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Oral history interview with Louise Spitzer

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1990.481.38 | RG Number: RG-50.062.0038

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    Oral history interview with Louise Spitzer
    Transcript
    [INTERPOSING VOICES]
    In other words, when she asks you where were you--
    You better be careful.
    She may come to visit me.
    Three, two, one.
    Here we go.
    OK.
    Ready?
    OK.
    I'm Judy Weightman here with Louise Spitzer on June 2, 1988.
    And we're filming at Gerda Samuel's in Honolulu, Hawaii.
    And I'm just going to ask you a few questions
    for biographical data, first Louise.
    What is your present address?
    My present address is 3103 Pualei Circle, Honolulu, Hawaii
    96815.
    OK, and could you give us the date of birth,
    and your place of birth?
    I was born in Vienna, Austria on December 6, 1916.
    1916?
    OK.
    And also I want wanted to know if you could give me
    the full name of your father.
    Do you remember the full name of your father?
    My father's name was Max, Max Spitzer.
    And your mother?
    My mother's name was Irene in English, Irene,
    as we used to say.
    And her maiden name was Alter, A-L-T-E-R.
    And when you were in Austria, you were born in Vienna.
    In Vienna.
    And can you tell us a little bit about your early life
    in Vienna?
    My early life, well, I had a rather nice childhood.
    We lived in Vienna.
    I went to kindergarten.
    I went to elementary school.
    Differently than here, I went to gymnasium afterwards,
    and well matura, I don't even know what it is called here.
    And then I had a year in between.
    I was sent to Brussels for perfecting my French
    for a little while.
    And then I went to hotel management school.
    And I just finished, just finished,
    a month before Hitler marched in.
    That would have been in 1938 at that time?
    Right.
    Let's go back to when you were, let's
    say in kindergarten, if you can remember, your first memories.
    Could you tell us a little bit about life,
    how it was then in Vienna?
    Well, it was very different.
    My life in Vienna was really different than here.
    I was rather spoiled.
    You were not permitted ever to walk anywhere on your own.
    Well naturally, not as a small child.
    But I was taken everywhere and picked up almost to the end
    before I left.
    Did you have a Jewish education?
    Yes.
    In Vienna, it was different.
    In gymnasium, in the gymnasium we had three parallel classes.
    And every week one hour was for religion.
    And we were split to the three different religions--
    Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish religion.
    And that was obligatory.
    So everybody did.
    I had a Jewish education.
    I don't know too much about it, but I did have it.
    Were there many Jewish children in your class at that time?
    I can't remember.
    But there were quite a few, yes.
    And what about in your neighborhood where you lived,
    do you remember anything about?
    Yeah, in Vienna, you actually didn't talk too much.
    At that time when I was a child, it was all mixed.
    There were many mixed marriages, and Jewish people
    and non-Jewish people together.
    And it wasn't-- not like it is in New York here.
    I don't even-- my family was not very religious.
    We did keep Yom Kippur and we kept Seder evening.
    That was the two only things.
    Otherwise, I was not brought up religious.
    There was no kosher.
    I didn't even know about kosher food until I left,
    I went to England.
    That was the first time I really found out about it.
    Did you have any anti-Semitic experiences at all
    when you were a young child?
    Not when I was a young child, no.
    Later on, of course.
    But not when I--
    no personally I didn't have.
    I whatever happened, I did it myself
    because I wanted to prove that Jewish people are OK.
    Well could you tell me what you first
    remember of any discrimination or any anti-Semitic experiences
    happening in Vienna, even if not to you personally?
    At school it was not so much anti-Semitism.
    But at the time, there was socialism that came in.
    That was already in gymnasium.
    There was socialism and there was the Nazis.
    And I just to provocate mainly, I was very active.
    And I wore there were Three Arrows, Three Arrows
    to prove that I'm a socialist.
    It was more that than being Jewish.
    But it was to oppose the Nazis.
    And what did you know about the Nazis
    at that time that led you to want to oppose them?
    Well, we heard about it from Germany,
    what happened in Germany, and that there was antisemitism
    there, and we did not want them to come in.
    And I tried everything to try and help to get against them.
    Can you remember your first experiences of hearing
    about what was going on in Germany that led you
    to join the Social Democrats?
    Not really.
    I don't know what did it.
    But I was young and you had to do--
    you didn't have to.
    But I was rather wild, and I figured
    I had to do something against Nazism, whatever
    it was I heard from newspapers, and whatever at that time.
    Did your parents talk to you at all about--
    No, my father was not alive.
    And strangely enough, my mother was a very quiet person.
    And she never said anything.
    But once when I brought home all kind
    of leaflets, and she said--
    I was a teenager at the time.
    She said, I don't care what you do outside.
    But you're not going to bring anything in this house.
    And I was so surprised.
    Because she never said anything.
    She let me do what I wanted outside.
    Did your mother express any fears or any concerns?
    Not at that time, no.
    That would be what year about?
    Can you remember that?
    It must have been '37, '36, no it was earlier even.
    I was still in gymnasium.
    I was still in gymnasium.
    It was about '35, '36.
    And then what happened?
    Do you remember when she started being more concerned?
    No.
    We had an apartment in Vienna, and a house in a spa
    outside of Vienna, Baden.
    And then she stayed there.
    She lived there.
    And I went to school alone.
    So I only saw her now and then.
    And we didn't talk too much.
    But well, that was much later, after already Hitler
    had marched in, we took people in and made it
    like in a boarding house in Baden, in the small town.
    That was in '38 already?
    That was already in '38.
    Do you want to talk a little bit about what
    happened when you were in Baden, and he marched in?
    Do you know, I don't even remember.
    It seems strange.
    But I don't remember just that.
    But I do know--
    no, my mother was sick at the time in a hospital.
    And I was much more concerned about that.
    But then I went later.
    I don't know how he marched in.
    But then Baden was a small town, and people knew you.
    But they came and picked me up to go and clean up
    the synagogue.
    Who picked you up?
    Nazis.
    The Nazis came, and they looked around, and they just took me,
    and then they took a few other people along.
    And it was very strange.
    It was different than here.
    We had quite a few servants.
    And they came along and said, please take me.
    Take me instead of Louise.
    And they wanted absolutely to go.
    And they were furious.
    The Nazis were furious.
    And I said just calm down.
    It doesn't matter.
    They all-- the servants used to like me.
    And I told them not to worry about me.
    As I said, was kind of wild.
    And I went along.
    In fact, I went to the synagogue and I climbed up to--
    still that I remember so vividly.
    I climbed up to clean some lamps above where the Torah is.
    And they said, get down.
    You will fall down.
    And I said so what do you care if a Jew will hurt herself.
    And they said, no, please go home.
    Go home.
    We don't want you.
    They got kind of frightened.
    But--
    How did they know you were Jewish?
    I mean when they came to get you, how did they know?
    In Baden, in a small town, everybody knew everybody.
    I don't know how.
    And your mother was in the hospital at the time?
    No, then she was already back there.
    And they came and picked me up about three days in a row.
    And my mother had a fit every time.
    And so, again, our servants said,
    you can't do that to your mother.
    Please leave the house in the morning.
    There were lots of woods around.
    And they sent me I was walking in the woods just
    not to be at home.
    I didn't care.
    But they said, just don't be home.
    Your mother can't take it if you are taken away again once more.
    And could you tell us a little bit
    about how you spent the day in the woods,
    and how long that went on?
    Oh, I lived in the woods in Baden.
    I used to go there always.
    I just walked around, just walked.
    I walked and I had some food, some sandwiches.
    I sat down.
    I was alone.
    Now, I don't think this is possible.
    But at the time, I was very happy alone in the woods.
    I many, many times walked alone in the woods.
    Were there any other Jewish children or teenagers
    that you knew of in Baden?
    Yes.
    There were quite a few, quite a few.
    It was quite a congregation of Jewish people.
    And we were still friends.
    But then I actually don't remember what happened.
    It's a long time ago.
    I just remember just small incidents.
    What were your feelings about the Nazi presence
    there in Baden?
    Well, I was furious.
    I was mad.
    I was against everything.
    But there was very little you could do.
    In fact, I did something else.
    We had people staying with us.
    And they came, and took away linen, and pillowcases,
    and everything.
    And took it to their headquarters.
    The Nazis came to take everything away.
    And I took a little carriage, and I walked right
    into the headquarters.
    And I asked them to give it back.
    And they thought-- they had a fit.
    And they said, how could you?
    I said, do you want that we have people here.
    They got some money from the people.
    They were so startled that I did that.
    I got all the linen.
    And they let me go back home.
    Wow.
    That was nobody could believe it.
    Of course, my mother again had a fit when
    she heard what I was doing.
    But I did it.
    I just--
    Was your mother afraid at all?
    Yeah, she was afraid because of me,
    because I wouldn't listen to anybody.
    I was determined.
    What did she think would happen?
    She didn't think I'd come back.
    I walked right into the headquarters.
    And what did you know of people who didn't come back?
    What had you heard, anything at all?
    Much later only from my uncle and my cousin
    who were taken to Dachau.
    But that was later.
    OK.
    And so in Baden, did you have any other relatives living?
    No.
    Oh, yes.
    I had two old aunts, great aunts actually.
    My mother and two great aunts they lived there.
    But they have not been harmed, only they only wanted me.
    And your aunts stayed there.
    They stayed there.
    When I left, they were all there.
    Yes.
    And so then what happened after you left Baden?
    What happened then?
    Well it was very difficult. You could not
    leave Austria if you had property of any kind.
    You had to pay it was called, I can't remember the word.
    But you had to pay money which we didn't have.
    We had the property.
    But I was under age.
    I was just not quite, I was still under age,
    and I had to sign that I don't own anything.
    And so they let me go.
    I usually got through everywhere.
    Oh, I was requested by people in England to come as a servant.
    But even so, you could only leave if they let you go,
    and they let me go that I signed I had nothing.
    I didn't own anything.
    And I was underage.
    When did you decide to leave and how did that come about?
    Could you take back to that day.
    I don't know.
    But mt mother wanted me to go, go, go.
    I mean she was very worried.
    I don't know how it came about.
    But oh, yes, a friend of mine who studied with me,
    or I studied a lot at the time, he had gone to England
    and he met people in England.
    And he asked them to request me.
    And what was his name?
    Do you remember his name?
    Walter.
    I know Walter, but by Jove, I can't remember his last name.
    Do you remember the name of the family in England
    that requested?
    Oh, the family in England, I'm still friends.
    They're like my second family.
    They have been absolutely wonderful,
    and I still consider them, and they consider me right now
    still as like their child.
    Karet and Solomon.
    They were the family.
    I was taken to Karet as a servant.
    But they soon decided that I was better fitted
    to look after the children.
    And boy, I didn't have any domestic experience really.
    And their last name was Solomon?
    Karet was the first, Karet And they had two children.
    And Solomon had two children.
    And I looked later that was in '38,
    we were going in summer to North Wales.
    And as we were there, war broke out.
    Can we go back first to when you're leaving in Austria.
    Austria.
    Yes, that still hurts now.
    Let's talk a little bit about when you left,
    and how that happened.
    When I left?
    Yeah.
    Do you know, it seems strange but I can't
    remember how it all worked.
    I just know that I got it through.
    Everybody was surprised.
    I got it through all myself to leave.
    And the day I left, my mother and my uncle
    took me to the train station.
    And they said it was like a boarding school,
    the whole train, because we were all practically all young girls
    there.
    Nobody else was permitted to leave, only if you were young.
    No, there were some older people,
    but in my compartment around there.
    And my mother and my uncle, they saw me off.
    My mother, I never saw my mother again.
    She passed away.
    But she was sick I understand.
    My uncle was taken to Dachau.
    From there, it was the 10th of November 1938,
    which I understand is called Kristallnacht.
    I didn't even know that I just know
    it was the day of the pogroms.
    And well, the train left, and we came.
    Could you talk about going on the train
    or how it was leaving your uncle and mom?
    I can't recall really.
    It was strange.
    I mean I said goodbye.
    Well I laughed.
    I thought that was the only way.
    My mother was always I think she laughed.
    Also, we just smiled and said goodbye.
    And the train left.
    And as we came to the border, it was many hours.
    We went through Austria and through Germany.
    And at the border, and this is very vivid in my mind.
    At the border, they took us--
    oh, several things.
    Well first of all, we all had to get off,
    and they put lined us up.
    And they all were beating us up.
    It was the day, as I said, day of the pogroms.
    The last thing they could do to us, they were coming down.
    And I laughed and he yelled at me.
    And said, you Jew, you laugh.
    I'll show you so they came and beat us up.
    It's a line up.
    But then about an hour later, they
    let us go back onto the train.
    Who was beating you up?
    The Nazi guards.
    The Nazi guards at the border.
    And then when we were-- the train started to move,
    I don't know how much longer.
    We were a long time at that border.
    It was a pretty bad experience.
    What were you feeling at that time?
    Again, I was the one, I just wanted to hit them back.
    I was always the one who wanted to do something against it.
    I don't know.
    I was just furious.
    I was more furious than afraid.
    But when we were back on the train nobody talked.
    It was we were all silent and frightened.
    Until somebody came and said you are in Belgium.
    And that was the first moment we all started to breathe.
    And it was really a great relief that we
    had been out of Germany.
    And then we came--
    I don't know.
    I think I took a boat train.
    I don't even know.
    But when I arrived in London, Walter--
    that's funny that I can't remember his last name.
    But he was at the station to pick me up.
    And I didn't know something.
    He said, you silly fool.
    And that made me feel good.
    Isn't that funny, that that made me feel much better
    for some reason?
    So I stayed with my friends for a day.
    And then I went to the other family.
    They have been very nice.
    And when you were getting on the train in the station, what
    was that like, getting in?
    Were there are Nazis there?
    Were there just people there?
    Who was at the station when you were leaving Austria?
    Only those who were on the train and Nazi--
    Nazi military or SS or whatever.
    I don't know.
    I can't recall that.
    Were they checking any documents or anything at the time?
    I don't remember.
    I'm sure they did.
    Did you know when you left that you might not be back?
    No.
    Or you weren't thinking that?
    I didn't think of anything, no.
    No, no, no.
    I didn't think.
    What did you take with you when you left?
    Oh, that was another thing.
    You were permitted to take I think it
    was about the equivalent of $5.
    And my mother put somewhere another $5 or $10 I
    had with me.
    And they discovered it.
    And they took it away and they were screaming.
    And they were again I almost didn't make the train.
    So I gave them the money.
    And I ran after.
    I just jumped on the train at the last minute.
    I still got on.
    Wait.
    Hold it right there for a second.
    So she made us come and join me, because she knows me.
    So what was the thing about--
    OK, so we wanted to get back.
    What happened with your mom giving you
    the money, the extra?
    Yeah.
    They discovered, the Nazi on the border discovered.
    I don't even know where I had it.
    But they discovered I had too much money.
    So there was a big thing about it.
    They took it away.
    But they did let me get on the train.
    But the train started already moving
    with my luggage and everything.
    Go ahead.
    Just keep--
    Yes, well my luggage, and I just jumped on the train.
    I just made it.
    And what happened then?
    What happened with your luggage?
    What did you have with you in your luggage?
    I had a lot of clothing with me, just clothes, nothing else,
    just clothing.
    Did you take anything from home at all?
    No, I couldn't.
    No, no.
    I can't even remember.
    I think you were permitted a suitcase and money.
    But I must say I can't really remember completely.
    OK.
    And is there anything else that you can remember?
    In Vienna, I think you had told me
    earlier that your friend was wearing a Nazi--
    Yeah.
    Could you get back and tell me that story
    about your friendship with a girl--
    That was at a gymnasium where I was.
    They're not.
    Now they're going out.
    That was at the gymnasium.
    No.
    It's light here.
    You can't--
    Go ahead.
    And we were in a sports team, both of us.
    And we were good friends before.
    And we were still very good friends
    because we were what is the word?
    I can't even think of it anyway.
    For our school, we were both competing for our school.
    So normally, we wouldn't talk.
    But she was a swastika, and I was a Three Arrows.
    But when we were in the sports team,
    for the sake of the school, we both reluctantly, but we
    took off--
    she took off the swastika and I took off the Three Arrows.
    Because when there was a sport going on,
    we figured that has to be.
    But she was still your friend, even though she was a Nazi?
    Yeah, that was one thing, again, my mother
    said that she usually didn't say anything.
    I wonder who of the two of you has no character.
    We weren't really friends, but we did compete for the school.
    Can you talk about the first instance
    that you could remember of any of your classmates becoming
    involved with the Nazis?
    I don't.
    And I can't remember that anything against me.
    I can't remember at school.
    I don't remember it really.
    But did you notice the first time someone was
    started wearing Nazi swastikas?
    Oh yes, the moment I saw somebody wearing a swastika,
    I put on the Three Arrows, and that was that.
    I can't remember about discussions or what happened.
    That I don't remember.
    I just know that I was determined to prove that.
    OK.
    Let's get then to your first awareness of the Nazis
    coming in.
    You were still--
    [AUDIO OUT]
    --at that time.
    That I have to know too.
    Because to me, this is as important.
    OK.
    OK.
    I wanted Louise just to go back a little bit to talk about,
    and if you can remember when you first
    noticed this one girl or other students wearing the swastika.
    Can you--
    It's very strange that I just cannot really recollect.
    I just know about one, because we had been friends before.
    And the rest I just don't remember.
    How many there were with swastikas.
    I don't think there were too many.
    That may sound strange, but I was rather liked at school.
    And I think they didn't want to provocate a lot.
    I represented the school in all sports, in many sports,
    and they didn't want to give that up.
    I also was, in spite of it, a good student which
    doesn't usually go together.
    And so they tried to not to do too much against me.
    How were the teachers?
    Were the teachers Jewish, or were they--
    No, no.
    And I did not feel too--
    I did not feel bad about it.
    There was one I was convinced she was a Nazi.
    I was so convinced because I almost failed in French.
    And I thought, and later I found out that she was half Jewish,
    and maybe that's why.
    It had nothing to do with it.
    I found that out much later, after I left.
    And I was convinced that she was a Nazi.
    But otherwise I cannot really complain.
    I have no recollection about it.
    OK, and your uncle, could you give us his name?
    You said your uncle went to Dachau.
    What was his name?
    He had still a Hungarian name.
    My family originally came from Hungary, a very difficult name.
    The first name is Andor.
    That is not so difficult. And the second is Sekley.
    Can you spell that?
    S-C-E-L-E-Y. No, there's a K in it.
    I don't know.
    S-E-K-L-E-Y.
    And what do you remember about first hearing
    about your uncle going to Dachau?
    I did not hear for a long time because I went to England,
    and then it was difficult to correspond.
    And I think my mother didn't want to tell me.
    I did correspond with her.
    And I had everything ready to bring her over at one time.
    But she passed away in between.
    She didn't tell me that she wasn't well.
    And she did let me know that my uncle was in Dachau.
    She just wrote about it.
    And his son-in-law was in the same camp.
    But by letter, I only heard it by letter.
    How did your mother know?
    Do you know how your mother knew that he went to Dachau?
    No.
    No, and you couldn't write so easily.
    It was censored.
    A lot of things were censored.
    People didn't dare to write everything, very little
    actually.
    And how long did this correspondence keep up
    with your mother in Vienna?
    Well, she passed away just for a short time.
    About a year or two, a year, no, it was only a year.
    Which would have been?
    '39.
    It was just before war broke out.
    She passed away before the war broke out.
    How did you know that?
    How did you know that she did?
    I got a letter from my aunt, from my great aunt.
    And she wrote to me about it by letter.
    Do you know what happened with your great aunts at all?
    Do you have any--
    Yes.
    One, they took her.
    She was in her almost 80s.
    They took her to prison.
    And they wanted her to sign the house away
    which was partly my own.
    And she refused.
    I heard that many years later, she
    was not going to sign because she thought
    she wanted to keep it for me.
    I was terribly upset when I heard about it,
    because I thought this is absolutely insane that she
    stayed in prison for my sake.
    And my mother had a brother in Yugoslavia.
    And he came and got her out of prison,
    and took her to Yugoslavia.
    I heard all that much later.
    I don't know if she did--
    0 I don't know.
    I think he made her sign.
    He also thought it was insane, the whole thing.
    And then what happened to them?
    Did you hear?
    My uncle went underground and passed away.
    And my aunt also passed away.
    And I think she was--
    she stayed for a while in Czechoslovakia.
    And she was very old.
    So are there any relatives left from Vienna?
    Yes, I have a first cousin, who is still in Vienna.
    As a matter of fact, she was married on May 1,
    it would have been 61 years that she was married.
    Her husband passed away four days before that.
    I heard that last week.
    It was quite-- I got a cable that was.
    Did your cousin stay in Vienna throughout the war?
    No.
    She, her husband, and her son went to Israel.
    And they came back to Vienna.
    And what happened during the war?
    Was she in Vienna during the war?
    No.
    She was in Israel.
    Oh, so she--
    She was in Israel.
    She left for Israel.
    And they came back much later.
    I see.
    And she lives there now.
    I see.
    OK.
    Let's get into London then.
    And tell us about your experiences
    when you were in London.
    In London?
    Well, I don't know how good a servant I was at the beginning
    because I didn't know too much.
    But I did.
    I even did some cooking there which
    they thought was pretty good and I had never done before.
    And then it wasn't very long that we went to North Wales.
    And it was a very big family.
    And they had a summer house in North Wales.
    And they used it a week at a time, each family.
    When war broke out, all the children and I
    think there were 14 of them, stayed in the same house.
    And there were only three adults.
    And I was one of them.
    One mother, two mothers of the children.
    And a husbands stayed in London.
    They came at the weekend.
    So there were three people who looked after the children.
    I was one.
    And the oldest child was not much younger than I am.
    So we became very great friends.
    And we still are.
    And the little girl I used to look after, she was five years.
    We became the best of friends.
    And we still are.
    And her children have come over here.
    And I looked after them.
    She came here, to here I mean by now USA, in New York.
    And we were friends.
    We became very great friends and we still are.
    And the mother who is now, both mothers, the two mothers,
    are in their 80s.
    But they really, they are like my parents.
    And I go to England quite often, quite frequently to visit them.
    In fact, this is the first year I haven't been there.
    Because it's a bit far from here.
    I stay with them and I'm like one of the family.
    And what happened when the war broke out?
    Can you remember as a Jewish person in London
    what was your reaction?
    I was glad that something happened.
    I was very glad about that.
    About what?
    That there was a war against the Nazis.
    I lived in North Wales.
    And we stayed in North Wales.
    And we stayed there.
    So I actually in the beginning, knew very little about the war.
    It was peaceful there and quiet, which actually I
    thought that is wrong, I should do something.
    And I did eventually go to London,
    because I felt I had to do something.
    I left the people.
    I went to London, and I volunteered.
    I worked in a secret scheduled war factory
    until the war was over.
    And then the American army came to England,
    and recruited people who knew German.
    And I did volunteer immediately.
    I had to pass quite a difficult test, and they accepted me.
    And I went with the American army to Germany.
    And I stayed.
    I was stationed in also American towns, and near Frankfurt,
    near Esslingen, near Munich in camps.
    I was in censorship division.
    And I had one dream I had for a long, long time.
    I wanted to go in American uniform to Vienna.
    It was so deep in me.
    I had to do it.
    I did not get permission to do it,
    because I was born in Austria.
    I was not permitted to go there.
    But I did go anyway.
    And I had an aunt and uncle.
    The uncle came out of camp.
    I don't know.
    He was not in camp anymore.
    This uncle and my aunt, they lived in Vienna.
    The one from Dachau?
    The one from Dachau.
    Survived?
    Survived.
    And I went to there.
    It was very funny.
    I did get to Vienna.
    And I went to their home.
    And somebody rang the bell and two American soldiers
    rang the bell, and my uncle called.
    They were startled to see me.
    I was officer's rank, and they couldn't
    understand how I was there.
    So I talked to them.
    I don't know what they wanted from my uncle.
    And then I went back.
    And on the train, I had a sleeper.
    And on the train back to Germany on the border,
    the Russians took me off the train,
    because I had no permission to be on that train.
    It was at the ends bridge.
    The bridge on one side was the Russians.
    On one side was the Americans.
    It was divided.
    And I was taken off the train.
    I was in pajamas.
    And I had to put something on.
    That was something I'll never forget.
    I knew one word of Croatian which means [NON-ENGLISH] it
    means in translation, I don't love you.
    And they burst out laughing.
    And they couldn't believe it.
    And I was very calm apparently.
    I was sick inside.
    But they took me to headquarters.
    And I don't know.
    Somehow when I said that, they all laughed
    and they said they took me.
    They walked me.
    The train had left across the bridge to the American sector.
    They walked me across the bridge.
    They handed me over to the American MPs.
    And then they looked at me.
    They were mad with me.
    I said, don't say anything until the Russians have gone.
    Actually, they were nicer to me.
    And the MPs, they were furious.
    They said, how could you go on that train without permission?
    And the train was there, and they said, well forget it.
    Get on the train.
    And the train left.
    The train had been waiting.
    It was a very, very bad experience for me.
    I made it, apparently being calm and laughing.
    But I was not that calm.
    And I thought I was going to have a court martial
    but somehow they forgot about that too.
    What happened when you got back to your unit?
    To Vienna?
    Well, to your unit?
    Well back to my unit?
    I don't know no.
    No, it wasn't reported.
    It wasn't reported.
    They didn't report it.
    I kind of-- I don't know I talked them out of it I think.
    It was not reported.
    And it was forgotten.
    How did you feel when you went into Vienna?
    I thought I would be deliriously happy to be there
    as an American officer.
    It wasn't quite as wonderful as I thought.
    I went to our old apartment, which we had.
    And I rang a bell.
    They wouldn't let me in, and they recognized me.
    I apparently looked very much like my mother at that time.
    I was about the age my mother was when I came back.
    They wouldn't let me in.
    And then suddenly, a door opened.
    An American officer came out.
    And he saw me and he said, what are you doing here?
    I said it used to be my apartment.
    So he said, well, come on in.
    So they were upset, the people.
    I didn't know why.
    But he asked me to come in.
    And I saw that all our furniture, everything was still
    there, which I told my uncle.
    And then he got it away from them later.
    I got some money for it.
    Who was living in your apartment?
    Some people who just took it, some Austrians.
    They took the apartment when nobody was there.
    Just--
    And they said nothing of use is here.
    And if the officer wouldn't have lived there,
    would have taken me in, and he said,
    just make yourself at home, which was strange, of course.
    So I did get some things back.
    I mean back, I got some money back.
    My uncle took them to court.
    That must have been '47 I think.
    And how did you find out your uncle had survived Dachau,
    and had gotten--
    Oh, we were-- I don't know how we got together.
    But we were in correspondence.
    And whilst I was in the army, he came to Salzburg with his wife
    once.
    And there I could go, somehow.
    I don't know.
    I was there.
    We met in Salzburg.
    Somebody gave me a ride.
    I always got a ride.
    I just thumbed my way through all of Germany
    when I was in uniform.
    And I was in Salzburg with them before I went to Vienna.
    I don't know that was American zone, so I could go there.
    Only I couldn't go through the Russian zone.
    And when you were in Vienna at that time,
    and did you find your uncle and aunt very easily?
    Yes.
    They were in the same place where they used to live.
    And of course, I pretended I spoke the language, of course.
    So I had no problem.
    I had no problem.
    Did you see any of your friends or acquaintances?
    Not at the time.
    But I have my aunt was a quite well-known pianist.
    Later, she played on the radio in Vienna.
    And my school friend saw her name and contacted her.
    And we got in touch later.
    And we are still friends.
    In fact, she has been calling me in Hawaii twice already.
    Is she a Jewish friend?
    No.
    But her father was a police president of Vienna.
    And they have lived underground for a long time.
    And after the Nazis left, he was put back
    into the same position.
    On that day, he had a heart attack and died.
    After he lived through all of the Nazis.
    She is not Jewish, but well definitely she
    was definitely no Nazi.
    And you're still friends?
    That's wonderful.
    Friends, yes.
    Yes.
    So did you feel uncomfortable at all
    about your uncle and aunt staying in Vienna
    after all of this happened?
    No.
    No.
    I didn't.
    It was different than I thought I would
    feel when I went to Vienna.
    As I say, I had dreams of walking in
    as an American officer.
    But it wasn't all that wonderful really.
    I don't know.
    Somehow, and I wanted it so much.
    No, my aunt and uncle seemed quite contented.
    So that also helped, of course.
    What was your feeling?
    Why did you want to walk in as an American officer?
    I felt that all what they have done, I wanted to--
    I don't know.
    I thought the Austrians have not behaved well.
    And I don't know.
    It was just something I had to do, I wanted to do.
    I wanted to prove that they were wrong,
    and I was there now in a different way.
    Did you go to Baden at all?
    Oh every time, whenever I go to Vienna,
    and oh, I have now in USA, I have worked for the airlines.
    So I have had no problem traveling.
    And I have been almost every year in Vienna.
    And I always go to Baden, because well, the people
    haven't been too bad to me there.
    And it is a beautiful town, a small spa.
    But it is lovely, and I just love the countryside.
    So I always go there for the day or usually just for the day.
    Well, let's get back to your being
    with the occupation forces in Germany.
    Yeah.
    Could you tell us a little bit about your experiences there?
    Well, first of all, we lived in a compound.
    And it was kind of strange.
    You couldn't really, we are not supposed
    to go outside the compound.
    We lived inside.
    But I was very spoiled there, because I had officers rank.
    And I had a personal maid.
    I had my own room there.
    And when I walked in, I don't think she cared for me much.
    Of course, she was German.
    But I walked in, and she put water in my bathtub.
    And I just threw my clothes around, and she would wash it.
    And when I left the army, it was hard afterwards.
    What was your feeling toward the German maid?
    I disliked everybody in Germany.
    But I couldn't-- I'm sure she disliked me too.
    But there was nothing.
    We just were polite.
    That was it, just polite to each other.
    Did you have much contact with the German populace
    when you were there?
    No, not at all, not at all.
    The strange thing was that one of my colleagues,
    they had Danish people there, quite a few Danish people.
    She was a descendant of Goethe.
    And her family lived in Germany, and just
    about outside the compound.
    And she got there a few times, a great aunt.
    It was several generations back.
    But we were great friends.
    And so I did meet her family.
    That was very strange.
    And it was just outside.
    I don't know how we got in and out.
    I can't remember that.
    But we did visit.
    And that was near Frankfurt?
    That was near Frankfurt.
    Did you get to Dachau or to Bergen-Belsen, any of the--
    Yeah, I did.
    I went with a girlfriend.
    We hitchhiked.
    We always hitchhiked.
    That was the thing to do.
    We hitchhiked and we got to Dachau fairly late
    in the evening.
    And they told us that the people who were in Dachau, and also
    guards, but then it gets dark.
    They just shoot at people who walk around.
    But I don't know.
    It was a strange feeling.
    They were very grim people.
    But we insisted on going in, and we walked.
    We didn't talk.
    It was the strangest feeling ever.
    I don't know.
    We walked through Dachau, and without talking.
    We were there about an hour and a half.
    And I don't think we talked for an hour afterwards either.
    I know my uncle was there, and my cousin was there.
    And I don't know.
    That was a friend of mine, she now lives in Los Angeles,
    we still sometimes talk about it.
    But it was very strange.
    This is the friend who went into Dachau with you?
    Yeah.
    She was Jewish also?
    Yes, yes.
    From Vienna, Jewish, and we were in the army together.
    There were several.
    In fact, there were quite a few people from Vienna.
    That were in the American army?
    Yes.
    Did you go to any other camps at all?
    No.
    That was the only one.
    How far were you from Dachau from where the compound was?
    I can't remember.
    I don't remember that.
    But quite a distance and we would hitchhike.
    It was quite a trip.
    We never had problems.
    We always got rides.
    Did your uncle tell you anything about his experiences
    in Dachau?
    No. no.
    He never talked about it.
    No.
    Never talked about it?
    Never talked about it, no.
    You never talked about with your uncle about--
    No.
    It was just forgotten.
    In fact, I have talked very little about anything
    until now.
    Just cut it out of my life somehow.
    I don't know.
    You didn't talk with any of your friends or--
    No.
    Any of your other relatives?
    He wants--
    Is it time?
    No you have about another minute and a half.
    Do you have--
    She wants [? outside. ?]
    Did you talk with any of your friends or any--
    Not too much, we didn't.
    No.
    No.
    We never talked too much about any of the experiences.
    When you met with your friends in the American army who
    were also Jewish from Vienna, did you discuss any--
    No.
    We lived for the moment at the time in the army.
    When we went to Dachau, but even then
    we didn't discuss too many past things.
    We didn't.
    And did your friend's parents survive, do you know,
    your girlfriend that you went to Dachau with?
    Her father survived.
    Yes, and I don't know.
    I think he was in camp, and came out of it.
    I see.
    And did anyone in the American army when you were there
    talk about the concentration camps
    or was there any discussion that you can remember?
    Well, yes.
    We did talk, of course, all the Germans at the time
    said nobody ever knew anything about anything.
    And we did talk.
    We said it is ridiculous that they didn't know.
    I mean we kept on talking about that.
    And I didn't want to have anything to do with Germans.
    Because I was sure that they knew about it,
    and they always would deny it, of course.
    When you went into Dachau, what did you see there?
    It wasn't too much to be seen anymore, really.
    It was just we walked through.
    And I don't even remember what we saw.
    It was just it was an eerie feeling.
    It was evening.
    It was dusk.
    And we were just I can't say exactly what it was.
    It was just strange.
    [AUDIO OUT]
    I think I was too serious.
    I usually smile and that is not me.
    I haven't smiled the whole time.
    See, now you're getting-- just now
    we're getting to smile a lot.
    I wanted to talk a little bit about if you want to finish up
    with your experiences in the American occupation
    army in Germany, anything else you can remember,
    anything specific?
    Well, I can only tell you one thing.
    I had a wonderful time there.
    And I don't know.
    I sent letters.
    And that was, of course, very strange also,
    to read also mail.
    That was one.
    I was for two years.
    And I can't--
    I was young and I had a lot of fun.
    And it was great.
    We had I had officer's rank.
    We had wonderful food.
    We had for the first time in my life, I saw Bob hope.
    I'll never forget it.
    We had all the shows there.
    There was constant entertainment.
    Anywhere we went we had rest homes.
    I skied a lot.
    I was horseback riding, whenever I had.
    We had a train I know this is--
    that's just what we did.
    Was there any reaction to your being Jewish
    at that time in Germany?
    Oh, no.
    Well, I didn't talk to the people.
    And in the army, of course, no.
    I didn't talk to German people.
    And the Americans?
    No, no.
    There were so many Jewish people in that army.
    I don't know.
    No, the army, the officers they weren't Jewish, no, no.
    And how did you come to the United States?
    I had applied a long time ago.
    You have to have an affidavit to come here.
    I had become a British citizen.
    And I forgot about that I requested to come here,
    as a matter of fact.
    And suddenly my affidavit came up.
    And I was quite happy in England.
    And I have a cousin here, a second cousin,
    but we were very close because we had very little family.
    I mean that was the family.
    And he said you of all people who
    likes traveling why on Earth don't you come and find out
    how you like it.
    That appealed to me.
    I worked at the time in a travel agency in London already.
    It was very hard to get here, because you
    couldn't get passage.
    It was in '52.
    It was still very difficult.
    You got out of the American army in what year '48.
    And from '48 to '52, I worked, that's another story.
    But that's too long.
    Somebody suggested I should work in a travel agency,
    because I love traveling.
    I worked in London in a travel agency.
    I took people to Austria at the time as a tour guide.
    How did you feel about that?
    The country is beautiful, and I love skiing.
    So I took people skiing, English and American people,
    I took them skiing to the mountains in Austria.
    Did you talk about your experiences
    as a child in Vienna?
    Not too much, no.
    Well they knew I was born there, but no.
    I was with them, and I seldom.
    Of course I did speak German, and I did talk to local people
    sometimes.
    But no.
    Did the Americans that you took there
    know that you were Jewish?
    Oh, yes, of course.
    Yes.
    Yes, everybody.
    Whenever they wanted to know, I told them, yes, surely.
    And so I did.
    I did come.
    Yes, and so I said, OK.
    I worked in the travel agency.
    Nobody could get a passage.
    And I got three offers because I knew all the people for a ship
    to come over.
    So I said, all right.
    I came with The Liberte.
    I booked my own passage.
    I booked everything.
    And so I came here for one year, just for one year
    to try it out.
    And I wasn't too happy in the beginning.
    It took a while.
    I soon got a job with American Express,
    pretty soon because I had some experience.
    And soon afterwards, I got a job with Sabena Airlines.
    This is in New York?
    In New York.
    And I have been working with Sabena for 30 years
    until my retirement.
    I took tours.
    I've been all over the world several times.
    I have been everywhere.
    I don't think there are many places I haven't been to.
    And I stayed on.
    I stayed on.
    I came for a year and I stayed on.
    And of course, I have been to Hawaii quite a few times.
    In fact, I thought I would come to Hawaii.
    I never stopped in Hawaii on my way to the Orient.
    Whilst I worked with Sabena, twice a year I
    got a free ticket anywhere in the world I wanted to go.
    So I figured I'd go as far as possible.
    And I went through Hawaii a few times.
    And then suddenly I thought, well, I went everywhere.
    And I liked the climate here.
    I like mountains still.
    My love for mountains from Austria is in me.
    And I love the ocean.
    I love swimming.
    And I like the climate, so I decided that was the place
    to retire to.
    I came several times since the last few years,
    until I decided this is it.
    And I'm here now, not too long.
    But I'm here.
    And I like it.
    I'm happy.
    And do you do you go to the Austrian club festivity
    activities at all in Hawaii?
    I didn't even know it existed.
    Yeah, there's an Austrian club here.
    Actually, some of the Jewish people do go on.
    I met two or three, but I haven't--
    I came here for good.
    And I was introduced to Oceanic Cablevision
    and that was interesting to me, and I didn't try anything else.
    I was studying for it.
    And I really didn't want to do anything.
    And I had to find a place to stay.
    Well, I have a few other questions
    that we wanted to ask.
    Have you been receiving any restitution from Germany?
    Yes.
    Not actually restitution.
    I get money for having worked.
    I worked for about four months there.
    That's all.
    But it was a--
    I don't know.
    They had me on an interrupted work.
    So I get like a Social Security.
    And what about from Austria?
    That is from Austria.
    Oh, from Austria.
    And has there been any reparations or anything
    for what was taken?
    No.
    No.
    Oh yes, that was a long time ago for the furniture.
    I got money.
    It was just enough I took a trip to Capri
    and spent it in one month.
    That was me.
    What about the house in Baden?
    I don't know.
    It was supposed to be--
    I don't know.
    The Russians were there afterwards.
    So I don't know what happened.
    I was not there.
    I could have claimed it.
    And I didn't, and I don't know what happened.
    OK.
    Have you experienced any antisemitism
    since the Nazi experience at all during World War II?
    In Austria?
    Anywhere?
    No.
    Personally I have not felt it too much, no.
    I have never felt it too much.
    And if it ever came up, I was fighting for it.
    I would never underline that I'm Jewish.
    And maybe because I don't look particularly Jewish,
    I did not have any problems.
    And if it came up, then I would tell them
    what I thought of everybody, and I would go into an argument.
    But only if it came up, I wouldn't start it.
    What about in Austria?
    Have you ever--
    Now?
    Yes.
    I have a lot of friends there, quite a lot of friends.
    I've met some other school friends and half Jewish people
    I met.
    And the rest of the people I haven't talked to.
    I don't know.
    In Austria?
    Yeah.
    My cousin, of course they lived there
    and they are quite contented and so I stayed with them.
    I don't meet the people.
    And is there anything that I know you have no children.
    But is there anything that you feel
    we should tell the American people about the experiences?
    Yes, just to tell them that it existed.
    That we suffered.
    That everybody suffered, and that they should believe it,
    and not think it isn't true.
    Because I've heard again and again that it is all
    talked about.
    What have you heard?
    Oh, that there were no concentration camps.
    People didn't suffer.
    Who told you that.
    I heard it, now just on television,
    and sometimes people say it.
    Oh, not true.
    I want them to know that it is true.
    That is all.
    Did you hear this in Austria at all?
    Did people say in Austria and Germany that it was not?
    No.
    But I have a friend.
    She is half Jewish.
    In fact, we lived in the same house in Vienna.
    And she came here.
    And after the war, she took an apartment
    in Vienna, a condominium.
    She lives half the time in New York, half the time in Vienna.
    And she said recently, especially because of war time,
    she goes there quite often.
    She feels very uncomfortable.
    I stayed with her when she's in.
    She stays a few months in Austria,
    a few months in New York.
    And she says recently she feels very uncomfortable.
    Why is that?
    Since Waldheim there.
    Since Waldheim, here so people don't know that much about it.
    But Waldheim maintained that he never has been a Nazi.
    He is now the president in Vienna.
    And there's a lot of friction now.
    I understand that there is again antisemitism.
    And my girlfriend said she feels uncomfortable.
    I have been there one month last year
    and a few times I thought it wasn't too good,
    but then I haven't talked to too many people.
    She's not happy now.
    And she said she can finally understand
    why I'm not happy here now when I stayed with her.
    Anything else you'd like to tell us before we turn off?
    Nothing special, except that people
    should believe it existed, all existed and is true.
    Thank you very much, Louise.

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Louise Spitzer, born December 6, 1916, in Vienna, Austria, describes her parents and childhood; going to Brussels, Belgium to perfect her French and graduating from hotel management school in 1938; life in Vienna and the intermingling of Jews and the Christians; how she had no antisemitic experiences in her childhood; wearing a three arrows patch to present herself as socialist in protest of Nazism; the death of her father; having boarders in their home beginning in 1938; being picked up by the Nazis to clean the synagogue; how the Nazis took all their linens and silverware, she went to the Nazi headquarters to demand it back, and they gave it back; going to work as a servant and later a nanny for a family in London, England; leaving on November 10, 1938; the deportation of her uncle to Dachau and the death of her mother in 1939; being beaten at the German border; staying with the English family’s children in Wales when the war broke out; returning to London to work in a secret factory until the end of the war; volunteering to help the Americans because she spoke German and being stationed in Germany in the censorship division; visiting her aunt and uncle in Vienna after they were released from Dachau; her interactions with the Russians upon her return to Germany; applying to go to the United States after she received British citizenship; leaving the army in 1948 and immigrating to the U.S.; working for American Express and Sabena; receiving some money from the Austrian government for confiscated belongings; and her views on antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
    Interviewee
    Louise Spitzer
    Interviewer
    Judy Weightman
    Date
    interview:  1988 June 02
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, acquired from the Hawaii Holocaust Project

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    1 videocassette (U-Matic) : sound, color ; 3/4 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. See collections release form for details regarding restrictions.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Spitzer, Louise, 1916-
    Corporate Name
    United States. Army

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Provenance
    Judy Weightman, of the Hawaii Holocaust Project, conducted the interview with Louise Spitzer on June 2, 1988 as part of a project to interview Holocaust survivors and concentration camp liberators currently living in Hawaii. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received a copy of the interview in March 1990.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:10:21
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn511109

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    Date: 1987-1991

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    Oral history interview with Stanley Akita

    Oral History

    Stanley Akita, born in 1923 in Hawaii, going to Honolulu to vocational school; how he volunteered for the 442nd; going to training at Camp Shelby; being picked to join the 100th and being sent to Southern France; being captured by Germans and asked why a Japanese man was fighting with the Americans; being sent to Koma, Strassburg, Stuttgard, and the prison, Starlite 70; being forced to clean the streets of Munich; bribing guards for food with cigarettes; being liberated by American troops; and being taken to Königsberg, Germany (Kaliningrad, Russia) then France and Boston.

    442nd Banquet

    442nd Banquet

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Tana Basa

    Oral history interview with Tana Basa

    Oral History

    Tana Basa (née Hecht), born April 18, 1940 in Berlin, Germany, shows pictures of her family from before the war. She discusses her father’s role as a cantor during WWI; how her first memory was of Theresienstadt; staying in the camp until the end of the war in a single room; having all her hair cut; being hungry a lot; having her leg in traction; her mother’s death; how two of her sisters went to Auschwitz and one sister went to Bergen-Belsen; how her father hid her under the tub when the guards came for her; how her father got a Jewish doctor to take her to a tuberculosis sanatorium, where she stayed until they were liberated; how she reunited with her two sisters, who went to Bergen-Belsen; the death of her aunt and uncle; being in a displaced persons camp; how her father remarried and she and one of her sisters were put in a German Jewish orphanage, where she stayed for five years until her father took her back; and immigrating to the United States with her father when she was 11 years old.

    Oral history interview with Carla Chotzen

    Oral history interview with Carla Chotzen

    Oral History

    Carla Chotzen, born in Weimar, Germany in 1924, describes her family; going to England; moving to Berlin, Germany in 1935; going to school in Berlin and getting kicked out soon after; going to a Jewish school and then Switzerland; how her father had read Mein Kampf and knew that they would have to leave Germany; how her father left them in Switzerland and met her mother in Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic); immigrating to the United States when she was 11 and stayed with her grandparents in Buffalo, NY while her parents were in England; going to the University of Rochester; and working for the American Jewish Committee in New York; the fate of her extended family.

    Oral history interview with Walter Chotzen

    Oral history interview with Walter Chotzen

    Oral History

    Walter Chotzen, born May 17, 1911 in Ziegenhalt, Germany (Glucholazy, Poland), describes the small town where he was born; attending the University of Berlin and quitting after a few semesters; working for a manufacturing business, where he was fired once Hitler came to power; working for his father; being socially shunned for being Jewish; being called up by the draft board; smuggling money past the border into Czechoslovakia and being questioned by the Gestapo about this activity; how his father sold his factory in 1938; going to Holland; how his parents hid in Berlin for a year then fled to Sweden; how he lived in Seattle during this time; his family history; his education in Germany; the antisemitism before the war; his experiences in Berlin between 1933 and 1935; going to a Nazi Party parade on Unter der Linden; the fate of his extended family; how he became socialist as Hitler became stronger; his thoughts on the internment camps in the U.S. for Japanese Americans; and his thoughts on the liberation of Dachau by Japanese-American troops.

    Crystal Night oral history interview

    Crystal Night oral history interview

    Oral History

    Five individuals who lived in Germany and Austria before, during, or after Kristallnacht discuss their experiences. The interviewees describe the Nazi Party in Austria; growing up in Berlin, Germany and being persecuted for being Jewish; life in Frankfurt, Germany, where there were boycotts against Jewish stores; a parade of storm troopers (Sturmabteilung); a torchlight parade in 1933 on Under Der Linden in Berlin where 100,000 storm troopers marched singing; how the Nazis took most of their possessions; seeing a synagogue burning in Austria during Kristallnacht; how they all left Europe; and their thoughts on preventing the Holocaust from happening again.

    Oral history interview with Anne Flagg

    Oral history interview with Anne Flagg

    Oral History

    Anne Flagg (née Flagenheimer), born September 17, 1910 in Germany, describes how Hitler invaded the Rhineland when her children were infants; her father’s factory; how Jews were forbidden from going to concerts or to the opera; how the synagogue was burned during Kristallnacht; how the Nazis destroyed their house and the French governess saved her husband; the first pogrom in 1934; how some of her relatives got out of Germany; how she went to their summer home in February 1938; how she went to Stuttgart to get visas and how they did not have passports; finally getting passports; how the train she was on to Holland, the Netherlands was searched by the Gestapo and they stole her watch; meeting her husband in Holland; taking a ship to the United States; how her parents got out soon after; how the maid saved their silver and the bookkeeper took accounts receivable and buried it and collected for her parents for later; how her friend rescued many Jews by posing as a Nazi; visiting Germany in 1952; life after WWI; how the Nazis stole their possessions; the fates of her aunts and uncles; and how she believes the Holocaust could happen again.

    Oral history interview with Royce Higa

    Oral history interview with Royce Higa

    Oral History

    Royce Higa, born in 1920 in Honolulu, Hawaii, describes leaving school early to work; working as a dishwasher in Okinawa, Japan; being Japanese and the difference between Akin and Japanese; organizing a labor movement at age 16; graduating from the University of Michigan; becoming the director of a tuberculosis organization; joining the army in 1945; his brother’s death in Italy; training at Camp Shelby; getting the measles and suffering depression; going to Germany where he was a forward observer; crossing the Rhine River and not meeting any resistance; seeing a death march from Dachau and how they did not know at the time that they were Jewish prisoners; going to Augsburg, Germany; meeting a Lithuanian Jew and helping him find his family; getting his master’s degree in public health after the war; his life in politics; seeing the attack on Pearl Harbor, which were close to his home; and the Japanese who were loaded on to ships and taken to the mainland.

    Oral history interview with Fred Hirayama

    Oral history interview with Fred Hirayama

    Oral History

    Fred Hirayama, born in Hawaii, describes living on a plantation; volunteering for the army; the discrimination his brother experienced as a Japanese American; how his parents were proud of him for serving; how no one in his family was sent to a relocation center; going to Camp Shelby and never experiencing any discrimination; serving in the 522nd in France and Germany; his experiences with the concentration camps; going to Dachau where he saw the atrocities, gas chambers, and the inmates; returning to Germany in 1984; his memories of the Pearl Harbor attack; and some pictures he has of the state of Texas honoring the 442nd regiment.

    Oral history interview with Hazel Ishii

    Oral history interview with Hazel Ishii

    Oral History

    Hazel Ishii, born December 15, 1917, describes her Japanese parents and how she identifies as American; being in Maui, Hawaii during the attack on Pear Harbor; not having experienced any prejudice; how conditions changed for Japanese Americans after the war; a friend’s experience in a Japanese American internment camp; her daughter’s pursuit of archeology and Hebrew studies; and her family’s efforts to remember the Holocaust.

    Oral history interview with Susumu Ishii

    Oral history interview with Susumu Ishii

    Oral History

    Susumu Ishii, born on January 2, 1918 in Hawaii, describes being a second generation Japanese American; being 24 years old when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred; being drafted a few months before the Pearl Harbor attack; how the commander told the Japanese Americans that they could not be trusted; how he identified as an American; attending a Japanese school; training at Camp Shelby and in Wisconsin; visiting a friend at a Japanese American relocation camp and his view on the camps; not experiencing any discrimination when he was in Mississippi but witnessing discrimination against black Americans; attending annual Holocaust memorial services; his daughter’s pursuit of Hebrew studies; and his view that those who were relocated to camps in the U.S. should be compensated.

    Oral history interview with Stanley Kaneshiro

    Oral history interview with Stanley Kaneshiro

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Richard Kuba

    Oral history interview with Richard Kuba

    Oral History

    Richard Kuba, born in March 1921 in Kailua, Hawaii, describes being a first generation Japanese American; living in Kailua when Pearl Harbor was attacked; volunteering to serve in March 1943; his non-Japanese friends and their views of the Japanese; how he heard nothing against Americans in the Japanese community; being stationed at Fort Shelby (probably Camp Shelby) in the infantry; being a radio operator when he went overseas; being in combat; feeling like his battalion was treated differently because they were Japanese Americans; his views on Hitler; how he did not know anything about the concentration camps other than what he read in the papers; and his first contact with the liberated prisoners.

    Oral history interview with Borys Kusne

    Oral history interview with Borys Kusne

    Oral History

    Borys Kusne, born in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania on August 17, 1918, describes growing up in a middle class Jewish family; the antisemitism in Vilnius; being the only Jew at his college in 1938; being inducted into the Polish army in 1939; how both the Russians and Germans were taking Polish prisoners of war; walking back home; the Nazi invasion in 1941; the new rules established for Jews; working at the railroad then moving to the ghetto and working in a hospital; being in the ghetto until 1942, when he was deported to Estonia to a liquidation camp; never seeing his mother again; conditions in the camp; and marching all night and leaving the group for the forest.

    Oral history interview with Hedy Marmorstein

    Oral history interview with Hedy Marmorstein

    Oral History

    Hedy Marmorstein, born in Vienna, Austria November 18, 1921, describes her parents; going to school until she was 16; finishing high school in New York; leaving Vienna in December 1938; her Jewish education; how they accepted antisemitism as a part of life; experiencing antisemitism in school and protesting; her non-Jewish friends; being sponsored by her father’s nephew to come to the United States; corresponding with her parents until the attack on Pearl Harbor; learning later that her parents were deported to Riga, Latvia (Kaiserwald concentration camp); how when she arrived in the U.S., Americans did not realize how sinister Hitler was; her experiences during Kristallnacht; antisemitism in the U.S.; how her experiences have affected her life; living in Hawaii versus New York; her views on the internment of Japanese Americans; how when she left Austria some of her possessions were destroyed and strip-searched in France; returning to Austria in 1959; and being in an Austrian club.

    Oral history interview with Katsugo Miho

    Oral history interview with Katsugo Miho

    Oral History

    Katsugo Miho, born in Maui, Hawaii, describes his Japanese parents; graduating high school in 1940 and beginning his university studies in 1941; being a member of the ROTC; volunteering for the army on December 7, 1941; being part of the Hawaiian Territorial Guard; how they were gathered in a school one morning and told that all Japanese Americans would be discharged because an American officer did not like the idea of Japanese Americans serving for the U.S. Army; working as a carpenter’s helper at the airfield; volunteering for the army in 1943 with his brother; going to Schofield and Camp Shelby; being in the artillery while his brother was in the medical section; how his father was picked up as an enemy alien in 1941, taken to a prison, then shipped to Sand Island, Honolulu, and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Alabama; the death of his brother in a bus accident when he visited their father; training until April 1944; visiting camps (possibly Japanese American internment camps); going to France and losing many men while trying to rescue a lost battalion from Texas; joining with the 7th Army and the 3rd Army; fighting battles in the German cities of Mannheim, Frankfurt, and Heidelberg; seeing civilians with yellow stars on their clothes in Aachen, Germany; and witnessing a death march from Dachau and not knowing at the time that they were Jewish prisoners.

    Oral history interview with Yuzuru Morita

    Oral history interview with Yuzuru Morita

    Oral History

    Yuzuru Morita, born in Hawaii on May 8, 1917, describes his Japanese American parents; being age 24 and in the army when Pearl Harbor was attacked; working on a sugar plantation and factory, where there were Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese, Korean, and Chinese men working together; being assigned to the 395th Battalion at Diamond Head; handling all the outgoing military goods for the army; being at home during the attack on Pearl Harbor and having to get back to the base; his response to seeing Japanese flags on the attacking airplanes; staying in the army throughout the war and becoming a sergeant; how both of his brothers entered the army when the 442nd was formed; going to Camp Shelby; not encountering any racial prejudice, but how Japanese-American soldiers had their allegiance continually doubted; his daily duties in the camp; becoming part of the 527th Artillery; how his brothers also fought and survived the war; how his parents were proud of them for fighting; going to Germany and Italy; how German soldiers surrendered to them; seeing Jewish prisoners for the first time at Dachau and how he did not even know it was called Dachau until 1988 because no one ever talked about it; going to Bavaria, Germany after the war, where they remained as occupational troops; how his service in the army was appreciated by people when he returned to the U.S. and how he did not experience any racial prejudice; and his outlook on life.

    Oral history interview with Neil Nagareda

    Oral history interview with Neil Nagareda

    Oral History

    Neil Nagareda, born May 2, 1924 on Hawaii Island, Hawaii, describes living on a plantation with a mixture of Filipino, Portuguese, Japanese, and Spanish families; how there were no anti-Japanese feelings; hearing that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor; how his parents were from Hiroshima , Japan; joining the army in 1943; being trained at Camp Shelby; how he was supposed to go to Camp Jerome but missed going; how his unit went to Europe; having no idea about the concentration camps when they came across Dachau; the conditions of the Jewish inmates; meeting up with the 522nd; how there were no orders as to what they should do at the camp nor with the prisoners; being a communications unit; leaving Germany in December 1945; the racism he experienced in Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg, MS, and New York; not talking very much about his war experiences; and his advice to his children.

    Oral history interview with Barton Nagata

    Oral history interview with Barton Nagata

    Oral History

    Barton Nagata, born in Maui, Hawaii, describes his family; going to Grinnell College in Iowa; being drafted in 1942 and sent to Arkansas for basic training; asking to be transferred to the 442nd Battalion; being sent to Camp Shelby attached to the headquarters battery as a clerk; working in radio and in the foreign observatory team; seeing some action in Italy with the infantry; being Colonel Harrington's radio operator; his education at Grinnell College, where he did not experience any discrimination; being on guard duty when he was not needed as a radio operator on the Riviera in France; being detached from his unit and made a MP, guarding German prisoners and AWOL American prisoners near Nice, France; liberating French prisoners in Germany; seeing a death march near Munich, Germany, not realizing the prisoners were Jews, and giving them some food; going to Dachau; speaking about his experiences when he was a high school history teacher; the importance of education to prevent racism; being an active protestant; going to a British university; and telling his children about his experiences.

    Oral history interview with Armin Nagel

    Oral history interview with Armin Nagel

    Oral History

    Armin Nagel, born June 1920 in Breznov (possibly Brașov), Romania, describes his early life; learning Hungarian and attending Hebrew school; moving near the border of Romania; moving to Bucharest, Romania with his siblings; finishing high school in 1938; working as a photographer; working as a dentist’s assistant until 1940; how the Romanian Nazis became active in 1939; how his brother, who was a printer, secretly printed material against the Nazis; being mistaken as his brother and taken to a train to go to a concentration camp; going with 2,000 other Jews and non-Jews to Terazu, a work camp; conditions in the camp and making teeth out of bones to aid eating; how in 1942 all the Jews in the camp were taken to Varnecka (possibly Varnikai, Lithuania); learning later that experiments were being conducted at the camp, where prisoners were given poison in the food; how, as a dental assistant, he was able to smuggle medicines to the prisoners; being able to survive because he ate with the dentist; being in the camp from May 1941 to August 1944; being taken to another camp in Groslovo (Velyka Mykhaĭlivka, Ukraine), where he worked as a dental assistant for one year; walking 80 miles towards Romania and ending up in Tagena; how his brothers survived and went to Israel; joining his mother in Bucharest, where he worked and went to school for engineering; immigrating eventually to the United States and settling in Honolulu, Hawaii; and the number of Jewish Romanians who left for Israel.

    Oral history interview with Hideo Nakamine

    Oral history interview with Hideo Nakamine

    Oral History

    Hideo Nakamine, born in Paauilo, Hawaii and raised in Honokaa, HI, describes being in Honolulu, HI with his brother when Pearl Harbor was attacked; enlisting and joining the 442nd; going to Camp Shelby for training; being put into the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion; fighting in Italy and France and going into Germany at the end of the war; how the first camp he saw was in Bad Tölz, Germany; seeing approximately 5,000 prisoners being marched away from Dachau and how the German soldiers scattered when they saw the U.S. troops; how some of the soldiers gave food to the prisoners and how they had been ordered not to give food to anyone because they needed their rations; going through other German death camp areas in Horgau, Augsburg, and Munich; visiting the museum at Dachau during the 40th reunion; going to a gathering of Holocaust survivors in Philadelphia, PA in 1985; how his parents had been driven off the plantation where they worked for being of Japanese descent; and his views on freedom and prejudice.

    Oral history interview with Joseph Obayashi

    Oral history interview with Joseph Obayashi

    Oral History

    Joseph Obayashi, born on April 18, 1924 in Maui, Hawaii, describes growing up in a community called Whalo; how his father grew pineapples; how he felt that Japanese Americans were not discriminated against even after the attack on Pearl Harbor; enlisting into the 442nd; how he trusted the U.S. government when they relocated Japanese Americans to camps; training at Camp Shelby; being in the 3rd and 5th Divisions during the war; being shot down when he was in the 3rd Division; the captain of the 442nd, Captain Fiberman, and his squadron commander, James Harrison; landing in Italy in 1944; how his job was to carry a radio on his back to help with the intelligence of the 1st Division; how the 442nd and 100th (rifle company) never drew back; going through France then Germany; hearing rumors about the concentration camps; seeing a concentration camp and prisoners eating a dead horse; meeting former inmates in Germany in 1984; encountering inmates in other areas of Germany in 1945; and his outlook on life.

    Oral history interview with Otto Orenstein

    Oral history interview with Otto Orenstein

    Oral History

    Otto Orenstein, born in Vienna, Austria on July 16, 1921, describes his parents and their ancestry; his education in Vienna; not experiencing any antisemitism when he was young; how his family observed some holidays but was not very religious; leaving Vienna on December 28, 1938 for Cologne, Germany; making it across the Belgian border; how some Belgian farmers smuggled them to Brussels, Belgium and gave them money for railroad tickets; arriving in Antwerp, Belgium, where a relative lived; getting a visa to the United States, and arriving in the U.S. in April 1940; how the rest of his immediate family arrived in the following few months; how in July 1927 there had been riots at the Ministry Building in Vienna; his memories of political events and backlashes in 1932, 1934, and 1938; being a member of the Austrian boy scouts and being kicked out for being Jewish; his memories of the Anschluss and seeing Himmler and Goering; conditions during the Nazi occupation; getting kicked out of the apartment where his family had lived for 30 years and going to live with his grandmother; how his uncle committed suicide; getting rounded up with other Jews on November 11, 1938 and taken to an SS barracks; seeing a Portuguese temple burning; how he was let go because he was only 17 years old; his journey to Antwerp and his difficulty crossing the border; going to a detention camp in Belgium September 1939 until his visa came in March 1940; how his parents left from Norway; going to Honolulu with his family in July 1940 and how his parents had brought artifacts from Norway and were featured on the front page of the Honolulu Advertiser on July 16, 1940; how when he first arrived in New York he stayed at Stephen Weiss’s house, which was a temporary shelter for refugees; how his family was interned on Sand Island, HI as enemy aliens; how his mother ended up being the leader of the women’s side of the camp; the things he brought with him (birth certificate, train ticket from Brussels to Antwerp, student card, and passport); how he has talked to his family about his experiences; not experiencing any antisemitism in Honolulu; and some of his memories from 1938. The interviewee also shows a picture of his birth certificate and his student card.

    Oral history interview with members of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion

    Oral history interview with members of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion

    Oral History

    Members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion discuss their experiences as Japanese Americans when Pearl Harbor was attacked; deciding to join the army; the anti-Japanese sentiment in the press and the reactions of their peers; being evacuated from the west coast and waiting for Japanese American detainment camps to be built; people they knew whom were detained; the experiences of their families before the war; how many of their possessions were taken by the federal government; training at Camp Shelby; the status of family members as enemy aliens; Holocaust denial and Holocaust education; going to the military camp in Arkansas (possibly Camp Jerome); the confiscation of their diaries; their views on reparations for the Americans who were detained during WWII; their activities on the Western Front, including the detachment of the 522nd, how the artillery was often ahead of the infantry, and going through many towns; arriving at Dachau; seeing the prisoners and Reverend Martin Niemöller; not staying long at the camp; being ordered not to feed the camp survivors because they could not eat the food; passing a camp outside of Munich, Germany while they were scouting; seeing two dead horses and later seeing a group of prisoners gathered around eating them; feeding the survivors at their camp and speaking to some of them; seeing the gas chambers, crematoriums, and shooting sites at the camp; going to the displaced person camps and attending a wedding at one of them; going to a survivors' meeting in Philadelphia, PA; the irony of being a persecuted minority in America then helping a minority during the war; and the presence of prejudice organizations in the U.S.

    Panel discussion with Holocaust survivors and members of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion

    Panel discussion with Holocaust survivors and members of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion

    Oral History

    Holocaust survivors and members of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion discuss the internment of enemy aliens in the United States after the Pearl Harbor attack; learning about the concentration camps in Europe; the experience of being a Japanese American after the bombing of Pearl Harbor; the experiences of Sarah Rozenberg, who lived in the Warsaw ghetto, was sent to the Majdanek concentration camp on April 23, 1943, worked in the ammunition factory, and was liberated by the Russian Army on January 15, 1945; Rozenberg’s experiences with the Germans and the brutality of the Jewish police as well as the underground activities in the Warsaw ghetto; and Holocaust education.

    Jewish/552nd Panel

    Jewish/552nd Panel

    Oral History

    Punchbowl Memorial

    Punchbowl Memorial

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sarah Rozenberg

    Oral history interview with Sarah Rozenberg

    Oral History

    Yom HaShoah

    Yom HaShoah

    Oral History

    The recording includes a service for Yom HaShoah during which Mayor Frank Fasi of Honolulu, HI; Chuck Freedman, director of communications in the office of the Hawaiian governor; Jacob Liebermann of the Jewish Federation of Honolulu; Gerald Clay, president of the Jewish Federation of Honolulu; and Judy Weightman honor the millions of Jews who died in the Holocaust and thank those who helped save Jews and work to fight present-day Holocaust denial. The recording also includes a musical performance.

    Oral history interview with Gerda Samuel

    Oral history interview with Gerda Samuel

    Oral History

    Gerda Samuel, born in Hamburg, Germany in 1921, describes her father, who was a printer; attending a Jewish school for girls in 1931; how her father was taken by the SS in 1934 and she never saw him again; being sent to the ghetto; conditions in the ghetto; being sent to England in 1938; being adopted by a Jewish family in Belfast, Northern Ireland; never seeing her mother or aunt again; being raped by the son of her adopted family; joining the British Army in 1941; not hearing about the concentration camps until after the war; going to London, England to work as a waitress after she left the army; moving to Singapore in 1948; immigrating to the United States in 1952; her conversion to Catholicism; antisemitism in Hawaii; and her memories of the Depression.

    Oral history interview with John Sato

    Oral history interview with John Sato

    Oral History

    John Sato, born in the state of Washington in 1921, describes experiencing some discrimination as Japanese American when he went to a university in 1939; how his family was evacuated from their farm; living in the Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho; conditions in the camp; volunteering for the army; going to Camp Shelby; being in the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion; joining the air force intelligence; visiting his family in the camp; being transferred to the Hawaii Air Force Base for nine months; being sent to Guam; going on a bomb trip to Japan with scientists; and his life after the war.

    Oral history interview with Rudolf Schmerl

    Oral history interview with Rudolf Schmerl

    Oral History

    Rudolf Schmerl, born in August 1930 outside of Berlin, Germany, describes his family; moving to Berlin in 1935; his family history; experiencing antisemitism as a child from his peers; his view of Germans; wanting to leave Germany and having difficulty; how Germany defined his family as stateless; how his father went to the United States in1938 to work as a doctor; going with his mother and grandmother on a train illegally to Czechoslovakia; being beaten at his new school; going to Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) on August 31, 1938; getting measles on the ship heading to the United States; being detained on Ellis Island; living in Harlem, NY; how his grandmother never became a U.S. citizen; leaving New York in 1941 for Louisiana; seeing racism in New Orleans; moving to Toledo, OH, and seeing the segregation; the fates of his relatives in Germany; and the lessons of the Holocaust.

    Oral history interview with Jedidah Shashai

    Oral history interview with Jedidah Shashai

    Oral History

    Jedidah Shashai, born in Vienna, Austria on May 19, 1924, describes growing up in poverty in Vienna; having no Jewish school education; experiencing antisemitism; her father’s death when she was 12 years old; how the Nazis took many of their possessions; the uniforms of the women Nazis; how she had no connection with Judaism; wanting to be part of the mainstream and not being accepted; how the Nazis took her family’s business; how she went to Belgium and her sister and mother went to England; antisemitism in newspapers; wanting to go to Hawaii; getting out in a transport of children and feeling guilty because she was not a child; going to Belgium first then England; staying with different families in Belgium; being placed in a small village in England in 1939 by the Rotary and experiencing antisemitism; not experiencing antisemitism in Hawaii; and her approach to life.

    Oral history interview with Don Shimazu

    Oral history interview with Don Shimazu

    Oral History

    Don Shimazu, born in Punei, Maui, Hawaii, describes his role as a staff sergeant in charge of the 522nd Battalion survey section, with the responsibility for accurately locating targets; growing up on a plantation on Maui, where there was a subtle discrimination against all minorities; beginning ROTC at the university in September 1941; his memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor; experiencing some animosity for being Japanese immediately after the attack; how he had been schooled in the Japanese samurai tradition, which taught him to have loyalty to his country (the U.S.) first and how this tradition led to the success of the 442nd and 522nd; enlisting and the disbanding of his first unit; becoming a carpenter’s apprentice; learning about the Japanese internment camps; volunteering for the army on March 24, 1943; going to Camp Shelby; being made second in command of his cadre; how his division was known for being the most accurate artillery division; his combat experiences in Italy in the towns of Grosseto, Livorno, Castellano, Pisa, and Florence; going to Marseille, France; joining the 7th Army and traveling through the French Riviera, Dijon, and Lyon; crossing a minefield without realizing it; saving the lost battalion (131st Field Artillery, 2nd Battalion); staying in Southern France until March 1945; serving with various battalions, including the 63rd, 45th, 44th, and the 101st to assist in the Allied crossing of the Rhine; travelling through Mannheim, Germany and the Siegfried Line; entering Dachau; being told not to feed the camp survivors as they would be unable to cope with the soldier’s food; going to Munich, Germany; returning to Dachau in 1984; the similarities and differences between the German and American internment camps; his memories of the concentration camps in Germany; and ways to prevent the Holocaust from happening again.

    Oral history interview with Ignace Speiser

    Oral history interview with Ignace Speiser

    Oral History

    Ignace (né Yitzhak) Speiser, born January 5, 1908 in Warsaw, Poland, describes his second wife; studying in Paris, France after WWI; learning to play the mandolin and the violin; going to the consortium in Warsaw; being age 21 when he attended the Ecole de Musique in Paris; officially leaving Warsaw in 1931; his siblings and his parents; trying to leave France for the United States in 1939 but being prevented by the beginning of the war; being taken by the Germans from Toulouse, France in 1943; being sent to a concentration camp in Danzig (Gdańsk), Poland; being asked to play his violin; how the inmates dug a tunnel, which was discovered; how all the imamates were deported to Auschwitz; being on the train with his friend, a cantor, who sang one symphony the whole ride; how people jumped off the train; how his wife was still in Toulouse; being separated from the others at Auschwitz because he was a musician; playing Ernest Bloch’s Baal Sham; going to Fürstengrube to work in a coal mine, but being separated as a musician with his opera singer friend; being beaten once; being in Birkenau for a few weeks; how a dentist would bring him food and ask him to play Mozart; having a birthday party in 1945; how he had been in Auschwitz for two years and Fürstengrube for one year; giving concerts once or twice a week in Fürstengrube; how after awhile he was not afraid of dying; selection processes; being removed from Auschwitz in January 1945 at which point they were walking and on the train; going to a place near Lübeck, Germany and being taken by the Red Cross to Sweden; the conditions on the train and the deaths during the journey; and his tattoo.

    Oral history interview with Richard Strauss

    Oral history interview with Richard Strauss

    Oral History

    Richard Strauss, born in Mainz, Germany in 1924, describes growing up in Germany and Italy; working for most of his life in the hotel food industry; attending a German public school; hearing antisemitism on occasion from his classmates; how his father was active in the Social Democratic party and was warned to leave on the night of the 1933 election, which he did; the camps near his town where dissidents were taken; how laws preventing Jews from attending high school began in 1935; his uncle’s wine exporting business, which he was allowed to continue operating despite the limits on Jewish businesses; his parents’ divorce; being socially shunned by non-Jewish friends in 1935; being sent to Besel, Switzerland to his father when their business was being reviewed; being placed in a boarding school in Italy from 1935 to 1938; returning to his mother in August 1938 when Mussolini enacted antisemitic laws; how his father went to Cuba and then Australia in 1940; how his mother’s attitude about remaining in Germany changed after Kristallnacht; how shop keepers would allow them to purchase items even though they had signs up banning Jewish customers; being hidden by a family friend who was a member of the Nazi Party, in a park the night of Kristallnacht; seeing the destruction of the city the next morning; how the thugs who committed the atrocities were brought in from another city; taking in homeless families because their home was intact; being on the English Rotary Club’s transport that got children out of Germany; going to Portsmouth, England and working as a window dresser’s apprentice; how his mother left Germany in November 1941 and went from Portugal to the United States; being interned on the Isle of Mann; being sent to Glasgow, Scotland and then transported to Australia; the conditions on the ship and the maltreatment of the refugees; being placed in an internment camp in Australia; sending a postcard to family friends in Australia, where his father also happened to be; being given the choice to return to England or join the Australian Army, and choosing the latter; joining in 1942 and becoming an interpreter at the rank of sergeant; guarding prisoners of war captured in North Africa that were interned in Australia; getting out of the army in 1947 and immigrating to the U.S. in December 1947; getting an apprenticeship at the Biltmore Hotel; going to California, Utah, Hawaii, and New York; his experiences guarding Italian and German prisoners and not telling them he was Jewish; witnessing some antisemitism in the U.S.; and his reflections on the Holocaust.

    Oral history interview with Billy Taylor

    Oral history interview with Billy Taylor

    Oral History

    Billy Taylor, born October 15, 1912 in Oklahoma, describes growing up on a farm in a suburb of Oklahoma City; attending the University of Oklahoma and studying petroleum engineering; joining the ROTC, working with the horse-drawn artillery; receiving his lieutenant's commission in 1935; working for the conservation corps in Oregon; getting married in 1938 and going to Texas; joining the armed forces in March 1941; going to Fort Sill to be an instructor; going to the 155 Howitzer Battalion; briefly being the captain of an Arkansas unit of the National Guard; being selected for secret duty at Camp Shelby, training Japanese American soldiers; how the men were loyal and they wanted to prove it; going to Italy; forming units at the University of Naples; going to combat north of Rome; his duties as well as the technical and logistical details of their campaign; going to Florence; how the unit was sent to Marseille, France but he got sick and was sent to the hospital; hitching a ride to Marseille a month later; experiencing their worst fighting in the Vosges Mountains; being assigned to rescue a battalion (131st Field Artillery, 2nd Battalion) in October 1944; emptying a brothel of women, who had been collaborating with the Germans; details about the rescue of the lost battalion and sustaining great casualties; the split of the 442nd and the 522nd; crossing the Rhine River at Worms, Germany; taking Mannheim, Germany; coming across a training camp for German youth and a compound of imported food; being northwest of Munich and Dachau and supporting the 101 Airborne; going to the Dachau concentration camp, which had been emptied of many prisoners; going to a meeting of units to discuss what they should do with the corpses; not staying at the camp for very long; the smell of the camp; heading south and finding a group of former Dachau prisoners in a village where they had been abandoned by the SS; seeing the survivors eating dead horses; the physical condition of the prisoners and their orders to not feed them; forming a camp for these people and sending many back to Poland; how the Russians were rough with the refugees; going north of Munich to search for SS troops; remaining in the reserve until 1954; receiving the Croix de Guerre from the French; working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs; how he is part Cherokee; how he never questioned the loyalty of his men in WWII but that at the beginning there was censoring of individual mail and some men were taken out of the unit; and his feelings about Dachau.

    Oral history interview with Ted Tsukiyama

    Oral history interview with Ted Tsukiyama

    Oral History

    Ted Tsukiyama describes the shock of the Pearl Harbor attacks, especially by Japanese Americans; being in the first ROTC unit to enter the war; being assigned to St. Louis to find paratroopers; becoming part of the territorial guard; never having a problem being Japanese American; being honorably discharged because of his Japanese heritage; going back to school; volunteering in a labor battalion, building defenses and serving for 11 months; how a few months later Japanese Americans were allowed in the armed forces; how his wife grew up in California and was put into a camp; being given intelligence training in Minnesota; being sent to Northern Burma Jungle as an intelligence translator for the Air Force; spending over a year, until end of war, in Northern Burma; going back to Hawaii; how he feels that the war experience countered prejudice towards Japanese Americans; and becoming a lawyer in labor relations.

    Oral history interview with Harold Ueoka

    Oral history interview with Harold Ueoka

    Oral History

    Harold Ueoka, born in Lawai, Hawaii in 1919, describes his Japanese parents; serving with the 526th Artillery Battalion; working in Honolulu before the Pearl Harbor attacks; how there was no real discrimination before war, except for his summer job working for a plantation; volunteering for the army when the war started; his memories of the Pearl Harbor attack; being head of the baseball team and how four of his teammates decided to join the army; how he felt that if he did not volunteer he would shame the people in Hawaii; how when his unit was in Europe, his destination was Hitler's home; seeing the crematoriums at Dachau and the places where people were shot; and how during the war he heard from other soldiers what was going on in the camps.

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