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Oral history interview with Alegra Koen

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 2013.294.49 | RG Number: RG-50.693.0049

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    Oral history interview with Alegra Koen

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Alegra Koen, born in Bitola, Yugoslavia (now in Macedonia), on September 17, 1922, describes the presence of antisemitism before the war; how they were all fearful and most of the neighbors were Christian; her father’s work in money exchange; having four brothers; attending gymnasium for four years instead of eight and having one hour a week of Jewish religion instruction; how one night the chief of police, a friend of her older brother, warned them to leave their house before 6 a.m. because they were going to be taken; leaving with her brothers but her parents staying behind; going with smugglers by truck to Tirana, Albania, which was occupied by the Italians; not having any false documents like many other refugees there; how her older, married brother (who had documents for himself, his wife, and son) fabricated a story for her and the other brothers were taken immediately to prison; being helped by some Albanese; staying with a family that had two girls of Alegra’s age; how later on she stayed with her cousin and aunt and they rented a house together for a year; her imprisoned brothers being freed then sent to a small town, Kabalia, where they were interned; joining her brothers so as to take care of them; being supported by the Joint supported but often being hungry; eating pork since it was raised nearby; the local war between Germans and Italians and using her youth and beauty to persuade them not to kill her brothers; going back to Zagreb, Yugoslavia after the liberation; not finding her home or her parents; the food kitchens for those returning and sleeping in a school building; how an old friend of her brother’s found her while she was waiting in the food line and told her he had gotten his own house back; how he and his parents had hid in the mountain and he was a partisan; moving in with his family and getting married in 1947; the ghetto in Monastir (Bitola); how after the war her older brother supported them all, working in textiles, and the family lived in Zagreb; saying they were Bulgarians because of the antisemitic atmosphere; believing Pavelik to be worse than Hitler; being given papers that said they were Bulgarians; her bother Chaim having an Albanese passport and living in Bari, Italy; how life was hard during the war; her other brothers escaping Tito and Communism by immigrating to Chile; joining her brothers after her husband died and bringing her son Dario; not liking Chile, returning home briefly, and then going back to Chile; and her belief that the Holocaust should not be forgotten.
    Interviewee
    Alegra Koen
    Interviewer
    Ilana Solowiejczyk
    Date
    interview:  2011 September 20
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Fundación Memoria Viva

    Physical Details

    Language
    Spanish
    Extent
    1 digital file : MOV.

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. Donor retains copyright. Third party use requests must be submitted to the donor.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Koen, Alegra, 1922-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Fundación Memoria Viva donated the interview with Alegra Koen conducted September 20, 2011 to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch in May 2012. The interview is part of the Voces de la Shoá oral history collection.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 09:28:13
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn73329

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