBREW].
    The word [HEBREW],, you know what means.
    It means "urinate."
    It's a Hebrew word for "urination."
    This was the password among us that we
    wanted to recognize each other without letting
    anybody know who we are, the ones that were traveling
    with false papers.
    And he says to me, [HEBREW].
    And he says to me-- he gives me--
    it was Slovakian money, a few hundred koruna, or whatever
    it was at this time.
    I don't know how much it amounted to.
    I was at that time near the Polish border, [PLACE NAME]
    He says, there is a train going to leave over here.
    He says, in a half an hour.
    I want you to get on this train, he says.
    The police is paid off.
    We have some smuggled Jews they smuggled
    over the Polish border.
    They're on the way to Hungary, and from Hungary they
    were going to Turkey, and then to Israel.
    He says, all I want you to do is,
    over there, keep that money.
    He says, if you have any trouble over there that they recognize
    or something, most of them are paid off,
    but in case there is one of them that gets out of line,
    and he wants to cause trouble, he says, pay him off.
    He says, they all take money.
    And go with them to--
    the town was Rozmberk Just accompany them all the way.
    See that it's all right.
    And there was-- see, at that time,
    there were still some families who were still
    allowed to stay in Czechoslovakia because
    of economic reasons.
    In other words, the Gentile that took over the business
    claimed that he needs the Jew to help him out.
    So
    Some of them were producing Army uniforms.
    In other words, it was all necessary for the war effort.
    So those Jews could stay.
    So, and a lot of families that were able to get papers
    stayed there.
    So there were still plenty of--
    about 20,000 still left that were not sent away
    with the family transports.
    So there was still a community over there.
    They had a synagogue over there in Rozmberk
    And this is where all those Polish Jews
    were gathered, waiting.
    I brought them over there.
    I see everything was all right.
    I didn't know what to do with the money.
    I gave it to one of them over there,
    and I told them the story.
    First, they missed-- they didn't trust me
    because the way I was dressed.
    But when I came in the morning, I
    told them that I just came here to see that they're all right.
    And I say goodbye to them and I left them.
    And one other question, and then we'll
    come back to the United States part.
    When you came back to your hometown,
    four of the six members of your family survived.
    What was the proportion of the people-- of the Jews
    in the town who survived?
    We had about the best percentage of survival because--
    "We" meaning your family or your town?
    No, my family, I would say.
    We were very lucky.
    Well, lucky-- I lost my father.
    My mother was hiding out.
    The percentages was-- some families
    were wiped out completely.
    In fact, most of them were wiped out completely.
    But as the youth that went in 1942,
    that got a little better jobs in Auschwitz, a lot of these
    survived.
    The youth.
    You're talking the youth It was my age now.
    The ones that were in their 40s and 50s,
    I don't know of anybody that survived,
    maybe one that looked young and were very strong that survived.
    My father came from a family of 12.
    Nobody came from-- and I don't know,
    it must have been at least, I don't know, maybe 5,
    6 dozen children among the 12--
    Siblings.
    --siblings.
    The ones from the concentration camp
    came back from one family, one girl,
    from another family, one boy.
    That's the one that saved me, and the girl
    is the one that saved my sister.
    But they are the only ones that came back, their families,
    nobody else came back.
    But my family, we were lucky that I got back
    my brother and sister.
    Were you later in going to the camps, or was it just luck?
    Well, it had to do a lot-- a lot had to be luck.
    And also, in my case, it was because I went late.
    My brother also went late.
    My brother was only caught in-- my brother left for Auschwitz
    sometime in September, in 1944.
    It's also--
    Towards the end of the war.
    --towards the end.
    All right, now, if we may, let's bring the story closer to date.
    You were in the United States, and you
    were drafted into the Army.
    You got out of the Army, became a salesman.
    I used to get $75 a month.
    I used to send my mother every month $50,
    and I kept $25 for myself.
    She was in Israel?
    She was in Israel already.
    And this was when, about '49, '50?
    This was '49, and beginning of '50, I was released.
    You weren't married yet?
    No.
    I assume you married shortly after that?
    I married two years later, in 1952.
    And where did you live?
    Well, at the time, I lived in Brooklyn,
    and my wife lived in New Jersey.
    She's in New Jersey first.
    She's in NJ.
    Well, she was born in Manhattan, but the parents lived in NJ.
    All right.
    So that brought you to New Jersey?
    That brought me-- that's where we got our first apartment,
    in New Jersey.
    And where did you live after that?
    Well, the first apartment was in Union City, New Jersey.
    Then, from Union City, we moved to Plainfield.
    And then we came to Elizabeth.
    From Plainfield to Elizabeth.
    What brought you to Elizabeth, where you've been living
    most of your married life?
    Well, mostly the children, the school, the JEC,
    the Jewish Educational Center.
    All right.
    Do you have any questions about the New Jersey part of it?
    Having a family network or relatives in place
    attracted you to Manhattan.
    Right.
    And you were able to get a job in a business you
    knew something about.
    Right.
    Was that-- did you find other survivors
    having similar experiences?
    Or was that relatively unusual from what you knew?
    I'll tell you something.
    I wish I didn't know English the way I know,
    because some of those that didn't
    know how to read and write English are now
    they're big builders and they're multimillionaires.
    [LAUGHTER]
    They had to become carpenters and bricklayers,
    and today they're multimillionaires.
    But when you came here, did you find-- particularly
    in the family, your relatives, did they
    have any understanding of what had gone on?
    Or was your story--
    No.
    Let me tell you something.
    First, when we came over here, of course,
    they knew that there was problems over there.
    But they had no idea what happened to concentration --
    From the silly questions they ask us--
    how did the food taste, and did you--
    were you able to see a movie, they asked me.
    Or what could you read?
    Did you get newspapers?
    So when we heard these silly questions over there,
    we shut up and we started to talk about it,
    because we also heard that some of the guys
    that told them what happened, they
    felt they were exaggerating.
    They didn't believe them, so we just stopped talking about it.
    In fact, we stopped talking about it for such a long time,
    then even after I had children, and my wife
    asked me a question, we also did not discuss it.
    We just felt that nobody is going to believe it anyway,
    because I myself wouldn't believe it if somebody would
    tell me a story like this.
    So we didn't talk about it.
    In fact, my oldest son, when he was about six years old,
    and something came up.
    Company came, and they started to ask questions,
    and I just gave him a few details.
    So my little son says to me, Daddy,
    you were just standing there and let them shoot at you?
    You didn't shoot back?
    [CHUCKLES]
    So there was no understanding?
    There's no understanding, no.
    And when did you start talking to your children about it?
    Well, when they were a little older, usually during the Seder
    night, when we have Passover, when
    we have a gathering, the whole family, and we
    recount the exodus.
    So sometimes the children would say, well, Daddy,
    tell us something what happened in the camps,
    just a few things.
    But I didn't want to spoil the Seder evening,
    so I may have told them a few stories.
    But I didn't want to tell them about the real things
    while I was gone over there.
    I felt it was not fitting to talk about it at the table.
    But you have told them the real thing?
    Or have they discovered it for themselves?
    They discovered most of them by themselves.
    They were reading.
    My children always go to when there's
    stuff over here in Kean College, when they have the Holocaust
    gathering.
    My daughter, especially, she always comes and listens
    to the stories.
    And they also urged me to make this tape, [CHUCKLES]
    if they called me, I should not refuse it.
    So they'll want to see this tape, I believe.
    Right.
    One final question I've got, then
    is just I'm interested in following you into New Jersey.
    I take it then it was a business opportunity, a career move,
    more than anything else that brought you here?
    Yeah, but what happened, we lived--
    I worked in Manhattan.
    When I was still single, I worked in Manhattan.
    And then this was Second Avenue.
    And Bellevue Hospital was expanding,
    and they took down that whole area.
    And I lost my job, and I was looking
    to go into business for myself.
    And through some contact, a fellow
    that I knew in Jersey City, in the same line--
    I helped him out with some merchandise
    at one time he needed.
    He appreciated it.
    He asked me if I would be willing to go into business
    with him, open up another store because I was mostly
    in the decorating line.
    He was mostly in the dress goods line.
    So we opened up a little store in Rahway, New Jersey.
    And then we expanded, and this is what brought us to NJ.
    You've been in business in New Jersey ever since?
    And I've been in business since 1955, 37 years.
    Mr. Moskowitz, after all that you've been through--
    and it's been tremendous, and we certainly appreciate
    your coming in and sharing with us your story--
    how has this affected your philosophy
    of life, your understanding of human nature?
    Well, I was very disappointed in the human race
    because what I saw what was going on over there.
    But if human beings can do the things that they were doing,
    I don't think they--
    we were much more above animals.
    But, then again, I suppose there is such a thing
    as self-preservation.
    Everybody tries to preserve himself.
    I would say that most of the things that
    happened in the camp was self-preservation.
    And as far as the Germans, I still cannot understand to this
    day.
    Of course, there is some hatred to me against the Nazis.
    I would not say--
    I would say there is both pity and hate, but more pity
    than hatred, because it's unbelievable
    what one human being can do to another one.
    Then we are not more than animals.
    Did they see you as human beings, do you think?
    I think that most of the Germans,
    the training that they got, they did not consider us as human
    beings, maybe some kind of subhuman race or something,
    because I just cannot understand that if they would consider us
    human beings, how they could do the things that they did.
    When do you think they saw you as human beings?
    After the war, did they?
    Well the restaurant owner who cleared off two tables
    saw you as a human being.
    Well, maybe he was a human being.
    I still don't know.
    Maybe he was afraid.
    Maybe he wanted to show that he was one of the good Germans.
    You still can't tell.
    Or self-preservation on his part.
    Yeah.
    It's still hard to get into somebody's inside
    to find out what prompts them to do certain things.
    All I know, that a German could shoot somebody
    without hesitation, without thinking twice,
    just for his convenience, because when we were walking,
    and we were walking a little slower because the shoes were
    ripping, and the shoes were falling off,
    and so if somebody had to step out of line to tie his shoe,
    or he had to go in to relieve himself,
    this would slow him down a little bit.
    So it would be more convenient to shoot him.
    And so we can't--
    he couldn't let him there because that
    would means that he escaped, which
    would be against the rules.
    And the Germans went strictly according to the rules.
    In your estimation, is there anything
    we can learn from all this?
    I don't know.
    I don't know whether this is going to help.
    Maybe this will help, if people will see what could happen me
    if you don't behave like a human being,
    because I've seen educated people--
    most of the officers, I would say,
    in order to be a German officer, you had to be educated.
    So I see that has nothing to do with education.
    Sometimes you found a plain person
    that could not read or write, and he took you in.
    And I didn't see too many cases in Slovakia,
    but here in Poland, I know stories
    that some of the peasants took in whole families,
    and they survived the war.
    And they had no education.
    So it seems that education has nothing to do with it.
    And religion, definitely, has nothing
    to do with it because I've seen the best Catholics that
    wouldn't take in a Jew.
    And then you saw some Protestants would take them in.
    And some Protestants would not take them in.
    And so religion has nothing to do with it.
    Education has nothing to--
    either you have a good heart or you don't have a good heart.
    I don't know what it is.
    Final question, now that we've come this far,
    and we're finally talking about it
    and studying it and teaching it, what
    do you think our responsibility is in terms
    of the events of the Holocaust?
    Well, what you are doing over here in Kean College,
    I think you're accomplishing a lot because at least it's
    going to be on the record, and people can see could happen.
    The responsibility is to educate people
    to behave like human beings, because today it
    happened to the Jews.
    Tomorrow it can happen to the Blacks.
    It can happen to Catholics, all of a sudden.
    You don't know.
    The United States may became more Protestants,
    and they start persecuting Catholics.
    So the main thing is to teach people
    they have to learn to live together
    and to recognize each other's beliefs.
    And just because you are different,
    that doesn't mean that you are his enemy.
    And I always felt the problem with anti-Semitism
    was because we were different.
    And by being different, they thought
    that we were their enemies.
    And they never trusted us.
    I think that's a proper note on which to conclude.
    I want to thank you for coming down and sharing
    this experience with us.
    I'm sure that it's going to be very helpful to your family,
    to your grandchildren, your children, and so on.
    And it's going to be helpful to us
    in teaching about the Holocaust.
    Thank you very much.
    Thank you.
    Thank you.

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Allen Moskowitz, born on March 27, 1923, discusses his childhood in Brusnica, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia); his family's move to Svidnicka, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia) in 1937; his time in Yeshiva in Šurany, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia) in 1939; his move back to Svidnicka at the outbreak of World War II in 1939; his parents' distrust of the Germans; antisemitism in Czechoslovakia; his family's obtaining false papers and hiding in Czechoslovakia; the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1944; his mother's hiding with a Gentile family who subsequently forced her to leave; his capture by the Gestapo in 1944; his imprisonment in Sered concentration camp as a Mischlinge; his interaction with Nazi Commandant Alois Brunner; his mother's work as a cook at an inn; his transport to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1943 and his subsequent march to Heinkel concentration camp; his march to Siemensstadt concentration camp; his transfer to Ohrdruf concentration camp; a beating he received in Ohrdruf; his ongoing belief in God and religion; the morning roll calls in Ohrdruf; the Kapos in Ohrdruf; his march to Crawinkel concentration camp; the shooting of prisoners on their way from Crawinkel to Buchenwald concentration camp; falling ill with typhus; the liberation of Buchenwald by the Americans; his return to his home town and his reunion with surviving members of his family; his discovery of the fate of his father and 14 year old brother; his family's immigration to France and then to Palestine at the end of World War II; his later immigration to the United States via France after World War II; the role of Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandel, his rabbi and “hero of the Holocaust”; the fate of his extended family members during the Holocaust; his life in Brooklyn, NY; his marriage and his life in Elizabeth, NJ; his decision not to talk about the Holocaust with his family; his feelings towards the Germans in World War II; and his thoughts on what can be learned from the Holocaust. Also contains a photograph of Allen in 1946 and a photograph of him in 1993.
    Interviewee
    Allen Moskowitz
    Interviewer
    Joseph J. Preil
    Date
    interview:  1992 March 25
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Holocaust Resource Center at Kean University

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    2 videocassettes (VHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Copyright Holder
    The Holocaust Resource Center at Kean University

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Provenance
    The interview was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum along with other interviews between 1993 - 1997 by the Holocaust Resource Center at Kean College (now Kean University).
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 07:56:23
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn505483

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    Time Coded Notes (3)

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    Oral history interview with Luna Kaufman

    Oral History

    Luna Kaufman, born in Kraków, Poland in 1926, discusses her childhood and pre-war life in Kraków; her pre-war Catholic school education; the German invasion of Poland in September 1939; the Germans' use of psychological tactics and violence to undermine Kraków’s Jewish community; the gradual degradation of the Jewish community in Kraków; the German brutality toward Orthodox Jews; her move to Bramovitz for one year; her life with her family in the Kraków ghetto from approximately 1941 until 1943; the Jewish efforts to resume cultural life and maintain intellectual stimulation in the cramped and uncomfortable conditions of the ghetto; her work in a nearby brush factory; her reflections on the Judenrat in the Kraków ghetto; the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto; her march to and life in Płaszów concentration camp; acts of resistance in the camp; efforts to maintain culture amidst the camp's unsanitary and inhumane conditions; her reactions to the Red Cross's visit to and inspection of Płaszów; her escape from Płaszów at the end of World War II; her shipment to Leipzig, Germany, to the Hasag ammunition factory in the spring of 1945; her sister's time in Auschwitz concentration camp; her sister's transport to Stutthof concentration camp and subsequent drowning on a ship in the last days of war; her father's extermination in Auschwitz in May 1944; her evacuation from Hasag and the death march that followed; her memories of Russian soldiers raping and killing women; her return to Kraków with her mother and a friend; her life in Kraków from 1945 to 1950; her move to Israel in 1950; her life in the United States after 1952; and her current activism through lecturing about the Holocaust to school children and her efforts in a national project to pay tribute to liberators. The recording also includes one photograph of Luna Kaufman in 1938 and one of her in 1993.

    Oral history interview with David Kempinski

    Oral history interview with David Kempinski

    Oral History

    David Kempinski, born on July 21, 1921 in Praszka, Poland, describes his youth in Wieluń, Poland from 1927 until 1939; hiding during the bombing of Wieluń on September 1, 1939; a roundup of Jews in Wieluń on August 9, 1941; his transport to Poznań, Poland; his time in a "Reichsautobahn" labor camp; his transport to Regensburg concentration camp; his life in Kreising (Krzesinki), Poland; his time working in a lumber mill in Rzepin, Poland; his transport to Britz; his transport to in Birkenau concentration camp; his transport to and work at I.G. Farben from September 1944 until January 1945; selections in the camp; his time spent in Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, and Flossenbürg concentration camps in Germany; liberation from Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945; his time in Feldafing and Landsberg am Lech displaced persons camps in Germany from 1945 until 1949; his move to Switzerland; his life in Israel from 1949 until 1957; and his life in the United States.

    Oral history interview with Eva Kempinski

    Oral history interview with Eva Kempinski

    Oral History

    Eva Kempinski, born in 1925, discusses her childhood in a Polish shtetl; her family; the bombing at the beginning of World War II in her town on September 1, 1939; her public school education; her move to Warsaw, Poland from Łódź, Poland in December 1939; life in Warsaw; her father's transport to Treblinka concentration camp; her move to Majdanek concentration camp with her mother in 1943; her mother's extermination in Majdanek; being transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp and her life in the camp; working in a munitions factory in Czechoslovakia from December 1944 until her liberation by Russians on May 8, 1945; her emotions at the time of liberation; her feelings about the United States and the response of American Jews to the war; her return to her shtetl; her move to Slovakia and Austria; her move to Palestine as part of the first group of Agudat Israel; her life in Palestine; her move to Switzerland in 1958; her move to the United States in 1964; and her ideas about her children, her grandchildren, and the concept of continuity.

    Oral history interview with Clara Kramer

    Oral history interview with Clara Kramer

    Oral History

    Clara Kramer (born in 1927) discusses her childhood in Zholkva, Poland (now ZHovkva, Ukraine); her memories of a "vibrant" Jewish life in Zholkva before German invasion in 1939; antisemitism in the 1930s; her recollections of the slow changes to Jewish status in the town after 1939; the April 1942 Aktion in Zholkva; the curfew in Zholkva and transports to Belzec concentration camp, starting in the summer of 1942; her time helping people who jumped off transport trains; her time hiding for 22 months after the November 22, 1942 Aktion with her family and others in the home of a Polish family, the Becks; her memories of Mr. and Mrs. Beck and their daughter; her trip to the Zholkva ghetto with her mother and Mr. Beck and his daughter; the Judenrat (Jewish council) in the Zholkva ghetto; the March 1943 Aktion; a fire in the Becks' neighborhood on Palm Sunday, April 20, 1943; her sister's death on April 20, 1943; liberation by the Russians; her time in a displaced persons camp in Germany; descriptions of her diary that she wrote in throughout the Holocaust; and her post-Holocaust American-Jewish activism. Also contains a photograph of Clara Kramer at age 15.

    Oral history interview with Rose Kramer

    Oral history interview with Rose Kramer

    Oral History

    Rose Kramer, born on January 21, 1921 in Beuthen, Germany, discusses her childhood in Bedzin, Poland; her father's death before she was born; the death of her mother when she was eight years old; her recollections of the importance of economic survival; her family not paying attention to the Nazis; her three years in a ghetto; her transport to Auschwitz concentration camp; her transport to Ravensbrück concentration camp and then to Neustadt-Glewe; her memories of liberation from Neustadt-Glewe concentration camp; her time in Feldafing displaced persons camp; her memories of learning of one brother's survival; her travel to the United States in 1949; and her divorce from her first husband after ten years and her marriage to Mr. Kramer.

    Oral history interview with Rae Kushner

    Oral history interview with Rae Kushner

    Oral History

    Rae Kushner, born on February 27, 1923 in Novogrudok, Poland (Navahrudak, Belarus), discusses her childhood community of Novogrudok; her family's middle class life style; her father's fur business; the Russian occupation in 1939; the Russian deportation of wealthy families to Siberia; her memories of Jewish parents hiding children to protect them from deportation; her memories of the German occupation in 1941; her memories of the establishment of a ghetto in a suburb of Novogrudok by the Germans; her recollection of the number of Jews (350 of the original 30,000) who survived the ghetto; the murder of her mother; the digging of an escape tunnel in the ghetto by 70 young men and her brother, Chonon; her brother getting lost after leaving the tunnel; her family joining a partisan group led by Tuvia Bielski; living in a forest for nine months; fleeing to Czechoslovakia at the end of the war; her marriage in Hungary; her memories of secretly crossing the Italian border; life in a displaced persons camp in Italy; her family's journey to the United States in 1949; and her reflections on the role of the United States and other counties in preventing Jewish immigration from Europe before, during, and after the war.

    Oral history interview with Mayer Lief

    Oral history interview with Mayer Lief

    Oral History

    Mayer Lief, born August 18, 1908 in Lemberg, Galicia (Lʹviv, Ukraine), discusses his childhood; his schooling in Lemberg; experiencing antisemitism; his experiences in the Polish Army; his family's attempts to emigrate from Poland to the United States in 1939; the Russian occupation of Lemberg and Eastern Poland in 1939; the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and Mayer's capture that same day; digging mass graves for the Germans; the issuing of armbands and the establishment of the ghetto in Lemberg by the Germans; living in the ghetto beginning in November 1941; his move to and stay at German Army facilities until June 1943 due to his skills as a locksmith and safe cracker; his imprisonment in Janowska concentration camp in Ukraine in June 1943 and his eventual escape from the camp; his purchase of false papers in August 1943 in order to avoid capture by the Germans; his life in a suburb of Lemberg until the liberation by the Russians in 1944; traveling to Poland in 1946; his time in a displaced persons camp in Germany around 1946; immigrating to the United States in 1949; his time in Boston, MA and New York; arriving in Elizabeth, NJ and reuniting with his mother; his marriage in 1954; and his work since his arrival in the United States.

    Oral history interview with Isak Levenstein

    Oral history interview with Isak Levenstein

    Oral History

    Isak Levenstein discusses his childhood in a town near Lublin, Poland; moving to Kraków, Poland to live with his uncle after his parents' deaths; his education in Kraków; his work as the owner of a pots and pans factory; getting married on December 29, 1931; the size and professions of the Jewish population in Kraków; his membership in Mizrachi and Hechalutz Zionist organizations; antisemitism in Kraków in the mid-1930s; the banning of ritual slaughter in Kraków; Polish collaboration with the Nazis; the murdering of 1.2 million children by the Nazis during the Holocaust; the saving of Jews by very few Poles; the hiding of his wife's family in a bunker near Kraków and their eventual murder; his and his wife's move into the Kraków ghetto in 1941; his memories of the instructions given to the Judenrat by the Nazis; the deportation of Jews from Kraków to Treblinka and Auschwitz concentration camps; his memories of Jewish religious observances in the ghetto; his time in hiding in order to escape selections; a comprehensive round-up that took place in the ghetto in 1943 and the hiding of his family in a bunker during the roundup; his imprisonment in Płaszów concentration camp; his effort to save his family by bribing a German commander; the hiding of his children in the bunks of Płaszów concentration camp for 14 months; his inability to save his children; his qualifications as a metal worker; his time in Oskar Schindler's Gross-Rosen and Brünnlitz factories; his memories of Oskar Schindler; his wife's time in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps; his and his wife's search for relatives after the war; his thoughts on the differences between the Poles and the Czechs after the war; his and his wife's visit to Theresienstadt concentration camp; his separation from his wife between October of 1944 and August of 1945; their immigration to the United States after World War II; visiting Israel 25 times; and starting of a construction company with two other Schindler Jews in New Jersey.

    Oral history interview with Sally Levenstein

    Oral history interview with Sally Levenstein

    Oral History

    Sally Levenstein, born in 1909, discusses her childhood in Kazimierza Wielka, Poland; the Jewish community in Kazimierza Wielka; the death of her father in 1918; her education in Kazimierza Wielka and in Kraków, Poland; the relationship between the Gentiles and the Jews in Kazimierza Wielka; getting married to Isak Levenstein in 1931 and moving to Kraków; the size and level of religious observance of the Jewish community in Kraków; her social life in Kraków; her involvement with the Jewish National Fund; the birth of her two children in 1932 and in 1937; the start of World War II in 1939; the betrayal of her sister by a Polish neighbor; the arrival of Jews in Poland, deported from Germany; the establishment of the Kraków ghetto; her work in a factory making stockings for German soldiers; her memories of selections that took place in the ghetto; the Judenrat and the Jewish police in the ghetto; the establishment of Płaszów concentration camp in 1942; the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto in 1943; hiding in a bunker with her children for 70 days near Kraków; her husband's imprisonment at Płaszów concentration camp; her memories of searching for food for her children while in hiding; her husband's smuggling of the children into Płaszów to be with him; her time hiding in the factory where she worked; her voluntary movement to Płaszów concentration camp to be with her family; the help that she received for her children from Mrs. Rosner; the roundup of all the children in Płaszów; her and her husband's inability to save their own children; the move of her husband and other family members by Oskar Schindler to his Brünnlitz factory in Czechoslovakia; her deportation to and time in Birkenau concentration camp; her memories of selections by Dr. Josef Mengele for the gas chamber; her aimless work while she was imprisoned in Birkenau; Dr. Menegle's experiments on inmates in Auschwitz; her transfer from Birkenau to Auschwitz; being in a death march to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the shooting of those prisoners who stopped marching; her experiences in Bergen-Belsen and her bout with typhus while in the camp; her time in a hospital during the time of liberation; the death of inmates from over-eating after liberation; an invitation to the survivors by the Queen of Portugal to come to Portugal after World War II; her search for her family after the war; her reunion with her husband in Kraków and their return to their apartment there; the help that they received from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency; their time in Vienna, Austria and in Bindermichl displaced persons camp; the birth of her daughter in Bindermichl; her family's immigration to the United States in 1949; their life in New York and their move to New Jersey where her husband started a construction company; and her reflections on the Holocaust.

    Oral history interview with Manya Mandelbaum

    Oral history interview with Manya Mandelbaum

    Oral History

    Manya Mandelbaum, on August 16, 1919, discusses her childhood in Debica and Kraków, Poland; the Jews' relationship with the Poles inside and outside of Kraków; antisemitism in Poland in the late 1930s; the start of World War II in 1939 and her memories of radio announcements urging the Jews to flee from Poland; her attempted escape east to Russia in 1939; the German bombings that forced her to return to Kraków; the anti-Jewish laws and Nazi proclamations in Kraków; her time in the Kraków ghetto; her marriage to Simon Mandelbaum in 1940; the deportation of her parents in 1940; her movement to Płaszów concentration camp; the gassing of children in Auschwitz concentration camp; her work for the Madritsch firm making blouses (Julius Madritsch’s factory in Płaszów); the deportation of Jews to Mauthausen and Auschwitz concentration camps; the shooting of her brother in 1945; her deportation to Auschwitz and the conditions there; her transport to Hamburg, Germany, in January 1945 to work in a plastic factory and a beating she received from a German guard there; her observance of Passover in the camp; her escape from the factory with four other girls and the help that they received from some Poles; the arrival of British and American soldiers in April 1945; her time in Bitterfeld, Germany and in Prague, Czech Republic after the war; her travel to a hospital in Wels, Austria to find her husband; her reunion with her husband in Poland; the help that they received from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration; their immigration to the United States in 1949; their life after the war in Brooklyn, NY and Elizabeth and Hillside, NJ; her ability to talk about the Holocaust with her children and grandchildren; and her love for the United States and Israel.

    Oral history interview with Sonya Oshman

    Oral history interview with Sonya Oshman

    Oral History

    Sonya Oshman, born on December 17, 1922, discusses her childhood in Novogrudok, Poland (now Navahrudak, Belarus); growing up in a wealthy family; her family's near deportation to Serbia by the Russians; her Polish neighbors being sometimes helpful and sometimes antisemitic; her sister's death in a German bombing raid; the elderly and the very young being murdered first; young people being used in forced labor; her memories of her father before his death in a concentration camp; her family's escape from a ghetto through a tunnel; the "Aktion" in the ghetto following their escape; her brother's immigration to Israel following liberation; her five years in a displaced persons camp in Italy; and her move to the United States with her husband in 1950. Also contains two photographs of Sonya (one is dated June 1988 and the other is undated).

    Oral history interview with Liesel Mayerfeld

    Oral history interview with Liesel Mayerfeld

    Oral History

    Liesel Mayerfeld, born in 1933, discusses her early childhood in Frankfurt, Germany; her memories of pre-war life in Frankfurt; her memories of Kristallnacht in November 1938; her father's deportation to Buchenwald concentration camp during Kristallnacht; her move to the Netherlands with her sister following Kristallnacht; her life in the Netherlands with her uncle; her mother's work to get her father released from Buchenwald; her father's release from Buchenwald; her father's travel to England in July 1939; her mother's travel with an infant son to England in August 1939; moving to England in January of 1940; her family's move to Detroit, MI in 1940; her reaction to American culture and the English language; her brother's move to Israel; and her current life in Elizabeth, NJ.

    Oral history interview with Lisa Reibel

    Oral history interview with Lisa Reibel

    Oral History

    Lisa Reibel, born in 1930, discusses her childhood in Novogrudok, Poland (now Navahrudak, Belarus); her memories of her siblings, specifically her sister, Rae Kushner; her memories of the Russian occupation in 1939; the German occupation of 1941; the thriving Jewish community in Novogrudok; her reaction to her sister's murder; the murder of 5,000 Jews in December 1941; her plan to dig an escape tunnel out of the Novogrudok ghetto; crawling through the tunnel at night; hiding in bushes, barns, and underground bunkers; Tuvia Bielski's partisans; liberation by the Russians in 1945; her time in a displaced persons camp in Italy; her move to the United States in 1949; and her life in Brooklyn, NY, and in Elizabeth, NJ. Also contains photographs of Lisa Reibel in 1994 and one of her at an earlier date.

    Oral history interview with Paul Schmelzer

    Oral history interview with Paul Schmelzer

    Oral History

    Paul Schmelzer, born September 3, 1916 in Gwoździec, Poland (Hvizdets', Ukraine), discusses his life before World War II; antisemitism in Poland; his time serving in the Polish Army from 1937 until 1939; being a prisoner of war in 1939; living in the Gwoździec ghetto; his time in the ghetto in Kolomyya (Kolomyia), Ukraine; being in numerous slave labor camps in Ukraine; his numerous escapes from the Germans throughout the war years; meeting his wife, Susan, in Tolstoye (Tovste), Ukraine, in 1941; hiding in the homes of many different Polish farmers; moving to Chernivtsi, Ukraine before liberation; his time in various displaced persons camps administered by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Germany and Czechoslovakia; moving to the United States with his wife and son in 1949; living in Bronx, NY from 1949 until 1970; and moving to Elizabeth, NJ in 1970. Also contains a photograph of Paul Schmelzer in 1988.

    Oral history interview with Susan Schmelzer

    Oral history interview with Susan Schmelzer

    Oral History

    Susan Schmelzer, born on February 23, 1923, discusses her childhood in Zaleshchiki, Poland (Ukraine); antisemitism in Zaleshchiki; the Russian occupation of Zaleshchiki from 1939 until 1942; the German occupation of Zaleshchiki in 1942; the mass murder of 2,000 Jews from Zaleshchiki in November 1942; her secular, public school education; moving from Zaleshchiki in order to continue her education; her move with her family to the ghetto in Tolstoye (Tovste), Ukraine; performing slave labor in the fields outside of the Tolstoye ghetto in March 1943; meeting her future husband, Paul Schmelzer; the murder of her parents and sister along with 3,000 other Jews from the Tolstoye ghetto; her time hiding with her future husband and a girlfriend until they were liberated by Russians in March; moving with her future husband to Czernowitz (Chernivtsi), Ukraine after liberation; getting married to Paul Schmelzer in Czernowitz; moving to Germany; immigrating with her husband and son to the United States in 1949; and her life in the United States after 1949. Also contains a photograph of Susan Schmelzer in 1987.

    Oral history interview with Adela Sommer

    Oral history interview with Adela Sommer

    Oral History

    Adela Sommer, born in 1923 in Tluste, Poland (now Tovste, Ukraine), discusses her early life in Tluste; her education at Hebrew school; antisemitism in Tluste; relations between Gentiles and Jews in the Tluste area; the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941; the attacks against Jews before the Germans arrived in Tluste; the protests against anti-Jewish activities by two local priests; the setting up of a ghetto in Tluste; the restrictions on the movement of the town's Jewish population; the German Aktion of May 27, 1943, during which 3,000 people were killed; the family's construction of a bunker in an old attic; the help of Hungarian soldiers in disguising the crying of a baby hidden in the attic from the Germans; the deliberate introduction of typhus into the Jewish population in order to label them as contaminated and the effects of typhus; her work as a knitter in a neighboring village; the efforts of one German to protect Jews from an Aktion; her work with the sick; the death of her mother on February 17, 1944; the shooting of her sister and her sister's family; her liberation by the Soviets in March of 1944; her work as a bookkeeper in a Romanian brewery; her invitation to a displaced persons camp in Ulm, Germany, by her cousin, the camp's director; going to the displaced persons camp in Ebensee, Austria; going to Föhrenwald displaced persons camp in Germany; the birth of her twins in 1947; her immigration to the United States on March 13, 1951 with the help of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; and her life in Elizabeth, NJ, and the need for survivors to speak about the Holocaust.

    Oral history interview with Jack Spiegel

    Oral history interview with Jack Spiegel

    Oral History

    Jack Spiegel, born on March 17, 1918, discusses his childhood in Łódź, Poland; his reaction to being the only surviving family member after the Holocaust; his family's life in the ghetto in Warsaw, Poland; smuggling food into the Warsaw ghetto; traveling secretly to Brzeziny, Koluszki, and Opatów, Poland; his reunion with family in the Warsaw ghetto; his deportation to Minsk and then Babruisk (Bobruysk) in Belarus; the Bobruisk concentration camp; the regular Sunday murders at Bobruisk; working in the camp kitchen; his work at Flossenbürg concentration camp; transports between camps; the walk to Dachau concentration camp; working in a V-2 rocket testing tunnel; being liberated by Americans on April 29, 1945; his convalescence in Lyon, France, for eight months; moving to Israel in 1948; immigrating to the United States in 1960; and his life on Staten Island, NY. Also contains a photograph of Jack Speigel and his family in the 1920s.

    Oral history interview with Abraham Zuckerman

    Oral history interview with Abraham Zuckerman

    Oral History

    Abraham Zuckerman discusses his childhood in Kraków, Poland; his memories of Jewish and Gentile relations before World War II; his memories of forced labor in Kraków after the Nazis took over; the establishment of the Kraków ghetto; his memories of rationing in Kraków; his move, with his family, to Dukla, Poland; his transport, with his family, to Biala Podlaska, Poland; his memories of forced labor in Biala Podlaska; his return, with his family, to Dukla; his family's transport to and subsequent dissapearance from Dukla; his transport to the Rzeszów ghetto in Poland; his transport to Plaszów, Poland; his transport to and time in Julag concentration camp in Plaszów, Poland; his work in Schindler's enamel factory, for a year, until Aug. 1944; his memories of Oskar Schindler; his transport from Schindler's factory to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria; his memories of forced labor in Mauthausen; his transport to and time in Gusen concentration camp in Austria; his liberation by Americans from Gusen on May 5, 1945; his move to Linz, Austria, after liberation; his life in Bindermichl displaced persons camp in Austria from May 1945 until May 1949; his memories of meeting and marrying his wife, Mina, in Bindermichl; his move, with his wife and the first of their three children, to the United States on May 29, 1949; and his life in New Jersey after 1949. Also contains a photograph of Abraham Zuckerman in 1935 and one of him in 1991

    Oral history interview with Paul Gast

    Oral history interview with Paul Gast

    Oral History

    Paul Gast, born in Łódź, Poland on November 16, 1926, discusses his childhood in Łódź; his reaction to being the only survivor in his family after the Holocaust; his father's murder in the 1939 Aktion in Łódź; his move to the Łódź ghetto in 1940; his work in a factory in Łódź; his memories of primitive ghetto conditions; his transport to Auschwitz; his separation from his mother at selection in Auschwitz; his transport to Braunschwieg concentration camp; his memories of Ravensbrück concentration camp; his memories of Watenstedt, a labor camp in Germany; his description of horrible conditions at Ludwigslust concentration camp; seeing Russian soldiers cook human flesh at Ludwigslust; his liberation by American soldiers in May 1945 from Ludwigslust; his move to England in 1945; his education in British schools and universities; moving to New York in 1952; his military service in Korea; his move to Oklahoma; and his life in Verona, NJ.

    Oral history interview with Mina Zuckerman

    Oral history interview with Mina Zuckerman

    Oral History

    Millie (Mina) Zuckerman, born in September 1925, discusses her childhood in Humniska, Poland; the German occupation of Humniska in 1939; the air bombings of local refineries in 1939; her work, from 1939 to 1942, in nearby Brzozów, Poland, carrying stones for roads; being forced to move, along with the rest of the Jewish population from Humniska to Brzozów in 1942; life in Brzozów; her school friend, Helena Kerda; hiding with her father, mother, and older sister in the home of Michalina Kerda, Helena's mother, in Brzozów from 1942 until 1944; her father's secret trade of goods for money with a Polish man named Krekovsky; the liberation of Brzozów in August 1944 by the Russians; moving to Budapest, Hungary with her family in the fall of 1944; receiving food and clothing from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and the Red Cross while in Budapest; her time, with her family, in Bindermichl displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria from May 1945 until 1949; meeting her husband, Abraham Zuckerman, in Bindermichl in 1947. At the conclusion of the interview, Mina Zuckerman invited her friend, Helena Kedra Bocon, to share her memories of Mina's time in hiding in Helena's mother's home in Brzozów, Poland. Also contains a photograph of Mina Zuckerman at age 8 and one of her at the time of the interview.

    Oral History interview with Henry Butensky

    Oral History interview with Henry Butensky

    Oral History

    Henry Butensky, born on August 12, 1922 in Harlem, NY, discusses his childhood in Bronx, NY; how his parents and siblings emigrating from Palestine; his Jewish home; his enlistment in the 71st U.S. Infantry in 1942; his memories of wanting to help his fellow Jews in Europe by fighting in the U.S. Army; his memories of traveling to Europe for battle; his memories of occupying the I.G. Farben factory following the German evacuation; his memories of General Patton's order to capture young Nazi resisters; his memories of Wels II concentration camp; his memories of emaciated prisoners in Wels II; his memories of communicating with a Wels II prisoner in Yiddish; his memories of Straubing labor camp in Germany; his memories of corpses in ditches at Straubing; his time in Gunskirchen concentration camp after liberation; his memories of the bodies of prisoners, who attempted to flee, in the woods around Gunskirchen; and his recollections learning of Auschwitz through a friend after World War II.

    Oral history interview with David Dorfman

    Oral history interview with David Dorfman

    Oral History

    David Dorfman, born on January 22, 1933 in Brussels, Belgium, discusses his childhood in Brussels; crossing the English Channel enroot to Liverpool, England from Antwerp, Belgium; his move to the United States with his father in 1939; his parents' marriage of convenience; his mother's and his siblings' experiences in Gurs concentration camp in 1942; his mother becoming pregnant by a guard in Gurs; his mother receiving permission to leave the camp to give birth to his sister Claudine; his mother escaping along with the newborn Claudine; his mother joining the Maquis French underground group in 1943; his mother's second marriage to an Auschwitz survivor; growing up in New York, NY; his sister's move to the United States from Switzerland in 1947; expressing his Holocaust memories through his art; his mother's death being an inspiration for his art; his artwork of Bergen-Belsen, Chelmno, Nordhausen, Majdanek, and Ravensbrück concentration camps; expressing the human extremes of tenderness and cruelty in his artwork; and his life in Mine Hill, N.J. Also contains photographs of David Dorfman in March 1956 and in 1993.

    Oral history interview with Max Findling

    Oral history interview with Max Findling

    Oral History

    Max Findling, born in Zmigród, Poland on July 28, 1923, discusses his childhood in Zmigród; antisemitism in Zmigród; the formation of a Judenrat in Zmigród in 1940; performing forced labor during the winter of 1941; the Gestapo in Zmigród; his transport from Zmigród to Jaslo, Poland in 1942; his time in prison in Jaslo; being sent to Płaszów concentration camp in July 1942; escaping from Płaszów after two weeks; hiding in Poland; returning to Zmigród and hiding; performing forced labor in Jaslo; his sister's murder with 40 or 50 other prisoners in the forest outside of Warzyce, Poland; being transported from Jaslo to Julag I concentration camp in Płaszów, Poland; his bout with typhus in 1943 while in Julag I; his transport to and time in Jerozolimska concentration camp (most likely part of Płaszów); his brother's death from pneumonia in Skarzysko-Kamienna concentration camp in 1944; his transport to and time in Hasag concentration camp in Czestochowa, Poland; Georg Bartenschlager, a S.S. officer who was in charge of Hasag; being liberated from Hasag by Russians; returning to Zmigród; his time in Bucharest, Romania; his time in Padua, Italy; his time in Israel; his marriage in 1949; immigrating to the United States in 1955; his testimony in a trial in 1972 at the request of the American Jewish Congress in Drawsko Pomorskie, Poland, against Germans accused of killing Jews; and his life in the United States. Also contains a photograph of Max Findling in 1949 and a photograph of him in 1976.

    Oral History interview with Lilly Gottlieb

    Oral History interview with Lilly Gottlieb

    Oral History

    Lilly Gottlieb, born in 1925 in in Vienna, Austria, discusses her childhood in Vienna; her recollections of antisemitism in Vienna; Kristallnacht in 1938; her mother's wool and yarn business; her uncle's deportation to Dachau concentration camp and the return of his ashes in an urn; getting a United States visa; her parents' money in banks in the US; her father's journey to Belgium and going to Belgium later with her mother; living in Antwerp, Belgium and experiencing antisemitism; the German invasion of Belgium; her father's time in St. Cyprien, Les Milles, and Gurs concentration camps; thinking that their escape was an adventure; leaving France for Casablanca, Morocco in 1942; traveling to Cuba via Jamaica in 1942; living in Cuba from 1942 to 1948; marching in solidarity with other Jews in Havana; moving to the United States in 1948; returning to Cuba in 1952; leaving Cuba in 1961 to escape Castro's regime; her recent visits to Vienna; and her life in the United States.

    Oral history interview with Zygmunt Gottlieb

    Oral history interview with Zygmunt Gottlieb

    Oral History

    Zygmunt Gottlieb, born on December 9, 1923 in Kopychyntsi, Ukraine, discusses his childhood in Kopychyntsi; his orthodox upbringing; the poor conditions before World War II in Kopychyntsi; his memories of antisemitism in Ukraine; his memories of the Russian occupation from 1939 to 1941; his memories of the German occupation from 1941 to 1944; his recollections of the Kopychyntsi ghetto; his transport to the Kamionki labor camp; his recollections of 65 survivors of the original 5,000 to 6,000 Jews of Kopychyntsi; his memories of Aktions in Kamionki; his memories of the Ternopol labor camp; his escape during an Aktion; his memories of hiding in the barn of a Polish officer; his memories of hiding with his father and other relatives in an underground bunker; his liberation by the Russians in March 1944; his enlistment in the Soviet Army; his release from the army due to the fact he claimed to be a teacher before the war; his memories of testifying at a Mannheim war crimes trial; his travels to Vienna, Austria and Munich, Germany after the war; and his life in the United States after May 1951.

    Oral history interview with Alice Lefkovic

    Oral history interview with Alice Lefkovic

    Oral History

    Alice Lefkovic, born July 8, 1926, describes her childhood in Brezova Pod Bradlom, Slovakia; the antisemitism that followed Slovakian independence in 1940; her father's deportation to Majdanek concentration camp in 1941; attempting to flee to Hungary, her arrest, and her subsequent release due to the intervention of a mysterious benefactor; eventually arriving in Hungary with the help of a family member; reuniting with family members in Budapest, Hungary; deportations of Jews from Hungary in May 1944; being deported to Sered concentration camp in Czechoslovakia; her subsequent transport to Therensienstadt concentration camp; participating in forced labor while in Theresienstadt; her liberation by the Red Army; her life in Prague, Czech Republic following the war; her immigration to Israel after World War II; and her immigration to the United States in 1967. Includes photographs of Alice Lefkovic in 1947 and 1989.

    Oral history interview with Charles Levine

    Oral history interview with Charles Levine

    Oral History

    Charles Levine, born June 15, 1915 in Augustów, Poland, discusses his childhood; the immigration of his brother to the United States in 1923; being drafted into the Polish Army in 1939 and his wagon trip to the Soviet Union while in the army; his return to Augustów after his military service; his memories of Augustów under Soviet rule; the German invasion of Augustów on June 22, 1941; his time in the Augustów ghetto; his memories of Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski; being deported to Bogusze concentration camp on November 2, 1942 and his memories of the atrocities that took place in Bogusze; the transport of 6,000 Jews to Treblinka concentration camp and their murder there; being sent to Birkenau concentration camp in January 1943; building the crematoria; the killing of 24,000 Jews in the crematoria in Birkenau; the gassing of his sister and parents in Birkenau; receiving a tattooed number 85719 while he was in Birkenau; the extraction of gold from the teeth of dead prisoners; being sent to Gross-Rosen concentration camp in January 1945; a Romani camp in Gross-Rosen; the hanging of an escapee in front of the inmates in Gross-Rosen; being transported to Buchenwald concentration camp in February 1945; doing forced labor in Weimar, Germany; digging graves for German soldiers; being liberated by American soldiers April 13, 1945, and his memories of General Dwight Eisenhower's visit to Buchenwald shortly after liberation; traveling through Europe after liberation; the shooting of one of his friends by a member of the Armia Krajowa; his time in a displaced persons camp in Italy; his marriage in 1947 and his immigration to the United States in 1949; his life in New Jersey; and his personal reflections on the Holocaust. Photographs of Charles Levine in Italy in 1945 and in 1992 accompany the interview.

    Oral history interview with Eva Laks

    Oral history interview with Eva Laks

    Oral History

    Eva Laks, born in Ryki, Poland, on March 10, 1922, describes her family's move to Jankowiec nad Wisla, Poland, after a fire; antisemitism in Janowiec nad Wisla, Poland; the arrival of German troops in Janowiec nad Wisla in 1939 and the evacuation of the Jews from the city; living with her family in Zwoleń, Poland; being deported with her father to a concentration camp; her imprisonment at Skarzysko-Kamienna concentration camp and her work in an ammunition factory; the evacuation of the prisoners of Skarzysko-Kamienna and their forced march to Leipzig, Germany; being liberated by the Russian Army during the march; traveling to Kraków, Poland and staying in a house for concentration camp victims; her marriage and move to Prague, Czech Republic; moving to Landsberg am Lech, Germany; the birth and death of her first child; immigrating to New Orleans, LA in 1950; moving to New Jersey; and the death of her first husband and her second marriage. Photographs of Eva Laks accompany the interview.

    Oral history interview with Naftali Laks

    Oral history interview with Naftali Laks

    Oral History

    Naftali Laks, born on June 1, 1922 in Zmigród, Poland, discusses his childhood and his family in Zmigród; walking 60 miles towards the Russian border before being captured by the Germans; laying railroad tracks; the Germans burning and destroying synagogues and houses of study; the summer of 1942 when 60 percent of Zmigród's population was liquidated in a pogrom; the liquidation of the Zmigród ghetto in 1943; his sister's sexual assault by a policeman in Tarnów, Poland; his deportation to Płaszów concentration camp and subsequently contracting typhus; the Skarzysko-Kamienna concentration camp and staying alive with the help of his sisters; being transported between several concentration camps, among them Buchenwald, Flossenbürg, and Mauthausen; the terrible conditions at Mauthausen; his reaction to seeing American bomber planes; Passover in 1945 at Mauthausen; British Spitfires firing on transport trains; American troops liberating Mauthausen; his search for his sisters in Czechoslovakia; his journey to Israel with his sisters and his life there from 1952 to 1959; moving to the United States in 1959; his marriage in 1961 and his wife's death in 1969; and his remarriage in 1972 and his life with his new wife, also a Holocaust survivor. Also contains four photographs; one of Naftali Laks' family in 1938, one of his home in Zmigród, Poland, and 2 of Naftali at a mass grave site in August 1993.

    Oral history interview with Leonard Linton

    Oral history interview with Leonard Linton

    Oral History

    Leonard Linton, born on January 1, 1922, discusses his training in the Military Government of the United States Army; his language abilities; his service with the 82nd Airborne Division during the occupation of Ludwigslust, Germany; his memories of the Nazi mayor of Ludwigslust; his experience during and after the liberation of Wöbbelin concentration camp; helping nurse concentration camp survivors at a railway station; and his opinion that General James M. Gavin's crossing of the Elbe River saved the lives of the Wöbbelin prisoners. Photographs of Leonard Linton in the mid-1940s and 1993 accompany the interview.

    Oral history interview with Henry Lowenbraun

    Oral history interview with Henry Lowenbraun

    Oral History

    Henry Lowenbraun, born on August 1, 1922 in Lancut, Poland, discusses his childhood in Lancut; his imprisonment in the Rzeszów ghetto in 1942; the killings and Aktions that took place in Rzeszów; his illness with stomach typhus; his selection in the ghetto for labor; escaping from the ghetto to the forest near Lácut and his time hiding there; his voluntary return to the ghetto in the spring of 1942 to be with his sister; being transported to Szebnie concentration camp in the spring of 1943; the shooting and hanging of inmates by the commandant in Szebnie; the Appel in Szebnie, during which every tenth prisoner was executed; the commandant's receiving of a death sentence after World War II; his movement to Mordarka, Poland to a train station in 1943; the murder of a large group of Kraków Jews in Mordarka; the train ride to Auschwitz concentration camp in the fall of 1943; his interaction with Dr. Josef Mengele; a beating that he received in Auschwitz for not picking up a stone; his movement to Monowitz concentration camp, a subcamp of Auschwitz, to work in the I.G. Farben Buna factory; the bombing of the Farben factory; the hanging of two inmates at the Appel at Monowitz; a death march in January of 1945 to Glebowice, Poland; his 12 day cattle train ride to Nordhausen concentration camp, a sub camp of Dora concentration camp; his illness with pneumonic pleurisy; the liberation of the camp by troops led by General Dwight Eisenhower while he was in the hospital; his time in Degerloch displaced persons camp near Stuttgart, Germany from 1945 to 1949; his marriage to his wife in 1946; the fate of his family during the Holocaust; his immigration to the United States on April 6, 1949; his life after World War II in Brooklyn, NY and Newark, NJ; and his general reflections on the Holocaust. Also contains a photocopy of a document that certifies Henry as a concentration camp prisoner, a photocopy of a photograph of Henry in his concentration camp uniform dated 1946, and four additional undated photocopies of photographs.

    Oral history interview with Paul Monka

    Oral history interview with Paul Monka

    Oral History

    Paul Monka, born in 1920 in Bedzin, Poland, describes his childhood in Bedzin; his father's textile business; his time studying in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland; his memories of antisemitism in Piotrków Trybunalski and throughout Poland before, during, and after the World War II; his family's involvement in Zionism; his memories of a curfew and other anti-Jewish laws in Bedzin after 1939; his recollections of demeaning forced labor in Bedzin after 1939; his recollections of the Bedzin ghetto; his encounter with the Gestapo while working in a factory in Silesia; his subsequent arrest and time in solitary confinement in a Gestapo prison in Katowice, Poland; his time in the hospital after surviving solitary confinement and meeting Yanek; his acceptance into the Armia Ludowa resistance group by Yanek; his memories of selections from the Bedzin ghetto; his escape from Bedzin to the Armia Ludowa headquarters in the woods; his recollections of the formation of a Judenrat in Bedzin; his sabotage actions as part of the underground movement; his sister's illness and death from tuberculosis; his liberation by Russians; his memories of Zavatsky, the Polish General; his time as Security Chief of Silesia after the war; his memories of the Muselmänner who survived Auschwitz concentration camp; his recollections of the death marches from the camps at the end of the war; his feelings of bitterness toward the United States for refusing to accept his sister for immigration and for the lack of response in general; his time in Italy from 1945 to 1946; his work for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration; his move to the United States on November 21, 1949; and his life in the United States after 1949.

    Oral history interview with Walter Nachtigall

    Oral history interview with Walter Nachtigall

    Oral History

    Walter Nachtigall, born in 1931 in Vienna, Austria, discusses the jubilation in Austria during the Anschluss on March 13, 1938 and the overt antisemitism that followed; his experiences during Kristallnacht in Austria on November 9, 1938; his father's imprisonment in Dachau concentration camp during Kristallnacht; going to England and Scotland along with his sister in order to avoid Nazi persecution; staying in Dysart, Scotland with a Christian family (James and Isa Salmond) during the summer of 1939; the release of his father from Dachau and his parent's immigration to Edinburgh, Scotland; his Jewish education by a Christian clergyman; reuniting with his parents and their immigration to the United States in 1939; and visiting Scotland in the late 1950s.

    Oral history interview with Judah Nadich

    Oral history interview with Judah Nadich

    Oral History

    Judah Nadich, born on May 13, 1912, discusses his role as General Dwight D. Eisenhower's adviser on Jewish affairs and displaced persons camps in 1945; his role as senior Jewish chaplain in the European Theater; the plan for non-Jewish and Jewish displaced persons after the World War II; President Harry S. Truman's designation of Earl G. Harrison, Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, and a Commission to Europe to investigate the living conditions for displaced persons; Rabbi Stephen S. Wise's recommendation to General Eisenhower to appoint a Jewish adviser; visiting Dachau concentration camp in Germany shortly after its liberation in 1945; his time in Frankfurt, Germany, and his memories of meeting the only surviving rabbi of Frankfurt; visiting Feldafing displaced persons camp; General George S. Patton's feelings towards the Jews; General Patton's jurisdiction over displaced persons camps in Bavaria, Germany, and his demotion; the recommendations he made for improving the conditions in the displaced persons camps; visiting Landsberg displaced persons camp and the workshops that were set up in Landsberg for Jews; meeting with David Ben Gurion in Paris, France, and travelling with him to Zeilsheim displaced persons camp; Ben Gurion's emotional speech to the survivors in Zeilsheim; the singing of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem by the survivors; his book entitled, Eisenhower and the Jews; the percentage of displaced persons who wanted to go to Israel versus the percentage of those who wanted to go to other places; a tour of a hospital for children at St. Ottilien, Germany; the "religious problems" he experienced after his time in Germany; his departure from the rabbinate to become the Jewish Displaced Persons Director for Germany; working on a United Jewish Appeal campaign; returning to the rabbinate in 1947; and his reflections on the Holocaust and displaced persons camps. Also includes a photograph of Judah Nadich when he was the guest of honor at the Jewish Theological Seminary Dinner accompanies the interview.

    Oral history interview with Herma Rappaport

    Oral history interview with Herma Rappaport

    Oral History

    Herma Rappaport, born in Vienna, Austria in 1924, discusses her childhood in Vienna; Kristallnacht; her family being put on house arrest for five days; a Gentile neighbor helping her family; moving with her mother to the Jewish section of Vienna after Kristallnacht; the release of her father and the physical abuse he suffered at the hands of the Germans; her father's stroke; being sent to England on a Kindertransport; arriving in London, England, and her life in the Woolwich section of the city living with a Jewish doctor and his wife; being in Wales at the outbreak of World War II; being in London during the German bombing raids; her mother's death in Theresienstadt in April 1944; her father's imprisonment in Auschwitz in May 1944 and learning of his death in the camp; and her immigration to the United States in 1948. Two photographs of Herma, one in 1939 and one in 1990 accompany the interview.

    Oral history interview with Robert Rothschild

    Oral history interview with Robert Rothschild

    Oral History

    Robert Rothschild, born on January 9, 1924 in Mellrichstadt, Germany, discusses his childhood in Mellrichstadt; his education in a Catholic high school; the increase in antisemitism after the Nazis took power in 1933; his forced resignation from the Catholic school and the completion of his education in a Jewish day school; his apprenticeship to his uncle as a tailor and his arrival at his uncle's residence on Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938; being arrested and sent to Buchenwald; being released and taking a train to France; boarding a ship bound for the United States and the diversion of the ship to the Isle of Man off the coast of Great Britain; his time in a camp on the island and his eventual release; working as the foreman in a bakery; moving to England; the immigration of his parents and brother to the United States in 1941; his immigration to the United States in March 1947; and his reflections on the Holocaust. Two photographs of Robert Rothschild, one at age 15and one at age 6, accompany the interview.

    Oral history interview with Morris Rubell

    Oral history interview with Morris Rubell

    Oral History

    Morris Rubell, born on January 16, 1930 in Barycz, Poland (near Krosno, Poland), describes his childhood and the small community of Jews in Barycz; his father's work as an innkeeper; the beginning of World War II; being transported with his mother to the Rzeszow ghetto and escaping from the ghetto with his mother; his transport to Płaszów concentration camp in 1942; his preoccupation with survival and sorrow in the camps; his time in Mauthausen concentration camp in 1943; his time in Melk concentration camp in 1944; being sent to Ebensee concentration camp in March 1945 and his liberation from Ebensee by American soldiers shortly thereafter; his memories of reuniting with his sisters in Italy; meeting his brother Mark, who survived the war in Russia, in a displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria; his life in France in 1947 when the Polish immigrations quota to the United States was exhausted; his eventual move to the United States in February 1948; and his life since then in Vienna, NJ.

    Oral history interview with Aaron Schwarz

    Oral history interview with Aaron Schwarz

    Oral History

    Aaron Schwarz discusses his childhood in Zarowka, Poland; escaping deportation by jumping from a train and returning home to Zarowka; his arrest in Tarnów, Poland; his time in the Radomysl Wilki and Kraków ghettos; participating in forced labor in several forced labor camps in Poland; escaping a deportation train on the way to Treblinka concentration camp in 1944; his liberation by the Russians in 1944; traveling throughout Poland after liberation and experiencing antisemitism at that time; and his time in to Heidelberg, Germany, just before his immigration to the United States in 1949. Two photographs of Aaron Schwarz accompany the interview.

    Oral history interview with Ida Schwarz

    Oral history interview with Ida Schwarz

    Oral History

    Ida Schwarz, born on May 20, 1925, discusses her early life in Tarnów, Poland; the arrival of the Germans in Tarnów on September 4, 1939; the creation of a ghetto in Tarnów by the Germans in the summer of 1942; hiding in the ghetto in August 1942, first in a sewer and later in a cellar; her participation in labor for the Germans while in the ghetto; escaping from a deportation train in November 1942; returning to the ghetto with the help of a Polish peasant; the liquidation of the ghetto in September 1943 and her deportation to Płaszów concentration camp; being transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp in October 1943; her participation in labor while in Auschwitz; the closing of Auschwitz and the death march of the inmates to a train taking them to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in January 1945; her experiences in Bergen-Belsen; being transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp and her liberation by American troops in 1945; returning to Tarnów and her subsequent travel to Heidelberg, Germany, in 1945; the birth of her son; and her immigration to the United States with the help of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in 1949.

    Oral history interview with Gertrude Sonnenberg

    Oral history interview with Gertrude Sonnenberg

    Oral History

    Gertrude Sonnenberg, born on February 1, 1919 in Hausberge (Hausberge an der Porta), Germany, begins the interview by showing a photograph of herself at age 19 and photographs of her and her father taken by the police; two rings made for her while she was in the Riga ghetto and a piece of paper given to her by a Jewish policeman as her parents were taken away. She continues by discussing her childhood in Hausberge; the changes that took place in Hausberge when Hitler came to power in 1933; antisemitism in Germany before 1933; her family's move to Hesse, Germany; the closing of high schools, universities, and professions to Jews in the late 1930s; her time in Dortmund, Germany, working as a dressmaker; Kristallnacht; the conversion of her house to a bank in 1939; the establishment of new laws in Hannover pertaining to Jews; the activities of the Kulterbund Deutscher Juden (Jüdischer Kulturbund); the bombing of Germany by the British; her family's time in hiding in an attic in Hannover before their deportation; her family's three day train ride to Riga, Latvia; participating in forced labor in Riga; the gassing and shooting of Jews who couldn't work by the Latvian SS; the establishment of a ghetto and an Appel in Riga; the atrocities that took place in Riga; the uprising in Riga on October 30, 1942, and the execution of the participants of the uprising; her memories of her parents' deportation from Riga; her attempted suicide; her sister's work as a nurse in a hospital and the abortions that were performed in the hospital in Riga; babies being sent away for experiments; the liquidation of the Riga ghetto; her and her sister's time in Kiel-Hassee concentration camp and their liberation from the camp by the Red Cross; their move to and time in Sweden after the World War II; their life in the United States after their emigration in 1948; and her feelings on speaking about the Holocaust. Includes two photographs of Gertrude, one as a young woman and one more recent, accompany the interview.

    Oral history interview with Joseph Weinbuch

    Oral history interview with Joseph Weinbuch

    Oral History

    Joseph Weinbuch, born in 1924 in Kurów, Poland, describes the antisemitism in Kurów; his memories of Kurów burning in 1939; living in the Kurów ghetto from 1939 until 1941; being in Majdanek concentration camp; being in Janowska concentration camp for four months in 1941; the Janowska Judenrat; escaping the camp and returning to Kurów where his mother secretly nursed him to health from typhus; his family's removal from their house in 1941; hiding in the woods and fields near Kurów from 1941 until 1944; Jews hiding in private homes in exchange for money; his memories of the Witkowskis, a Polish couple who helped him hide and find a job; a near-fatal encounter with SS officers; his father's murder by the Armia Krajowa after the war; his thoughts on Jewish-Christian relations in Poland and in general; his liberation in 1944; his time in the Polish Army after liberation; his time in Austria after leaving the Polish Army; and immigrating to the United States February 1949.

    Oral history interview with Sol Urbach

    Oral history interview with Sol Urbach

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Luba Zeidel

    Oral history interview with Luba Zeidel

    Oral History

    Luba Zeidel, born in 1914 in Vishkovo, Poland (possibly Vyshkovo, Ukraine), discusses her childhood; growing up in a religious family with nine children; her father's work as a locksmith; experiencing antisemitism in school and in town; the bombing and general confusion during the German takeover; the synagogue in Vishkovo burning to the ground; her family fleeing to Sarny, Ukraine; her family's murder by the Germans; escaping with her sister to ZHadova, Ukraine; meeting her husband in ZHadova; liberation by the Russians; life in the Landsberg am Lech displaced persons camp in Germany; and her immigration to the United States in 1951.

    Oral history interview with Teddy Zweig

    Oral history interview with Teddy Zweig

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Susan Lederman

    Oral history interview with Susan Lederman

    Oral History

    Susan Lederman, born on May 28, 1937, discusses her childhood in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia); her mother's and father's education; the help that she received from Gentiles; her conversion by a priest for her protection; her uncle and his family who were shot as partisans; her time in Trnava, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia); the movement of two Jewish families into her home; her time with a family in Budapest, Hungary; the murder of the Hungarian family; her time with her godmother's family; her parents' hiding in a bombed-out factory; her time living with another Hungarian family in Bratislava; the family's willingness to take a chance in hiding her because she had blond hair, blue eyes, and could speak Hungarian; the way she needed to act as not to "blow the cover;" her parents' hiding in a rented room with her mother's aunt; her knowledge of the deportations of Jews; her father's exemption from the deportations because of his printing skills; the end of their hiding in 1944; their time living in an apartment before emigration; their immigration to the United States in 1948; her parents' decision to stop keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath; her education in the United States; her family's settlement in Queens, NY; her political sophistication during the Eisenhower era; the help her family received from the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America; her father's work for a Czech newspaper in NY and then for the United Nations Postal Administration; her encouragement to her friends to read the Diary of Anne Frank; and her belief that America is an open, accepting society.

    Oral history interview with David Altholz

    Oral history interview with David Altholz

    Oral History

    David Altholz, born in Krosno, Poland on May 26, 1928, discusses his childhood in Krosno and Chorzów, Poland; his experiences with antisemitism, especially stone throwing; his family's vacation in Poland in 1939; seeing the Jews of Chorzów evacuating around the time of the German invasion of Poland; the Germans executing educated and professional men; being rounded up with his family for a work detail; being imprisoned in Szebnie concentration camp; being transferred to Płaszów concentration camp where he reunited with his father and learned the fate of his mother and sister; the numerous prisoners who were sent to Auschwitz; the atrocities in Płaszów; his claims of being a watchmaker as a means of survival; his memories of the "Appel" in Płaszów, during which every tenth prisoner was shot; his transfer to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1943; working in a factory in Ludwigslust, Germany; being liberated by American troops; going to Berlin, Germany; reuniting with his father in Lübeck, Germany; immigrating to the United States with his father and the aid they received from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America; being drafted into the US Army for service during the Korean War; his life in Maplewood, NJ; reflecting on his survival as being pure accident; and his thoughts on Germans and Poles.

    Oral history interview with Ann Schatz

    Oral history interview with Ann Schatz

    Oral History

    Ann Schatz, born in Brody, Poland (now in Ukraine) on March 3, 1922, discusses her family's move from their home to an apartment after the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland; her capture by a German soldier; her forced labor at the hands of the Germans and her eventual release from German custody; her father's arrest by the Germans and his return from captivity severely beaten and with his beard shaved; the establishment of a ghetto in Brody by the Germans in 1942; her father's bout with typhus fever; her brother's attempted escape from the Brody ghetto and his subsequent capture and death in Vilnius, Lithuania; the Germans killing her father in 1943; the deportation of her mother to Majdanek concentration camp; hiding from the Germans in a cellar and her discovery by a Polish fireman; her deportation to a labor camp; her liberation by the Soviets in 1944 and her marriage the same year; her time in a displaced persons camp in Frankfurt, Germany; and her immigration to the United States in 1948.

    Oral history interview with Aron Grynwald

    Oral history interview with Aron Grynwald

    Oral History

    Aron Grynwald, born on June 21, 1904 in Bedzin, Poland, discusses his pre-war life in Bedzin; attending a technical school in Wroclaw, Poland; his marriage, in 1939, to Gitla Grynwald; numerous cases of antisemitism in Poland; hiding in 1939 on a farm in Poland; his time in the Kraków ghetto; prominent members of the Kraków Judenrat; anti-Jewish laws imposed in 1939; having to wear a Jewish star; the confiscation of his Kraków factory by a Viennese man in 1949; his time working in this factory from 1940 until October 8, 1942 on a special work permit from the German Labor Department; his contact with family members in the Warsaw ghetto; escaping the June 3, 1942 selection of 6,000 Jews in the Kraków ghetto because of his special work permit; hiding with his wife, Gitla, to escape another selection, of 7,000 Jews from the Kraków ghetto on October 28, 1942; working in the Kraków ghetto from October 8, 1942 until March 13, 1943 after his special work permit expired; being transported to Płaszów concentration camp on March 13, 1942; his memories of Amon Goeth, the Commandant of Płaszów concentration camp; being transported to Mauthausen concentration camp in August 1944; forced labor in Mauthausen; the SS and the Gestapo officers in Mauthausen; being transported to Ebensee concentration camp in Austria in April 13, 1945; his liberation by American troops from Ebensee on May 6, 1945; returning to Kraków after liberation; his wife's time in Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp; the communist leadership of Wladyslaw Gomulka in Poland after World War II; and his time in the United States after 1961. Also contains a photograph of Aron Grynwald in 1940, one of him recent to the time of the interview, and one of him and his wife, Gitla, recent to the time of the interview.

    Oral history interview with Gitla Grynwald

    Oral history interview with Gitla Grynwald

    Oral History

    Gitla Grynwald, born on October 23, 1902 in Zawiercie, Poland, discusses her childhood in Zawiercie; her education; her work in a library until 1932; her marriage to Aron Grynwald on March 8, 1933; her time in Kraków, Poland after her marriage; the German invasion of Kraków on September 6, 1939; the subsequent establishment of a ghetto in Kraków; the Kraków Judenrat; her husband's work for the Gestapo in Kraków; her transport, with her husband, to Płaszów concentration camp in March 1943; conditions in Płaszów; being transported to Auschwitz concentration camp in October 1944; forced labor in Auschwitz; being transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany after three weeks in Auschwitz; conditions in Bergen-Belsen; her time in Raguhn, Germany from January 1945 until April 1945; being transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in April 1945; her time in a hospital from May 1945 until July 1945; returning to Kraków in July 1945; and her life in the United States after 1961. Also contains a photograph of Gitla Grynwald in 1940 and a photograph of her, with her husband Aron, recent to the time of the interview.

    Oral history interview with Sally Chase

    Oral history interview with Sally Chase

    Oral History

    Sally Chase, born on November 28, 1928, discusses her childhood in Radom, Poland; being sent to the Radom ghetto; the murder of intellectual Jews by the Germans; how the Germans forced the Jews to wear the yellow Star of David; volunteering to work at the Wehrmacht Alpha A labor camp as a means of protection from persecution; the attempted liquidation of the Radom ghetto by the Germans and the deportation of Radom's Jews to Treblinka concentration camp, including her parents; the gassing of Radom's Jews at Treblinka; the liquidation of the labor camps and her deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp; selections of prisoners by Dr. Josef Mengele; her move after six months to an aircraft factory in Gebhardsdorf, Germany; marching from Gebhardsdorf to another work camp; her unsuccessful escape attempt from a work camp; being liberated by Soviet troops; returning to Poland and subsequently traveling to Czechoslovakia after World War II; and her immigration to the United States in 1947. Also contains three black and white photographs of Sally Chase. One dated 1946, one dated 1948, and one dated 1978.

    Oral history interview with Renee Cantor

    Oral history interview with Renee Cantor

    Oral History

    Renee Cantor discusses her early childhood in Brussels, Belgium; her move to a Sephardic orphanage in England at age 4; not remembering her own family; her experiences in the Sephardic orphanage; her memories of life in a British "evacuation town" with a Christian family; her memories of antisemitism in British schools and communities; her high school graduation at age 16; applying to go to Palestine; meeting her husband on the day he arrived in England to go to Manchester Union college; and her life in the United States after 1946.

    Oral history interview with Lotte Baum

    Oral history interview with Lotte Baum

    Oral History

    Lotte Baum, born in Essen, Germany on August 9, 1915, discusses her childhood and adolescent life in Essen; her parents' deaths prior to the Holocaust; the destruction of synagogues, businesses, and homes during Kristallnacht; moving to the Netherlands in 1941; the confiscation of her husband's factory by the Germans; being transported to Westerbork concentration camp; working in the Westerbork laundry facility; paying in gold money in order to remain at Westerbork; being transported to Auschwitz in 1944; learning of her husband's death in Auschwitz; her work in a munitions factory in the Sudetenland; her liberation by the Russians in March 1945; her second marriage to a member of the German underground; and moving to the United States in 1947. Also contains photographs of Lotte Baum in 1947 and in May 1991.

    Oral history interview with Aba Prawer

    Oral history interview with Aba Prawer

    Oral History

    Aba Prawer, born on January 1, 1922, discusses his childhood in Miechów Lubelski, Poland; his visits to Landsberg am Lech and Feldafing displaced persons camps in Germany in 1945; his father's imprisonment in Skarzysko-Kamienna concentration camp in Poland; antisemitism in Miechów after German occupation; the curfew and other anti-Jewish laws in Miechów after German occupation; performing forced labor under SS supervision on a railroad near Miechów; the financial and emotional support he received from a Volksdeutsche family friend; his time in a forced labor camp near Kraków, Poland; being transported to Rabka, Poland, and doing forced labor; returning to the Kraków ghetto in 1943; the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto in 1943; his numerous forced labor assignments while in Kraków; working in the Buna synthetic-rubber works factory at Monowitz (Monowice) concentration camp, a subcamp of Auschwitz; the crematoria at Auschwitz; being transported to Buchenwald concentration camp; prisoners falling ill from typhus in Buchenwald; his recollections of Ilse Koch, the wife of Buchenwald's Commandant, Karl Koch; his liberation from Buchenwald in 1945; his life after liberation and his move to the United States in 1951; receiving help from the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America; and his life in New Jersey after 1956.

    Oral history interview with Dina Weinreb Jacoud

    Oral history interview with Dina Weinreb Jacoud

    Oral History

    Dina Weinreb Jacoud, born on June 7, 1925 in Lavochne, Ukraine, discusses her childhood; the limited educational opportunities in Lavochne public schools; going to school in Stryi, Ukraine; the 1939 partition of Poland; a Volksdeutsche friend who took her from Stryi to be reunited with her family in Lavochne; her time hiding in the woods near Lavochne with her father in August 1944; moving with her father to Hungary in August 1944; hiding in Hungary; receiving false papers and her false identity as Stephany Warge, a Mischlinge; moving to Budapest, Hungary and her time working illegally there; her arrest as a political prisoner and her time as a political prisoner in Békéscsaba, Hungary, prison in 1944; the horrors of life in the Békéscsaba prison; her belief in the existence of extrasensory perception and memories of two incidents, one as a child in Lavochne and one as an adult in the United States in 1967, when she believes she possessed extrasensory perception; the SS and the Gestapo; being transported from Debrecen, Hungary to Auschwitz concentration camp and the conditions during the transport; being sanitized upon entering Auschwitz and receiving a red triangle, the marking of a Christian prisoner; performing forced labor at Auschwitz; performing slave labor at a bulb factory in Plauen, Germany, and her liberation from Plauen; life in Feldafing displaced persons camp in Germany, where she met her first husband, and her marriage there; moving her husband to Munich, Germany, and their later move to New Orleans, LA, on August 8, 1949; living in Miami, Florida, New York City, and Newark, New Jersey; her recollections of segregation while living in Florida; her memories of receiving assistance from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee while living in New York City; and her life in Newark. Also contains a photograph of Dina Weinreb Jacoud in 1947 and one of her in 1948.

    Oral history interview with Margie Appel

    Oral history interview with Margie Appel

    Oral History

    Margie Appel, born August 13, 1928, discusses her childhood in Klečenov, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia); her experiences in public school; her father's service in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I; the Hungarian occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938; her brothers being sent to forced labor; photographs of one of her brothers; her youngest brother's deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland; the gassing of her father at Auschwitz; her reunion with her brothers after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; her family's removal from their home; their placement in the ghetto in Munkács, Hungary (now Mukacheve, Ukraine); the atrocities that took place in the Munkács ghetto; the torturing of her brother for breaking curfew; the beatings of her five brothers in the ghetto; the train ride to Auschwitz; the disappearance of her mother; the "selection" of her and her sister for forced labor by Dr. Josef Mengele; the beating she received from the Kapos; her "close calls" with the gas chambers; her and her sister's transfer to Gelsenkirchen concentration camp in Germany to work on barges; the beating of Hungarian girls; their transfer to Essen concentration camp in Germany, to work in the Krupp factories; the bombing of the factory and the camp; her fasting on Yom Kippur; the mental state of her sister; the problems that she had with her sister and her desire for relief from the burden she caused; the train ride to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; the liberation of the camp by British troops; the atmosphere after liberation; the aid that they received from the Red Cross; her arrival at Celle, Germany, near Bergen-Belsen; the visit of Eleanor Roosevelt to the camp; the discovery of her brother's fate; the meeting of her future husband in Most, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic); her marriage on Aug. 27, 1946; her time spent in the Gabersee displaced persons camp in Germany; her pregnancy and birth to twins and the death of one of the twins; her arrival in the United States in 1949; the help she received from the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society; her life in Lakewood, N.J.; the death of her husband in 1970; her marriage to her second husband; her trip to Israel; and her belief that people survived the Holocaust so that Judaism could grow again. Also contains a photograph of Margie in 1945 and a photograph of her in 1989.

    Oral history interview with Victor Wegard

    Oral history interview with Victor Wegard

    Oral History

    Victor Wegard, born in New York, discusses his enlistment into the United States Army after graduating from high school; his job as a reporter for the Army War College in Trinidad; his time in Sicily, Italy; volunteering for the paratroopers; his placement in the War Crimes Commission; being trained for entry into concentration camps at Cumberland University in Tennessee; his return to Europe in 1944, first to England, then to Holland, and finally to France; his placement into the War Crimes Commission, unit number 6832; his orders to secure the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany; his order to attach his unit to the 91st Infantry Division going to Flossenbürg concentration camp; his arrival at Flossenbürg; his learning of the fate of certain members of the SS; the investigation in a neighboring town called Namering; the claims of the townspeople of seeing or hearing nothing; the discovery of the bodies of recently executed people in Namering and the proper burial of the victims; his memories of the United States Army forcing the townspeople to look closely at the victims' corpses; the claim by the Germans that Flossenbürg had the most "efficient" gas chamber; the atrocities that took place in Flossenbürg; his discovery of a cousin at the camp; the discovery of Yugoslavs, Greeks, and German political prisoners including members of the White Rose resistance group; his thoughts that the prisoners in Flossenbürg were carrying diseases; the capturing of SS and Ukrainian guards; the interrogation of the SS and Ukrainian guards; the interrogation of SS Lieutenant Colonel Jochen Peiper; his experiences during the Nuremberg trials; the Dachau War Crime Trials; his memories of having to defend the criminals; the trial of Dr. Klaus Schilling; frustrations that occurred with the trials; the case against German commandant Andreas Müller; his reflections on his role as a Holocaust educator; and his reflections on Revisionists and deniers. Also contains a black-and-white photograph of Wegard in his army uniform in 1940.

    Oral history interview with Edith Farben

    Oral history interview with Edith Farben

    Oral History

    Edith Farben, born in Velká Polana, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia) on April 9, 1925, discusses her childhood; her short stay in Munkás, Czechoslovakia (Mukacheve, Ukraine); the changes that took place when World War II broke out and the Hungarians occupied the area; the Jews being forced to wear yellow stars and other anti-Jewish laws; an incident that occurred where two Hungarian soldiers tried to help her family; her grandfather's inability to find papers to avoid deportation; the movement of her family into the ghetto in Munkás in 1944; her grandfather's beard being shaved off; her grandfather's death; her family's deportation by train to Auschwitz; arriving at Auschwitz; the separation of her brother and father; working in the "Kanada" commando sorting clothes; her relatively "easy" life in the camp; the beating of her aunt in Auschwitz; the entrance of inmates into the crematorium; an uprising in Auschwitz in October 1944; the forced labor of the inmates, especially on Jewish holidays; "blood-taking" on Tisha Ba'av; the gas chambers in Auschwitz; her mother's and sister's deportations to Bergen-Belsen, where her sister died; being deported to the Sudetenland (German-occupied Czechoslovakia) where she worked in a factory named Waisswasser (Mittelsteine concentration camp); her belief that her survival is due to the fact that she was nimble fingered; incidents where she helped her friends survive; the help that she received from Czech forced laborers; the long train ride to Bratislava, Slovakia, where she encountered Russian soldiers; reuniting with her mother, brother, and two sisters in Bratislava; finding out the fate of her father and sisters; moving back to Velká Polana where she found her house was occupied by neighbors; the shelters provided by the United Jewish Appeal; her marriage in October 1945; visiting her brother in Czechoslovakia; moving to Wasserburg, Germany in the spring of 1946; arriving in the United States in July 1947; her life in the United States with her family; her mother's experiences during the Holocaust; and her reflections on why she survived and not forgetting what happened in the Holocaust. Also contains a photograph of Edith at age seventeen and a photograph of her at age sixty.

    Oral history interview with Robert Mansfeld

    Oral history interview with Robert Mansfeld

    Oral History

    Robert Mansfeld, born in 1927 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, discusses his childhood in Amsterdam; his father's career as a high-fashion manufacturer; his family's stay in Berlin, Germany between the years of 1930 and 1935; his time as a neighbor of Hermann Göring; moving back to Amsterdam in 1935; his parents' divorce; the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940; the posting of the Nuremberg laws; the protest of the occupation by the Dutch people; the disappearance of students from his school, probably to Westerbork, a Dutch concentration camp; the imprisonment of community and national leaders; his life while his father was incarcerated; the underground's destruction of files that the Germans had on Amsterdam residents; his inclusion in a roundup in Amsterdam; his inclusion in a selection at a gymnasium in Amsterdam; his uncle's "lease on life" as a member of the Jewish council; his family's contacts with the underground; his family's separation to different hiding places; his time hiding with a plumber and his family; his time in Friesland, Netherlands with a Dutch Reformed family of farmers; his falsification of his identity; his sister's hiding situation; Allied raids in the Netherlands; his interactions with Germans who were not suspicious of him; the roundup of school children for labor; his fear of being hit by V-2 rockets or Spitfire attacks; the Canadian liberation of the Netherlands; his father's stay in Amsterdam during the war; reuniting with his family after the war; the disappearance of aunts, uncles, and grandparents during the war; a request by Ferdinand aus der Fünten to his father to testify on his behalf and his father's subsequent refusal to testify; his life after the war; his immigration to Canada in 1952 and his later immigration to the United States in 1958; and his perspectives on the Holocaust.

    Oral history interview with Henry Yungst

    Oral history interview with Henry Yungst

    Oral History

    Henry Yungst, born on October 7, 1920, discusses his childhood in Ozorków, Poland; the change in attitude of the Poles towards the Jews at the beginning of 1939; the looting of his father's factory; his family's move and their experience living in a single room with no toilet facilities; the roundup of Jews in Łódź, Poland, on April 1, 1940; their movement into a movie house in Ozorków, Poland; the death of his father and older brother by starvation in a camp in Poznan, Poland; the gassing of his mother, sister, and younger brother in Chelmno concentration camp; his time in a forced labor camp in Danzig (Gdansk, Poland); his memories of being whipped by an officer; the help that he received from a foreman; his transport to Palemonas concentration camp in Lithuania; his memories of the transport of children to Paneriai, Lithuania, to be killed; his memories of the atrocities committed by "Peter the Terrible" and other Ukrainians; his transport to Kaiserwald concentration camp in Riga, Latvia; a plane that crashed into Kaiserwald on a suicide mission; his transport to Stutthof concentration camp; his memories of criminals being unleashed by their captors on Jewish prisoners; his memories of a beating he received in Stutthof; his transport to Buchenwald concentration camp where he was reunited with his cousin and uncle; his transport to Bochumer Verein concentration camp; his memories of finding out the fate of his mother, sister, and younger brother; his return to Buchenwald concentration camp; his short time in Flossenbürg; his transport to Dachau concentration camp and on the way, his liberation by the United States Army; suffering from typhus; his time spent in two hospitals after liberation; his work for the U.S. Army in Straubing, Germany; meeting his future wife in Straubing; his unsuccessful search for his sister in Israel; his immigration to the United States in 1954; his life in New Jersey; his children learning about his experiences; and his warning to be "watchful." Also contains a photograph of Henry as a young man in Poland, a photograph of him at middle age, a photograph of a memorial with the names of his family on it, and a photograph of a memorial with the town Ozorków written on it in Hebrew.

    Oral history interview with Zelda Peters

    Oral history interview with Zelda Peters

    Oral History

    Zelda Peters, born on May 29, 1921, discusses her childhood in Sighet (Sighetu Marmației), Romania; her father's work as a butcher; attending Catholic school; working for an import-export business, a lawyer, and an architectural firm; the Hungarian occupation of Romania from 1940 to 1944; antisemitism in Hungary; the German occupation of Romania beginning in 1944; German antisemitism; Germany establishing ghettos and deporting Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp; receiving a bogus postcard from her parents enticing her to go to Auschwitz; life in Auschwitz; being in Ravensbrück concentration camp; developing tuberculosis while in Ravensbrück; liberation from the camp by the Russians; life at Gabersee displaced persons camp in Germany; meeting and marrying her husband; the birth of her daughter; immigration to the United States in 1951 with the help of the Society of Friends (Quakers); and her life in Highland Park, NJ, after 1951. Also contains two photographs of Zelda Peters in 1944 and 1992.

    Oral history interview with David Rosenblum

    Oral history interview with David Rosenblum

    Oral History

    David Rosenblum, born on May 13, 1925, describes his memories of his father purchasing forged documents for him; the creation of the ghetto in Kraków, Poland, in 1941 and his family's move to Szydlowiec, Poland, as a result; his stay in a Capuchin monastery in order to avoid capture by the Germans; his memories of being denounced as a Jew by a former classmate and his escape from the monastery to return to Szydlowiec; his memories of his brother's capture and deportation to a forced labor camp and his unsuccessful efforts to free his brother; his family's imprisonment in Treblinka concentration camp; the deportation and the killings on trains bound for Treblinka; his period of homelessness from 1942 to 1943; his escape from forced labor in Radom, Poland; his capture and torture by the Gestapo; his imprisonment in Jerozolimska camp and Montelupich prison in Kraków; his experiences in Auschwitz concentration camp; a death march to Kutno, Poland; his time in Mühldorf concentration camp; being placed on a forced labor detail building a forest camp (Waldlager VI camp); his liberation by the United States Army in April 1945 while on a train in the Bavarian Alps; and his life in the United States after World War II. A photograph of David Rosenblum in 1955 and a photograph of the Rosenblum family in 1939 accompany the interview.

    Oral history interview with Mila Bachner

    Oral history interview with Mila Bachner

    Oral History

    Mila Bachner, born on March 15, 1927, discusses her childhood in Chrzanów, Poland; antisemitism in Poland; the attacks on her father and grandfather by Poles in Chrzanów; the death of her grandfather from a beating; the invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939; her family's attempted escape; living in the Chrzanów ghetto; the confiscation of her parents' business; the death of her brother in Gross Masselwitz concentration camp in Germany; her other brother's time in Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria; her mother and aunt's inclusion in a roundup; her knowledge of the crematorium at Auschwitz concentration camp; her sister's transport to Auschwitz; her work making coats for the Germans; being transported to transit camp Dulag in Germany; her selection by Dr. Franz Novak to live; her time in Nova Sol concentration camp in Neusalz, Germany (Nowa Sól, Poland); forced labor in Nova Sol and the cruelty that she was forced to endure there; a death march to Flossenbürg concentration camp; passing through Potsdam, Germany, where Hitler Youth threw rocks at her; the help that she and a friend received from a German woman near Flossenbürg; wondering if there was a God; holding on to her pictures despite being beaten; her work taking clothes off of the dead; marching to a railroad station; being on a cattle car for eight days; arriving in Hanover, Germany, near Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; her work pulling dead bodies to the crematorium at Bergen-Belsen; being liberated by the British; possible reasons for her survival; her time shortly after liberation with a German family near Bergen-Belsen; reuniting with her brother; her secret crossing of the border to Austria; her time in a hospital in Austria; and her and her brother's immigration to the United States in 1947. Also contains two identical photographs of Mila in late 1939 or early 1940.

    Oral history interview with Ernest Bokor

    Oral history interview with Ernest Bokor

    Oral History

    Ernest Bokor, born on August 21, 1920, discusses his early life in Debrad, Slovakia; his childhood in Dubovec, Slovakia; the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Hungary in 1938; the antisemitism of the Hungarians; moving to Budapest, Hungary, in 1943; his use of green-dyed shirts to pose as a member of the Hungarian Arrow Cross, or Nyialskereszets Párt; the altering of his identification papers from "Jewish" to "Catholic;" saving Jewish children in Budapest in November 1944; his encounter with a friend posing as a member of the Arrow Cross; his joining of a group headed by Raoul Wallenberg; the group's successful efforts to save Jews in Budapest; his chance meeting with his brother and his leaving Wallenberg's group; his realization that his mother had died at the hands of the Nazis, probably in Auschwitz concentration camp; his arrest by the Nazis and his deportation to Mauthausen concentration camp with his brother; their liberation by the United States Army; his brother's death; his return home and meeting with his sister; his marriage; and his immigration with his wife to Israel in 1949. Also contains photographs of Ernest in 1945 and the current day.

    Oral history interview with Jola Hoffman

    Oral history interview with Jola Hoffman

    Oral History

    Jola Hoffman, born in Leipzig, Germany on June 13, 1931, discusses her childhood in Leipzig; the establishment of the Nuremberg laws in 1936; her aunt and uncle's departure from Germany prior to the start of the World War II; the Gestapo forcing her family and others to leave their homes; their train ride headed for the Polish border in 1938; the family's ability to enter Poland because they had family in Łódź; her father's experiences traveling between England and Poland prior to World War II; her father's move to Lwów, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), under the advice of the mayor of Warsaw; the invasion of Warsaw by the Germans; her and her mother's trip to Lwów to join her father; the emigration of some of her family members; the deportation of the Jews from Germany between the years of 1938 and 1939; volunteers who were given the opportunity during the Russian occupation to leave for German-occupied Poland; her father's move to the Warsaw ghetto; her and her mother's dangerous trip to join her father in the ghetto; starvation and death in the ghetto and the deportation of Jews to Treblinka concentration camp; the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto; the help that her family received from friends and a priest in the Polish underground; her mother's ability to get false identification papers; her mother being taken to the Umschlagplatz (transport center); the help that her father received from a factory official from the ghetto to save her mother; the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; being hit by a car while leaving the ghetto in 1943 and needing to be hospitalized; hearing of her grandfather's suicide; her release from the hospital; her time with her family living in a peasant cottage; the last time she saw her father before his departure in the summer of 1943 and her memories of him; her time in an apartment near Warsaw with a landlady who was working for the Polish underground; her involvement with the underground delivering news from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); working in a hospital when Warsaw was bombed; being deported to a work camp in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland); her job in a factory in the city of Breslau; her mother's job as a French translator in Breslau; the liberation of the camp in 1945; seeing "ghosts in the street" from Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland; her and her mother's experiences in Germany and Poland after the war; the punishment of Poles who helped Jews during World War II; the help that she received from Gentiles during World War II; her immigration to England as part of Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld's mission to get children out of Poland; her immigration to the United States in 1949; her education at Kean College in New Jersey; her role as an anti-Vietnam activist; visiting Poland after the war and seeing a sculpture of Janusz Korczak; and her inability to talk about the Holocaust with her children. Also contains a photograph of Jola at age six vacationing in Yugoslavia, a photograph of her in the spring of 1944 in Warsaw, Poland, and a photograph of her in April of 1993.

    Oral history interview with Leon Bass

    Oral history interview with Leon Bass

    Oral History

    Leon Bass, born in 1925 in Philadelphia, PA, discusses his childhood in Philadelphia; his experiences with racism in the 1930s; his experience as a soldier in an African-American unit during World War II; his time in England in 1943 with General Patton's Third Army, 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion; his participation in the Battle of Bulge; his interaction with white soldiers during World War II; his unit's work putting up bridges and removing land mines in Belgium; his unit's move into Germany; his inability to assess the nature or character of the Germans; his memories of entering Buchenwald concentration camp and seeing "walking dead people"; his memories of entering the crematorium where the bodies were piled up and recollections that the ashes were used for fertilizer; his learning that there were many concentration camps like Buchenwald; his time in the Pacific War Theatre; his enrollment in West Chester State College and his desire to become a history teacher; his experiences with racism after World War II; his involvement in the civil rights movement of the 1960s; his experiences as a principal of two different African-American schools and one all white school; a visit to his school by a Holocaust survivor that led him to talk about the Holocaust publicly; and his reflections on the Holocaust as being a human problem. Also contains a photograph of Leon and another soldier in their army uniforms.

    Oral history interview with Michael Hersh

    Oral history interview with Michael Hersh

    Oral History

    Michael Hersh, born in Rakosin, Czechoslovakia in 1929, discusses his early life in Velikije Lucki, Czechoslovakia (Velyki Luchky, Ukraine); the confiscation of his father's grocery store by Nazis at the outbreak of World War II; his family's deportation to the ghetto in Munkacs, Hungary (Mukacheve, Ukraine) in April 1944; the family's subsequent deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp; the "appel" in Auschwitz; being transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp; being sent to Ebensee concentration camp and his experiences there; working in the aircraft factory in Schwechat, Austria; his participation in a death march; his transfer to Wels concentration camp in Austria; the liberation of Wels by American soldiers in May 1945; his bout with typhus after liberation; his return to Czechoslovakia after the war; his chance meeting with his brother, Albert, on a train and learning that his brother, Avaraham, also survived; immigrating to the United States along with his brothers; his enlistment and training in the United States Army; his career in the field of interior design; and the birth of his three children. Also contains three black and white photographs of Michael Hersch and others dating from late 1945 to 1983.

    Oral history interview with Jack Ring

    Oral history interview with Jack Ring

    Oral History

    Rabbi Jack Ring, born on September 14, 1916 in Pultusk, Poland, begins his interview by discussing and displaying Talmudic commentaries published in Shanghai, China, by Mirrer Yeshiva. He continues his interview by discussing his early life in Pultusk; the immigration of several family members to the United States; the movement of his mother and sister to Wyszków, Poland; the ordering of the town's Jews to meet in the village square by the Germans, who were assisted by an antisemitic school teacher; his family's deportation to East Prussia; a German officer's direction of his family back to Pultusk; his family's subsequent direction to the Russian-occupied area of Poland; his decision to go to Vilnius, Lithuania to avoid persecution; his re-entry into the Mirrer Yeshiva which had relocated to Vilnius; the death of his sister, her husband, and his mother at the hands of the Germans in 1942; the killing of his brother, Chaim and two of Chaim's sons by the Germans and the death of his brothers, Yuda Elizer and Moshe, along with their wives in the ghetto in Warsaw, Poland; his early education including his studies in yeshivas in Naveredok, Lomza, and Mir, Poland; the move of his Yeshiva to Deidanov, Lithuania (near Vilnius) in early 1940; the occupation of the Baltic States by the Russians; the splitting of the Yeshiva into four parts and his move to Krakes, Lithuania, with his portion of the Yeshiva; their need for transit visas and the provision of visas by Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kaunas, Lithuania; the provision of exit visas by the NKVD; his travel with his portion of the Yeshiva to Vladivostok, Russia, and on to Tsuruga, Japan; the provision of funds for the trip by Rabbis Abraham Kalmanowitz and Aharon Kotler of the Vaad Hatzala; the arrival of his group of students in Kobe, Japan; the subsequent removal of all foreigners from Japan; the Yeshiva's relocation to Shanghai, China; the beginnings of World War II in the Pacific; the origins of the Yeshiva's financial support in the United States; the German Government's influence in setting up a Shanghai ghetto in July 1943 and its subsequent dissolution is September 1945; the German's inability to get a European-style killing program established in Shanghai; the post-war immigration of students to the United States, Palestine, and Canada; the immigration of Rabbis Levenstien and Shmerelevitz of the Yeshiva to Palestine and their subsequent effect on Yeshiva education in Israel; his marriage to an American and the birth of his four daughters and ten grandchildren; his reflections on his belief that he was saved by divine guidance; his discussions of the Holocaust with his daughters; and the effect of Holocaust survival upon him.

    Oral history interview with Lee Merel

    Oral history interview with Lee Merel

    Oral History

    Lee Merel, born in Berlin, Germany on April 7, 1924, discusses his current life in Westfield, NJ; his childhood in Berlin; his education at an Orthodox Hebrew day school; his immigration to Palestine via Switzerland in 1935; his arrival in the United States in 1937; his relatives who remained in Germany and perished in the Holocaust; the Arab boycott that led his family to move to the United States; his time in Washington Heights,NY; his education at Adat Israel Day School; his time in New Brunswick, NJ, and his enrollment at Rutgers University; volunteering for service in the United States Army in 1941; the antisemitism that he encountered as an observant Jew in the military; his transfer from combat engineers to military intelligence; his time in various training camps before going to Europe; his time in England in 1942; his name change from Merel to Brewster in case of German capture; his time in Paris, France, in June of 1944; his blowing of the shofar at Rosh Hashanah services in Aachen, Germany, in 1944; his role as an interpreter at the investigation of the chief engineer of the Krupp Armaments factory in Germany; the things that he learned about the nature of the Germans; his time at Gardelegen concentration camp in Germany and photographs he has of the camp; his discovery in Gardelegen of a cousin who was one of the inmates near death and the cousin's later immigration to the United States; the condition of the surviving inmates at Gardelegen; his questioning of God during his time at Gardelegen and his struggle with his religious beliefs; and his feelings on teaching the Holocaust. Also contains two photographs of Lee in 1944, one of him in Paris, France, relaxing and one of him in his army uniform; a photograph of him in 1945 with three other soldiers; a photograph of him as a middle aged man; and a photograph of him with his wife and grandchild in 1996.

    Oral history interview with Harold Zelmanovics

    Oral history interview with Harold Zelmanovics

    Oral History

    Harold Zelmanovics, born June 11, 1921 in Svaliava, Ukraine, begins the interview by showing pictures he obtained in 1945 at Dachau concentration camp from the United States Army. He discusses his childhood in Svaliava; his father's imprisonment in a forced labor camp; the cremation of his mother, two brothers and one sister in Auschwitz; his memories of anti-Jewish laws and lack of food after Hungarian occupation; his work as an electrician; his time performing forced labor under the Hungarians; his transport by cattle car to a forced labor camp in Komárom, Hungary; his work in a tunnel; the food that he received each day; claiming to be an electrician as a means of survival; his transport to Budapest, Hungary for forced labor; his eighteen-day cattle car ride to Buchenwald concentration camp; his work repairing cattle cars; his march from Buchenwald to Dachau in April 1945; his liberation by the Americans; his travel to Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic); spending 2 to 3 weeks in a hospital; his travel to Sudetenland to live with his uncle; reuniting with his two sisters and one brother; his travel to Bavaria in the American zone; his work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration; his marriage in 1945; immigrating to the United States in 1949; his life in New Jersey; his willingness to talk about the Holocaust; and the effect that the Holocaust has had on his faith.

    Oral history interview with Gertrude Lichtenfeld

    Oral history interview with Gertrude Lichtenfeld

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Regina Faigenbaum

    Oral history interview with Regina Faigenbaum

    Oral History

    Regina Faigenbaum, born in Rzeszów, Poland on January 22, 1926, discusses her childhood and family in Rzeszów; her family's move to Sosnowiec, Poland in 1933 as advised by the Pinchever Rebbi; antisemitism in Poland; the school she attended, strictly for Jewish children; her membership in Gordonyah - Makabi ha-tsa'ir, a Zionist youth organization; the move of some of her family to Rzeszów; the Germans arrival in Sosnowiec in 1939; the murder of the most prominent Jews in the town and the transport of others in the town to Auschwitz concentration camp; her father's beard being shaved off during the invasion; her sister being taken for work by the Germans in 1940; a Polish family reporting her to the Germans; her transport to Parschnitz forced labor camp in Czechoslovakia along with her sister; the Appel and the sleeping conditions in Parschnitz; her selection for transfer to Auschwitz; a situation that caused her not to be shipped to Auschwitz; her work in a textile factory and then on a railroad; the dropping of leaflets by American planes just prior to liberation in 1945; staying in the camp until its liberation by the Russians on May 8, 1945; the help that she and her sister received from a Czech mechanic on their way back to Poland after liberation; returning to Sosnowiec after the war and the antisemitism that she experienced there; meeting her future husband in Sosnowiec in 1945; moving to Landsberg am Lech displaced persons camp in the American Zone of Germany; the atrocities committed against the Jews after World War II; a visit by David Ben Gurion to the Landsberg camp to try to bring people to Palestine; her marriage to her husband in 1946; her immigration to the United States in 1949; the welcome she received from the United Jewish Appeal; her life in Newark, NJ; her two children; her current residence in Union, NJ; and her feelings on the lessons to be learned from the Holocaust. Also contains a photograph of Regina in March of 1994 and photocopies of two additional undated photographs.

    Oral history interview with Enock Trencher

    Oral history interview with Enock Trencher

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rose Lazarus

    Oral history interview with Rose Lazarus

    Oral History

    Rose Lazarus, born on February 15, 1922, discusses her childhood in Yzsina, Czechoslovakia (possibly in Slovakia); her secular and Jewish education in Yzsina; the Jews' relationship with the Gentiles in Yzsina; the unexpected effects that the "German problem" had on her town; the Hungarian occupation of Czechoslovakia; the forcing of all the Jews of Yzsina to leave their homes and gather in a field in 1943 and their subsequent transport to a ghetto in Mátészalka, Hungary; the beating of her mother by a member of the Gestapo; being transported to Auschwitz concentration camp with her family three weeks later; her experience during a selection where she survived, but her mother and younger siblings went to the crematorium; her work in Auschwitz picking up dead bodies; the nightmares that she still has about her time in Auschwitz; her time in Gelsenkirchen, Germany with six hundred other prisoners working in a munitions factory in 1945; the deaths of four hundred prisoners of Auschwitz from American bombs in 1945; going on a death march to Sömmerda, Germany in 1945; her liberation by American troops in April 1945 in Wallertheim, Germany; searching for her brother after liberation in Budapest, Hungary, and learning that he had already immigrated to Switzerland and then to Israel; the reactions of Budapest citizens to survivors after World War II; reuniting with her younger brother in Brno, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) in 1946; her time in Gabersee displaced persons camp in Germany; immigrating to the United States in 1948; the help that she received from the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America; her constant questioning of her faith due to her Holocaust experiences; and her decision to talk about the Holocaust with her children and others. Four photographs of Rose Lazarus accompany the interview.

    Oral history interview with Leonard Woloski

    Oral history interview with Leonard Woloski

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Hugo Princz

    Oral history interview with Hugo Princz

    Oral History

    Hugo Princz, born on November 20, 1922, discusses his childhood in Slivnik, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia); antisemitism and the anti-Jewish laws in Slivnik; his memories of the Hlinkova Guard; his father's unsuccessful struggle to prove his American citizenship and emigrate from Czechoslovakia; the brutality of the SS; his transport with his family to Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin, Poland; his parents' transport from Majdanek to Treblinka concentration camp in Poland; his transport from Majdanek and time in Auschwitz concentration camp; his brother's selection due to a foot injury while in the Buna factory in Auschwitz III concentration camp; his work for I.G. Farben at Auschwitz; life in the Birkenau concentration camp; his work in the crematoriums at Birkenau; his memories of the gassings; his older brother's escape to Hungary with false papers; the lack of response of the Red Cross; his time in Waldlager concentration camp in Germany near the end of World War II; his liberation from Waldlager in April 1945; his time in Feldafing displaced persons camp in Germany; and his efforts to receive reparations from Germany since his move to the United States in 1946. Also contains a photograph of Hugo Princz as a young teenager and one of him at the time of the interview.

    Oral history interview with Roney Haliczer

    Oral history interview with Roney Haliczer

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Halina Kleiner

    Oral history interview with Halina Kleiner

    Oral History

    Halina Kleiner, born on February 7, 1929 in Częstochowa, Poland, discusses her childhood in Częstochowa; her move, with her mother, to her maternal grandmother's house in Będzin, Poland, at the start of World War II in 1939; her return to Częstochowa; her memories of anti-Jewish laws enforced after 1939; her recollections of the Częstochowa ghetto; her memories of the Częstochowa Judenrat; the liquidation of the Częstochowa ghetto in 1942; her time hiding near Częstochowa; her recollections of obtaining false papers by trading a fur coat; her escape from Częstochowa to Będzin; her time in the Będzin ghetto; her memories of frequent selections; her memories of SS men harassing Jews, including her grandfather; her time in Bolkenhain work camp in Poland; her time in a weaving factory in Landshut, Germany; her time in Grünberg in Schlesien concentration camp in Germany; her memories of SS men abusing prisoners; the death march from Grünberg through Dresden, Germany, and into Czechoslovakia during the winter of 1944; her liberation by American troops in 1945; her time in a hospital in Czechoslovakia after liberation; her memories of American soldiers; and her time in Salzburg displaced persons camp. Also contains a photograph of Sala Parasol, Halina Kleiner's maternal aunt, before the war; a photograph of Itschak Silberschatz, Halina Kleiner's maternal uncle, before the war; a photograph of Hana Silberschatz, Halina Kleiner's maternal grandmother, before the war; a photograph of Bejrisch Silberschatz, Halina Kleiner's maternal grandfather, before the war; a photograph of Sarah and Leibel Silberschatz, Halina Kleiner's maternal uncle and his wife, in the early 1930s; a photograph of Halina Kleiner in 1938; a photograph of Halina Kleiner and her mother in 1939; a photograph of Halina Kleiner and an American soldier, one of her liberators, in 1945; and a photograph of Halina Kleiner, her husband, and her two daughters in 1993.

    Oral history interview with Norman Salsitz

    Oral history interview with Norman Salsitz

    Oral History

    Norman Salsitz (né Naftali Salsitz), born in 1920 in Kolbuszowa, Poland, describes his childhood; antisemitism in secular school; his religious education in Tarnów, Poland; his involvement in a Zionist youth organization; the turning point for Jews in Poland with the death of premier Jósef Piludski in 1935; his feelings of sympathy for his country despite the persecution of the Jews; the German invasion and destruction of Kolbuszowa; his father's role as a supplier of coffee to the Germans occupying Kolbuszowa; his escape to the Russian front when threatened with arrest; his move from the Russian front to Lʹviv, Ukraine; the establishment of a Judenrat in Kolbuszowa; his work for Dr. Leon Anderman, the president of the first Judenrat; working for Twardon, the Gestapo County Leader in Kolbuszowa; his successful efforts to keep his family in Kolbuszowa when Twardon ordered 50 percent of the town's Jews to be moved to Rzeszów, Poland in June 1941; his memories of the establishment of the ghetto in Kolbuszowa; the deportation of the Kolbuszowa Judenrat to Auschwitz concentration camp and their subsequent extermination; the establishment of a second Judenrat, headed by Pashek Rappaport; being transported to a camp in the woods in Pustków, Poland; his memories of V-1 and V-2 rocket experimentation near Pustków; his work for the second Judenrat; his trip from Kolbuszowa to Rzeszów to Kraków to receive an operation from Dr. Rabinowicz for an inner ear infection; his father's murder; Gestapo orders to the Kolbuszowa Judenrat to collect ransoms, back taxes, and debts from the Jews; the deportation of the Kolbuszowa Jews to the Rzeszów ghetto; his work with his brother, Leibush, in Kolbuszowa, for Twardon; his escape from being shot by promising Twardon 25 kilos of coffee; his relationship with and work for Twardon; the daughter of Halberstam, a Hungarian Rabbi, who helped to save Jews by producing falsified documents; the liquidation of the Rzeszów ghetto on November 18, 1942; escaping from the liquidation with Leiser Spielman; living in hiding; participating and leading underground Jewish partisan groups; participating in the Armia Krajowa; the Armia Krajowa leader, Stashek Augustin; his alias as a Christian Pole named Tadeus "Tadek" Jadach which he used to gain entrance into the Armia Krajowa; the liberation by Russians in September 1944; Jews being murdered even after liberation; his service to Poland as an officer in the 59th Army under Marshall Konieff; meeting his future wife, Amalie, in Kraków; the communist regime after World War II; moving to Germany, where he worked for Brichah; immigrating to the United States; his trip to Israel during the 6 Day War to see the liberation of the Western Wall in Jerusalem; his involvement in Jewish organizations; and his numerous trips to Israel between 1949 and 1987.

    Oral history interview with Amalie Salsitz

    Oral history interview with Amalie Salsitz

    Oral History

    Amalie Salsitz, born in Munich, Germany in 1922, discusses her childhood in Stanislawów, Poland (now Ivano-Frankivs'ka, Ukraine); her family's move to Poland; her parents' political activity; life in Stanislawów under Soviet control from September 1939 until June 1941; being indoctrinated into Marxism; her time as a physics and math teacher; the Hungarian invasion of Stanislawów after June 22, 1941; life in Stanislawów under the Hungarians; the mass murder of 12,000 Jews in Stanislawów on October 12, 1941; her mother's and sister's transport from Stanislawów; her life in the Stanislawów ghetto, established in 1941; the Stanislawów Judenrat; her friendship with a Karaite Jew named Mundek; her father's transport to Belzec concentration camp in Poland; her move with Mundek to Halitz (Halych, Ukraine) three weeks after her father's transport; her time in L'vov, Poland (now L'viv, Ukraine); her time in Kraków, Poland from Christmas Eve 1942 onward; meeting up with her father's former boss, Kasimir Jerzenicki, in Kraków; her work in a German household in Kraków; her time in a Kraków hospital for treatment for an inflammation; her time at an office job for the German company, Wilhelm Langert, near Płaszów concentration camp in Poland; a Gestapo man named Müller; obtaining false papers and the adopted name Felicia Milaszewska; her memories of Hans Frank, the Governor-General of Poland; her rise to a position of authority in the company in November 1944; meeting her future husband, Norman Salsitz, while in this job position; and her life, with her husband, in the United States after 1947.

    Oral history interview with Hans Fisher

    Oral history interview with Hans Fisher

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Mike Goldberger

    Oral history interview with Mike Goldberger

    Oral History

    Mike Goldberger, born on February 13, 1921 in Nova Mesto (probably Nové Mesto nad Váhom, Slovakia), discusses being the oldest of five children; his father dying young; going to live with relatives; going to Yeshiva for three years; how antisemitism was a part of life even before the war; being drafted in 1942 at age 21; life in the barracks in Kőszeg in western Hungary; working for the Third Battalion Second company which was actually a labor camp where they built railroads, mines, and bunkers as part of an engineering troop; hardships in the Carpathian Mountains, including no food and no shoes; seeing signs in 1944 that the German army was having problems; deciding to escape with three friends; moving to different villages, ending up in Varmohog [PH] and then Monache [PH] where he made money selling glass to replace all broken windows; spending a few days in a Russian jail before heading home, not really knowing any news about his family; getting married to his wife in March 1946 (they had known each other since they were both seven years old); running a vineyard; paying officers to take them across the border from Hungary to Vienna, Austria to a displaced persons camp; wanting to go to Sweden to see his sister who went there from Bergen-Belsen, but needing to know a trade; going to the Relief Organization in Mannheim, Germany to learn tool making and about blueprints; going to Sweden and then immigrating to the United States once his relatives sent an affidavit; his son who went to the University of Chicago; and his daughter who attend Harvard.

    Oral history interview with John Farinella

    Oral history interview with John Farinella

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Herb Carlson

    Oral history interview with Herb Carlson

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with John Coulston

    Oral history interview with John Coulston

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Gladys Helfgott

    Oral history interview with Gladys Helfgott

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Martha Eckstein

    Oral history interview with Martha Eckstein

    Oral History

    Martha Eckstein, born in 1937 in Kazimierz, Poland (near Warsaw), discusses her father who had a lumber yard; her mother (originally from Czestochowa) who was a pharmacist; living comfortably until 1939, when her family began planning their escape; leaving with their what possessions would fit in their car; being fearful of bombings as they traveled; traveling by train until they reached Siberia in 1940; living in a camp with other Jews in Siberia; the labor camps nearby that people feared; her mother being able to work as a pharmacist while her father stayed at home with Martha; leaving by train and ending up in Bukhara, Uzbekistan; living in one room of a house occupied by other families; attending school and taking piano lessons; her father working as a truck driver for the government until he was caught transporting people from Bukhara to Tashkent and was put in jail; her mother’s work for two years to free him; going to Poland and then Germany circa 1945-1946; receiving help from HIAS; living for a short period of time in Munich while gathering paperwork; going to a displaced persons camp in Bremen; leaving by ship, the “Maria Perch” from Bremerhaven, Germany; arriving at Ellis Island in 1947; staying with her father’s uncle in the Bronx until they were able to get their own apartment on St. John Ave; her father’s work at a sheet metal factory and as a truck driver; her parents later buying a small grocery store; attending Shalom Aleichem Yiddish School; and getting married to a fellow survivor.

    Oral history interview with Dora Schoen

    Oral history interview with Dora Schoen

    Oral History

    Dora Schoen (née Basch), born on July 10, 1919 in Sighet, Romania, describes her family and childhood; being one of six children, including Abraham (b. 1906), Kalman (b. 1909), Roze (b. 1910), brother (b. 1913), and Zelda (b. 1921); her father who was a butcher, and her mother who helped in the butcher shop; helping to deliver meats; working at a lawyer’s office; the Hungarian occupation of Transylvania at the end of August 1930; Jewish lawyers no longer being allowed to practice; the German invasion on March 19, 1944; Germans placing all Jews in ghettos within Sighet in April 1944; the confiscation of all their jewelry; how the Jews were put in groups and told they were being taken to Hungary to work on farms; being put in cattle trains and arriving in Auschwitz on May 14, 1922; being separated from her family and never seeing all but one sister again; going through the selection process; being given a tattoo of the number 87606 and placed in a working barrack; spending two months in Beendorf working in an ammunition factory; being liberated by the Red Cross at the Danish border where she was quarantined and fed; being transported to Landskrona, Sweden; Swedish people being very kind and bringing them clothes; her aunt in the United States sending her money and her surviving brother’s address (he had been in Paris at the time of the German occupation); how her brother and sister Zelda were both back home in Sighet; remaining in Sweden for three years and working as a house mother for 40 people at a clothing factory; receiving letter in 1946 from a relative in Palestine; getting married at the end of April 1948, five days before Israel’s Independence; living in Israel for eight years (1948-1956); not being able to have children; and immigrating to the United States to live near her sister and brother.

    Oral history interview with Elsie Brunstein

    Oral history interview with Elsie Brunstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Henry Erlich

    Oral history interview with Henry Erlich

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Bernard Ahrend

    Oral history interview with Bernard Ahrend

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with George Popper

    Oral history interview with George Popper

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rose Schwartz

    Oral history interview with Rose Schwartz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Libby Feit

    Oral history interview with Libby Feit

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Hella Bailen

    Oral history interview with Hella Bailen

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Shlomo Biezunski

    Oral history interview with Shlomo Biezunski

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Ida Borenstein

    Oral history interview with Ida Borenstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Helena Bokor

    Oral history interview with Helena Bokor

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lisbeth Brodie

    Oral history interview with Lisbeth Brodie

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Irene Buchner

    Oral history interview with Irene Buchner

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sol Einhorn

    Oral history interview with Sol Einhorn

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Frieda Fried

    Oral history interview with Frieda Fried

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lilly Goldberger

    Oral history interview with Lilly Goldberger

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Reubin Weitzman and Milton Goldberg

    Oral history interview with Reubin Weitzman and Milton Goldberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Pearl Gruenberg

    Oral history interview with Pearl Gruenberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Eddie Harvit

    Oral history interview with Eddie Harvit

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Helen Yomtov Herman

    Oral history interview with Helen Yomtov Herman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lucie Jacobson

    Oral history interview with Lucie Jacobson

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Marguerite Jeremias

    Oral history interview with Marguerite Jeremias

    Oral History

    Marguerite Jeremias, born in 1926 in Heidelberg, Germany, describes her family and childhood in Hoffenheim, Germany; the history of the Jewish community of Hoffenheim; her family’s ownership of a dry goods store adjoined to their home; her father’s store which was shuttered for months; their family dog which was shot by the SS in 1933; the store being allowed to reopen in 1935, but no customers would shop; her family’s discussion of immigrating to Palestine; a non-Jewish family that moved into the space above the dry goods store in 1936; commuting to a Jewish day school in Heidelberg by train in 1937; her older sister leaving for the United States after her uncle said he would sponsor her in 1938; Kristallnacht in Heidelberg; the burning of the synagogue in Hoffenheim; the arrest of six Jewish men, including Marguerite’s father; her father’s release from Dachau after five weeks; the violence against Hoffenheim Jews; the antisemitism from children; many Hoffenheim Jews being taken to Gurs concentration camp in 1940; the transfer of people with children from Gurs concentration camp to Rivesaltes concentration camp in April 1941; her father being sent to a men’s work camp; remaining with her mother; being allowed to leave Rivesaltes and live in a Jewish scout home in Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne in April of 1942; officials at Rivesaltes calling for children to return; the Jewish scout leadership keeping the children in the woods in summer of 1942; receiving letters from parents in Rivesaltes; the children being held at a French convent for a month; being transferred to a new convent in Ussel, France; receiving monthly ration cards from the scout leaders; living with a French family and working as their maid; tending to six children; teaching herself French using the children’s school materials; the Nazi’s looking for Jews but Marguerite not being found; liberation in August 1944; receiving new papers; moving to a scout home in October 1944; contacting her sister in the United States; immigrating to the United States in 1946; living in New York City; working in the Garment District; and meeting her husband.

    Oral history interview with Ernest Pollack

    Oral history interview with Ernest Pollack

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Henry Ricklis

    Oral history interview with Henry Ricklis

    Oral History

    Henry Ricklis, born in New Jersey, discusses his brief observations of the liberation of Dachau; being drafted into the US Army; going to basic training at Fort Knox; doing Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP); going overseas and arriving in Le Havre, France in the winter; moving eastward through France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany; arriving in Dachau in 1945; seeing emaciated people; speaking to a few former prisoners who spoke in Yiddish and Polish; seeing primarily men who were gaunt-looking and incoherent; and his feelings of revulsion, disbelief at the camp.

    Oral history interview with Justin Rothschild

    Oral history interview with Justin Rothschild

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Mala Sperling

    Oral history interview with Mala Sperling

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Adam Spiro

    Oral history interview with Adam Spiro

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Cyla Stal

    Oral history interview with Cyla Stal

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Elizabeth Stern-Szollosi

    Oral history interview with Elizabeth Stern-Szollosi

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lee Weinberg

    Oral history interview with Lee Weinberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with David Werdiger

    Oral history interview with David Werdiger

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Ilona Werdiger

    Oral history interview with Ilona Werdiger

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rosalyn Rueff

    Oral history interview with Rosalyn Rueff

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lillian Ettinger

    Oral history interview with Lillian Ettinger

    Oral History

    Lillian Ettinger, born in Przemysl, Poland on April 11, 1929, discusses her early family life and schooling; German occupation; her family being moved into the ghetto; working outside the ghetto weeding and digging; taking her sister and mother from the ghetto to Boryslav, Ukraine; traveling with a cousin to Drohobycz, Ukraine; hitchhiking back to Boryslav to stay with the Hirsch family; hiding in a chicken house, attic, and cellar; pretending to be a niece from Kraków, Poland of a gentile woman; Russians recapturing Boryslav, Ukraine; working in a refinery; doing office work; traveling back to Przemysl; meeting the man that became her husband; reuniting with her sister; and immigrating to the United States.

    Oral history interview with Jeanette Ehrlich

    Oral history interview with Jeanette Ehrlich

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Suzanne Winarsky

    Oral history interview with Suzanne Winarsky

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Francis Weisman

    Oral history interview with Francis Weisman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Dora Roth

    Oral history interview with Dora Roth

    Oral History

    Dora Lampell Roth, born in 1918 in Kraków, Poland, discusses her early life in Kraków; studying history in school and wanting to be pharmacist; getting married in 1937; the beginning of the war; the shooting of her grandmother; the Jewish section of Kraków, which became the ghetto; life in the ghetto; being sent to the Tarnow ghetto; getting food in the ghettos; receiving help from her family’s Gentile maid, who brought them food into the ghetto; the death of her son at the hands of German soldiers; the loss of her husband; being transported to Auschwitz; her arrival at the camp, receiving a tattoo and a striped uniform; life in the camp; conditions in Birkenau; an incident of cruelty in Auschwitz; the attitudes of female guards towards the inmates; giving birth to her son in Munich, Germany; her husband; still experiencing fear because of her experiences during the Holocaust; telling her story to her children; her daughter’s experience when she was hidden as a young child; and her mental state during the Holocaust and her determination to survive.

    Oral history interview with Ruth Friedman

    Oral history interview with Ruth Friedman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Cecile Seiden

    Oral history interview with Cecile Seiden

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Kamilla Ehre

    Oral history interview with Kamilla Ehre

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Ann Monka

    Oral history interview with Ann Monka

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Edith Kornbluth

    Oral history interview with Edith Kornbluth

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with William Kornbluth

    Oral history interview with William Kornbluth

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Solomon Lasky

    Oral history interview with Solomon Lasky

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Irving Gerenstein

    Oral history interview with Irving Gerenstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Zygmunt Lehman

    Oral history interview with Zygmunt Lehman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with A. Kevin Quinn

    Oral history interview with A. Kevin Quinn

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Fred Schwartz

    Oral history interview with Fred Schwartz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Aaron Rosenblum

    Oral history interview with Aaron Rosenblum

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Joan Bonder

    Oral history interview with Joan Bonder

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Ada Abrahamer

    Oral history interview with Ada Abrahamer

    Oral History

    Ada Abrahamer, born in Kraków, Poland, recalls the increased restrictions and frightening conditions for Jews until March 1941; her family being moved to the Kraków ghetto was put into forced labor; the liquidation in March 1943 of the ghetto and being taken to the Płaszów camp; continuing to work in the ammunition factory; the brutality of Amon Goeth, the commandant of the camp; the diary she managed to keep throughout these experiences, which she reads from and notes that it was taken from her three times; being sent in October 1943 to Auschwitz; the terrible conditions in Auschwitz and her lasting fear of "lists"; being in the camp for three weeks and then taken to Lichterwerden in Sudetenland for six months; being liberated by the Russians; travelling to Austria and ending up at the Linz displaced persons camp; and going to the United States in 1948.

    Oral history interview with Leo Laufer

    Oral history interview with Leo Laufer

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Karolyn Freud

    Oral history interview with Karolyn Freud

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Michel Thomas

    Oral history interview with Michel Thomas

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Pearl Shames

    Oral history interview with Pearl Shames

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Elbridge Holland

    Oral history interview with Elbridge Holland

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Arnold Herzberg

    Oral history interview with Arnold Herzberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Henry Kolber

    Oral history interview with Henry Kolber

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Morris Bergen

    Oral history interview with Morris Bergen

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Pearl Davis

    Oral history interview with Pearl Davis

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lillian Ross

    Oral history interview with Lillian Ross

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Nathan Schwarcz

    Oral history interview with Nathan Schwarcz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Susanne Prager

    Oral history interview with Susanne Prager

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lien Con

    Oral history interview with Lien Con

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lauryann Friedman

    Oral history interview with Lauryann Friedman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Nathan Glass

    Oral history interview with Nathan Glass

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Benjamin Katzwer

    Oral history interview with Benjamin Katzwer

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sarah Osak

    Oral history interview with Sarah Osak

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Julia Altholz

    Oral history interview with Julia Altholz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Alter Pekier

    Oral history interview with Alter Pekier

    Oral History

    Rabbi Alter Pekier, born in October 1917 in Slutsk, Belarus, discusses being the oldest of five children; attending yeshiva led by Rabbi Aaron Kotler with his brother Berel in Kletsk, Belarus; moving with the yeshiva to Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania) at the direction of Rabbi Kotler after the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland; Rabbi Kotler splitting the yeshiva into three smaller yeshivas in March 1940 and dispersing them to smaller towns; Alter and Berel going to Salakas, Lithuania near the Latvian border; the Nazi Germany invasion of Eastern Poland and the USSR in June 1941; Alter’s parents and three siblings being murdered in killing actions in Slutsk; the Soviets deporting Alter and Berel together with other yeshiva students to Reshoti in Siberia; their work clearing forests and building railroads; the Soviets releasing prisoners in October 1941; Alter and Berel moving to Kazakhstan and staying there for five years; receiving care packages from the American Jewish community; getting married in Kazakhstan and returning with his wife to Poland; going to Lodz and organizing a yeshiva for survivors there; fleeing Poland after the Kielce pogrom; going to France; and immigrating to the United States.

    Oral history interview with Bennett Silberstein

    Oral history interview with Bennett Silberstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Albert Marzurkiewicz

    Oral history interview with Albert Marzurkiewicz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Joel Frisch

    Oral history interview with Joel Frisch

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Leo Stahl

    Oral history interview with Leo Stahl

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Herta Erreich

    Oral history interview with Herta Erreich

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Freida Yeager

    Oral history interview with Freida Yeager

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Abraham Shlomowitz

    Oral history interview with Abraham Shlomowitz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Fred Eisner

    Oral history interview with Fred Eisner

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Aida Brydbord

    Oral history interview with Aida Brydbord

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Martha Klein

    Oral history interview with Martha Klein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Saul Weinberger

    Oral history interview with Saul Weinberger

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Eliasz Glanz

    Oral history interview with Eliasz Glanz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sylvia Wirtzbaum

    Oral history interview with Sylvia Wirtzbaum

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Philip Lederman

    Oral history interview with Philip Lederman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Stella Rabner

    Oral history interview with Stella Rabner

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Shlomo Weinglas

    Oral history interview with Shlomo Weinglas

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with David Katz

    Oral history interview with David Katz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rose Laiter

    Oral history interview with Rose Laiter

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Maurice Rauchweld

    Oral history interview with Maurice Rauchweld

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Leon Faigenbaum

    Oral history interview with Leon Faigenbaum

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Helen Raff

    Oral history interview with Helen Raff

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Musia Luttenger-Gross

    Oral history interview with Musia Luttenger-Gross

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Jack Chevlin

    Oral history interview with Jack Chevlin

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Jerry Miron

    Oral history interview with Jerry Miron

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Richard Tisch

    Oral history interview with Richard Tisch

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Nella Bergen

    Oral history interview with Nella Bergen

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sam Stimler

    Oral history interview with Sam Stimler

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Eugene Fried

    Oral history interview with Eugene Fried

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rosalie Klein

    Oral history interview with Rosalie Klein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Alvin Weinstein

    Oral history interview with Alvin Weinstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Henry Landsberg

    Oral history interview with Henry Landsberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Herschel Schacter

    Oral history interview with Herschel Schacter

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Celina Rosenblum

    Oral history interview with Celina Rosenblum

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Idek Rosenblum

    Oral history interview with Idek Rosenblum

    Oral History

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