Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Oral history interview with Richard Schifter

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 2017.221.1 | RG Number: RG-50.030.0939

Search this record's additional resources, such as finding aids, documents, or transcripts.

No results match this search term.
Check spelling and try again.

results are loading

0 results found for “keyward

    Oral history interview with Richard Schifter

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Ambassador Richard Schifter (1923-2020) was born on July 31, 1923 in Vienna, Austria to Balbina (née Blass) and Paul Schifter. He discusses accompanying his mother to visit her parents in a small town near Warsaw, Poland; his parents being Polish citizens; his father living in Rochester, NY from 1907-1913 where he worked for a pharmaceutical firm and saved up money to purchase a drugstore in Vienna; his father being forced to sell his drugstore to his Nazi employee after the German annexation of Austria; his parents being arrested; his parents marrying in 1919; attending school in Vienna until it closed; his mother being a Zionist and Social Democrat, and her influence on his interest in politics; making plans to emigrate after annexation; his mother wanting to stay in Vienna to care for her parents; receiving an affidavit with his cousin Joseph’s sponsorship and a visa through the Austrian quota; the Polish quota being full and his parents not receiving visas; taking a train to Rotterdam and a ship to the United States; his parents getting arrested and released on the condition of leaving Austria; his parents fleeing to Poland; his father hiding in Stanisławow; his mother hiding in Warsaw and working for the Jewish Council; living with his Uncle Harry in the Bronx and writing to his parents that he was trying to get them visas; his last letter received from his parents was in September 1942; The Red Cross having no information about the fate of his parents; 17 survivors on his father’s side and 5 on his mother’s; attending high school in the Bronx; graduating high school and attending City Colllege; getting drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943; going to Camp Richie for intelligence training; arriving in Normandy in August 1944 and interviewing prisoners of war in Luxembourg and Belgium; and getting assigned to interview German citizens in Aachen, Germany.
    Interviewee
    Ambassador Richard Schifter
    Interviewer
    Ina Navazelskis
    Date
    interview:  2017 June 29
    Geography
    creation: Bethesda (Md.)

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Genre/Form
    Oral histories.
    Extent
    2 digital files : MPEG-4.

    Rights & Restrictions

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

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Ina Navazelskis, on behalf of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch, conducted the oral history interview with Ambassador Richard Schifter on June 29, 2017 in Bethesda, MD.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:05:41
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn562259

    Additional Resources

    Download & Licensing

    In-Person Research

    Contact Us