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Oral history interview with Fred Schwartz

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1993.A.0088.146 | RG Number: RG-50.002.0146

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    Oral history interview with Fred Schwartz
    Transcript
    My name is Bernard Weinstein.
    I'm the Director of the Kean College Oral Testimonies Project
    of the Holocaust Resource Center.
    Assisting me is Anne Kaplan.
    We welcome Fred Schwartz.
    Mr. Schwartz.
    Good afternoon.
    My name is Fred Schwartz.
    And I was born in Stawiszyn in Poland, in the state of Poznan.
    I am one of six children, and a family of nine.
    My father and mother and my maternal grandmother
    lived with us.
    In my early childhood, I remember a poor home.
    There was enough food in the house.
    We made a living.
    There was never any money.
    What did your father do for a living?
    Well, I was too young.
    But my older two brothers were tailors.
    And they learned trade.
    And they were getting paid.
    After a certain period of time, they
    were getting paid some money.
    This money was always brought home,
    supplementing of an income.
    I started working at the age of 15,
    just the year before the war broke out.
    And I worked in a wholesale grocery store.
    What was your father's occupation?
    Butcher.
    Butcher.
    Yeah, yeah.
    And I made only one year in the store and then the war
    broke out by the time I was 16.
    It was September 1, 1939.
    Around noon, the same day, the German flag
    was already over the city hall in our town.
    And immediately this spot, where I come from,
    was annexed and became Third Reich, in other words,
    part of Germany.
    And the German law started immediately.
    There was a big signs, explained in Polish and German,
    that all Jews must immediately wear the yellow star,
    the Jews have to report to do street work, cleaning
    streets and everything else.
    And this lasted until about January 1940.
    January '40, an order came out, all Jews
    have to assemble by the public school in this town.
    There was only one school, by the way.
    It was a small town.
    And from there, we had to leave everything behind.
    We just took the necessary things, like any food
    we had ready in the house and whatever you wore--
    you had on you, on yourself, nothing else.
    And from there, they took us to Kalisz,
    which was the next big city, like about 10 miles
    from Stawiszyn to that city.
    Is that a larger city?
    Yes, much larger, yes, yes.
    This was the county seat.
    The city was around 100,000 people.
    Our town is very small, about 5,000.
    And there was a ghetto.
    It was like a big market place, tremendously large.
    And they fit in as many people as they could.
    How many Jews were there in your town, originally in Stawiszyn?
    In Stawiszyn, we had, I would say,
    close to 100 Jewish families.
    The town population, not more than 5,000, yeah.
    And in Kalisz we didn't stay too long.
    Through all this, we're going to be sent to a city of Lodz.
    Lodz was like-- not like-- it was 100 kilometers from Kalisz.
    We went by train, everybody, children and grandparents,
    everybody.
    We came to Lodz by train.
    We arrived in Lodz.
    And we were told there's no room for us.
    So we were immediately sent back to Kalisz.
    And in Kalisz they decided they're
    going to send us to a small town outside of Kalisz,
    by the name of Kozminek.
    And over there, the ghetto was established.
    It was the beginning of 1940, around February or so of '40.
    Was your whole family together at this time?
    Yes, at that time, yes.
    Including your grandmother?
    Yes.
    We all came together, back to that town.
    And at that time, it was not terribly bad
    because we still had an open place.
    You could move around only in the city limits.
    You could not wander out of the city, only the city limits.
    It was open.
    And my grandmother got sick from the trip to Lodz and back.
    It was wintertime.
    She was an old lady.
    She was 86 years old.
    And she died overnight.
    Where were you living?
    Did they give you a place to stay?
    Yes, at that time we had--
    they took, for example, people who
    lived in Kozminek, Jewish people,
    we were pushed in with the other Jews in Kozminek.
    Say a person had three rooms, so one room
    was given to another family from our town.
    And that's how we lived.
    It was rough.
    We managed.
    And my grandmother was buried in the Jewish cemetery.
    She had all the customs, like there used to be.
    A headstone was never put up because we didn't have the time
    and it couldn't be done.
    And a few months later, we were all sent to a closed ghetto.
    So they picked the smallest [NON-ENGLISH],
    the smallest street in that town.
    The shul was on that street.
    And all Jewish thing was right in that street.
    It was a long street.
    And they put all the people, Kozminek
    and our town, Stawiszyn, everybody was in that ghetto.
    And the ghetto was closed.
    You couldn't move.
    You couldn't get out of that place.
    It was wired, you know, barbed wire, [NON-ENGLISH].
    And then was when the problem starts, right there.
    The first decree was all children,
    from newborn up to 12 years old, have to report.
    And I was too young to comprehend at that time what's
    going to happen.
    My parents had a good idea of what's going to happen.
    And there was nowhere to hide.
    You had to report because they had the Jewish police.
    You can call them kapo or whatever you want,
    the Jewish police.
    Judenrat?
    Pardon me?
    Were these Judenrat?
    Judenrat.
    Well, the Judenrat, that was something else.
    It was the committee, Jewish Judenrat.
    But they also had policemen, Jewish policemen, in the ghetto.
    They had no weapons.
    So if you wanted to hide, this policeman was bringing them out.
    And there was no saying no.
    You had to go.
    You had to go or you get shot, one or the other.
    So I had two of the youngest, one brother and one sister.
    My brother was-- he was after me, the younger one.
    He was born 1930.
    So that would make him 11 years old.
    My youngest sister was two years younger, so she was nine.
    And a black truck--
    I always see this picture in front
    of me, always, no matter what--
    arrived by the shul.
    And they kept them overnight in the shul, no food, nothing.
    Nobody was allowed to go in there.
    And the first thing in the morning, a truck
    arrived, backed into the shul.
    And there was black painted.
    It was a van, a sealed van, no windows, nothing.
    The driver was sitting in the cab.
    And they were taken out from the shul, one by one.
    And I saw my brother and my sister
    holding hands and walking into that thing.
    And the question came to my mind--
    I was about 17 here--
    I said, my God, how are they going to breathe?
    You know, there's no window, there's nothing.
    And they slam the door behind them.
    And there we stand, you know.
    And the only thing you can do is cry.
    And my mother got-- overnight, she got gray, completely gray.
    And she was screaming, my children-- you know,
    it was her two youngest ones--
    my children, my children.
    What do you do?
    We could go-- probably we could go close
    and maybe we could have killed one German.
    In turn, the whole town would have been wiped out
    in five minutes, everybody, innocent or guilty, everybody.
    It was a punishment.
    So weapons we didn't have.
    With the bare hands, how can you fight
    someone who has a gun at you?
    How can you fight it?
    So what can I say?
    I didn't eat for about three days.
    Because like [? Teshuvah, ?] it was like each time you sit down,
    this came in front of you.
    And my mother, well that's--
    my father didn't say a word.
    He was just holding it inside.
    And he was speechless.
    He couldn't say it.
    And it took so fast.
    And in one hour, the truck drove away.
    And that's it.
    But we found out later on, they were all
    gassed in a-- there was like a forest.
    These were only children?
    In this particular truck, children only, nobody else.
    And we found out, through the Polish people,
    that all they heard-- there was a forest there,
    about 20 kilometers from this Kozminek,
    and they were gassed and thrown in a big--
    Ravine?
    Ravine.
    And that was it, finished.
    And a few months later was another order,
    all elderly people, 55 and over, families, husband and wife,
    had to report to the same place.
    The same thing happened.
    And the Judenrat, the president of Judenrat
    was a good friend of ours.
    But let's put it this way, somebody had to do it.
    Somebody had to be the eldest, the top of the group.
    And I could see he was taking out--
    he had a [INAUDIBLE] in his pocket book with names.
    He had to read out names.
    And as he was reading out, those people
    have to report and walk out and stay at the front.
    He came to me and my parents--
    I saw it.
    I was right behind him.
    And he looked.
    And he turned around.
    And he put it back.
    He could hide it because the German looked the other way.
    He put it in.
    We were very close friends.
    And to me, it was he did a good thing
    because he saved their lives--
    not for long, but in the meantime he saved their lives.
    This actually depressed the whole community
    because it's people you're brought up with.
    You remember them.
    Even so they were older, but we knew everybody.
    It was like living the same life, you knew every person.
    It passed [? and you got to see ?] the other day.
    And I guess you want to live.
    And you continue, right, you continue.
    This was 1941.
    Right after that, they took all teenagers and people up
    to 45 or so, men only.
    And they sent us to this camp of Schwaningen.
    It was right near Poznan.
    It was a forced labor camp.
    And this was very close to Poznan, like 6, 7 miles out
    of town, big railroad.
    And we had to unload coal.
    It was wintertime.
    I was young.
    Oh, yeah, my brother--
    older brother and myself and my father was selected.
    Another brother remained in the ghetto because he was a tailor.
    They needed tailors to do work for the German army, so uniforms
    and things like that.
    So they kept him.
    It was a place of maybe 50 or so tailors.
    And he remained.
    In Poznan camp, my father couldn't take it.
    You take a man of 45, you put him
    on a big coal wagon in the wintertime,
    in January, no gloves.
    Polish winter was cruel.
    Unload-- how could he do it?
    With his hands.
    And we had a Volksdeutsche--
    should I explain what a Volksdeutsche means?
    Mm-hmm.
    A German born in Poland.
    He was German, but he lived in Poland.
    He spoke both languages.
    And they made him the offizier or the kapo.
    He used to hit--
    who did he hit?
    The elderly people because they couldn't produce.
    They were weak.
    How could they work like this?
    They couldn't work.
    I could.
    I was young.
    I did.
    My brother did.
    And he was screaming on his lung, every day, the same thing
    he repeated in Polish.
    I say it in English, all right?
    "You have eaten chicken and goose, now work till you die."
    This was the expression.
    One day my father came home, and I could see in his face,
    he didn't look good.
    I said, Father, what's wrong?
    He says, no, nothing, nothing.
    He always kept it inside.
    He never spoke out.
    He loved to smoke.
    He always smoked.
    We never smoked, none of us.
    So the piece of bread that he used to get in the camp,
    he exchanged for cigarettes.
    And I was the youngest at that time.
    I said, Father, why do you do that?
    Eat your bread.
    It will do you more good than a cigarette.
    Oh, he said, what do you know?
    He kept smoking, smoking, smoking.
    Anyhow, one day they selected elderly people in that camp,
    but those who couldn't work no longer, you know?
    They were weak.
    They couldn't.
    So the ration there was 1/2 a kilogram of bread and a bowl
    of soup at night when you came back from work.
    And the bowl of soup was water.
    It's cooked, you know.
    It's cooked, boiled.
    And you could see a potato here and there, swimming around.
    And that was it.
    I could eat 10 like that because I was young and I was hungry.
    I tried very hard so maybe I could do something
    to supplement the ration that we got to help my father out,
    because we were young and we could hold down.
    I know he wouldn't make it.
    One of his cousins over there--
    I have to say that--
    he was in charge of the kitchen, my father's cousin,
    my real cousin, first cousin.
    And my father was so proud.
    The old people were proud.
    He wouldn't ask his cousin to give him an extra bowl of soup.
    I said, I will go.
    I did.
    It was dangerous because you could get beaten up
    for going out for extra soup.
    They were watching you, right.
    So I wait until everybody was gone.
    I walked over.
    He was still there.
    I says-- we called him Uncle, by the way
    because he was an elderly man in Europe, with respect, you know.
    I said, Uncle Shloime--
    His name was Shloime.
    Uncle Shloime, how about an extra bowl
    of soup for your cousin?
    For my father, not for me.
    He looks at me.
    He says, do you want me to lose my job over here?
    I said, look, there's no one here.
    And let's make believe I didn't get my soup, right?
    I was late.
    There was plenty left over.
    I can't do that.
    I look at him.
    And I said, OK, never mind.
    I said, even if he wanted to give it to me now,
    I won't take it.
    I walked away.
    And I wouldn't tell my father.
    There was going to be a conflict there.
    I wouldn't say it.
    We met another young man my age.
    He was working for the kommandant of the camp, SS man.
    He was like-- in our rank here, I would say captain.
    He was in charge of the camp.
    He says to me, hey, he says, you want
    to make some-- in Polish of course--
    you want to make some extra food?
    I say, yes, you know, food.
    He says, all right, you can do it at night
    after you come back from work.
    I ask him, doing what?
    He said, you're going to bring in coal and wood
    into the kitchen, prepare for the next day,
    and whatever else has to be done there.
    I say, how about my brother?
    He said, yeah, your brother can come with you.
    And we did.
    And we worked in the inside.
    And first we ate, because it was like daylight, we ate.
    We couldn't take it out.
    We couldn't take it out, no.
    There was a guard right there.
    We had to walk out, out of the camp.
    The guard was standing right by the thing.
    When you walked back in, he checked you out.
    What do you have?
    Somehow I wasn't this scared kid.
    I was not.
    My brother was.
    Let him rest in peace.
    He was.
    And I said-- his name was Nathan.
    I said, Nathan, see that bread over there?
    He said, what are you trying to do?
    I said, I take it in.
    He said, they'll shoot you-- let me try.
    How?
    How are you going to do it?
    I looked around.
    I took a whole loaf, a long loaf.
    I put it in my sleeve.
    And I walked straight.
    Nothing happened.
    We're finished with the work.
    I shut the lights, walked over there.
    And there he stays, the guard.
    He was Polish.
    He looks at me.
    He says, you're finished over there with the work?
    I say, yes.
    The first question, what do you have?
    I said, nothing, what do you mean?
    I got nothing.
    We finished our work.
    We're ready to go home.
    It was like 10 o'clock at night already.
    He says, what do you have?
    I said, nothing.
    He said, let me search you.
    I knew he was going to look right here first.
    So he goes around like this, and this.
    Oh, he says, get back in there.
    I [INAUDIBLE] like this.
    He would have shot me on the spot.
    OK, I got in.
    Now, if you do it once, you try it again,
    not every day, third day, fifth day, you try again.
    Anyhow, this didn't last too long.
    One day we came in, we did the work.
    I was going out.
    And he says, oh, you know, by the way,
    you can't go in there anymore.
    I said, why?
    He said, well, they decided the work what you're doing
    is not necessary.
    You don't have to do it no more.
    That was the end of that.
    Now, in the meantime, three guys from the camp
    tried to escape, young kids, young kids.
    They were maybe 15, 16.
    They did, they escaped.
    Because every morning there was a--
    we reported at the front of the barracks.
    And they were counting.
    We sat five in a row.
    They were counting.
    The count had to be right.
    Because after the foreman gave him his count,
    he didn't believe it.
    He was counting by himself to be sure.
    He says, three men are missing.
    And the guy didn't know.
    He didn't know.
    He says, how?
    How could it be?
    He says, three men are missing.
    But he didn't hold anybody.
    He said, all right, you all march out to work
    and we'll find them.
    When we came back from work at night,
    they got those three guys.
    They caught them about a kilometer away.
    How far could they go?
    They came in.
    And the German says, well, before you
    go to eat, I want you all to see something,
    what we do over here for people who try to escape.
    For the first time in my life I witness hanging.
    Don't ask.
    They put those three kids on the table.
    And he read the sentence in Germany.
    We understood, yeah.
    He says, we gave you a right to live only to work,
    and anyone who escapes or tries to escape, and he gets caught,
    the punishment is hanging.
    That was it, finished with the speech.
    He told the foreman of the camp to push the table away.
    They already had the things on, the rope.
    When we saw that, it's like we were all dying.
    I had never seen in my life something like this.
    And then he says, all right, now you can all go to eat.
    You know something?
    No one-- no one went for the food.
    We went straight in the barracks.
    We didn't eat that day.
    And the following day, we came from work, we went to eat.
    Because you're debating now, what are we
    going to win by not eating?
    We're all going to die.
    So you got to eat because you have to work.
    And the main thing, you want to survive, survive, right.
    And a while later, my father was selected, weak, couldn't work.
    If you couldn't work, you were out.
    So a group of elderly people were taken out of the camp.
    And I don't know what was done with him, where he died,
    where they sent them, I have no idea.
    I never saw him no more.
    It was 1942.
    I think it was in the summer of '42.
    We survived.
    We kept working.
    And in August of '43, we were all-- the whole camp
    was liquidated.
    We were sent to Auschwitz, to the famous one.
    And over there, we came in--
    I guess we were lucky in a way.
    We didn't have to go through the selection, left or right.
    So we all went directly through Auschwitz.
    We didn't go through Birkenau.
    Birkenau was part of Auschwitz.
    In Birkenau, the selection was made and [? others ?]
    were there.
    Was your mother with you?
    Pardon me?
    Your mother, was she with you?
    No, my mother and my older brother
    and my older sister, they went to Lodz.
    See, the ghetto was liquidated in Kozminek-- in 1943.
    We were already in the other camps.
    So they were sent to Lodz, yes.
    So we didn't see them no more.
    Since '42, I didn't see them.
    Yeah, by the way, we did get a card, which I was shocked.
    From Lodz, from the ghetto, was a card, a postal card,
    was done in the ghetto in Lodz.
    It was a big city.
    Lodz had their own administration,
    post to everything, everything, Jews only.
    And the card says, Rochel Zosia and Jakob Schwartz,
    and nothing else, the names.
    This was proof they were alive.
    Not another word.
    It's all they could do.
    This is the only time we received a card like this here.
    I think a miracle.
    When I was reading it, I said, my God, they're alive,
    you know, and the hope was there that they're going to make it.
    But-- so when we came directly to Auschwitz,
    so we had to undress.
    Everybody from the camp was taken to Auschwitz?
    Only from that camp, from the Swarzedz camp.
    But at the same time, they liquidated all camps
    around Poznan, all camps.
    They all came the same day to Auschwitz.
    It all went through the same thing, straight to Auschwitz.
    How far was your camp from Auschwitz?
    Not far.
    Did you go by train?
    Yeah, yeah, about 150 kilometers, not that far, no.
    I think overnight we made it, we were there, yeah.
    Yeah, by the way, there were open trucks.
    Last time I told you about it was sealed vans.
    Open trucks.
    Then I knew-- I told my brother, well,
    at least if we're not going to die in a truck, open truck.
    And we had to undress.
    They told us to take a shower, yeah.
    A real shower, not gas, water.
    We were afraid to go in because we heard about these stories.
    And they were chasing us, get in there, get in there.
    But there was no guards, nothing.
    We took a shower.
    We came out.
    And they say, stay in line, everybody by their last name.
    So we were Schwartz, we had to stay by the S group.
    And we got these tattoos here.
    And we weren't there long, maybe three days, four days.
    What happened to your clothes?
    Did they give back your clothes after the shower?
    Oh, they took it.
    No, no, no, they give us the [? concentration ?] clothes,
    those stripes.
    Yeah, that's all you have, just the pants and a jacket
    and a pair of shoes.
    Like you needed 8 and 1/2, they gave you 12.
    Or you need 12, they gave you 7.
    Spite.
    Spite, yeah.
    And we were told to wait here three days, four days.
    Finally there came an order, all those with their names starting
    with S-- last name--
    should report to a certain area.
    In that camp, I remember an instant--
    I had three cousins, three brothers.
    They were my mother's sister's children.
    And I knew they were in the area,
    of course, in a different camp.
    So I had all these guts.
    We were all new.
    I was running around and screaming.
    Their last name was Ferst, F-E-R-S-T.
    I never seen them in my life.
    But I knew we had cousins.
    They lived from us like 200 kilometers away,
    near Gdansk, near that area.
    And I was screaming, Ferst, Ferst, Ferst, Ferst, no answer.
    Finally, one guy screams to me-- a German-- get back to your line
    or I'll shoot you.
    So I was going to a different line.
    I knew they're there.
    Then I hear somebody screaming, over here, over here, over here.
    And I told them who I am.
    They said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, we know.
    And I hear the voice--
    I didn't see it.
    That was it.
    But I knew they're there.
    So anyhow, from there, we were sent
    to the town of Swietochlowice.
    That's near Katowice.
    Katowice is a big city.
    There are the coal mines and other things in that area.
    I came to that camp.
    Was this immediately after you arrived in Auschwitz?
    Yeah, about four days later.
    We were only a few days there, yeah, yeah.
    Because they couldn't hold people there, one the other,
    whether they were gassed, or those
    who were lucky to go to work, they were sent to other camps.
    They can't hold people there, no.
    They had enough people to work.
    They couldn't bring in new people.
    So they were distributed in different camps,
    where they were needed.
    And when we came there, the camp was already
    an open camp with barracks.
    It's a the concentration camp, electric fences all around,
    the guards on top.
    We came into a new camp.
    You don't know anyone.
    So where we go?
    Work.
    We worked by bombed houses, you know, take things--
    take apart and with a wheelbarrow, take things,
    whatever you're told, any kind of work, labour.
    The rations over there, it was about the same as the other
    camp, 1/2 a kilogram of bread a day and soup.
    And in the morning we used to get ersatz coffee.
    You know what ersatz means?
    Artificial.
    Yeah, make believe coffee.
    It was black water, you know, boiled.
    So in the morning, breakfast was a black coffee.
    That's it.
    Then we got a piece of bread later on.
    And when we came home, it was the meal, the soup.
    But we had to work very hard, very hard.
    And my brother was--
    he was, I would say, scared.
    He never stopped working.
    And I explained to him, when he's not
    watching you, slow down.
    He cannot watch everyone.
    There was hundreds of people working,
    one man watching, one man.
    So I was watching him, to be honest.
    I did.
    When he wasn't watching me, I stopped.
    I didn't do a thing.
    You had to have your eyes open, look around.
    This was going on for about--
    I don't know, it was '44--
    no, '43 rather, the beginning of '44.
    What kind of work were you doing?
    Over there?
    Yeah.
    I did what was my work, my job.
    Outside on the-- what we call them here?
    Building, like in the building houses,
    but it was reverse, taking apart.
    Mm-hmm, demolition.
    Right, yeah, yeah.
    Here, again, I was young.
    I could work.
    At the beginning of '44, we were told, like every other day,
    we had to report in the morning, big, big place, in fives.
    And always the music was playing.
    We went out with music to work.
    The gates were closed and they counted out all the people.
    And then he ordered, "raus," and they opened up the gates.
    And every morning they made selections.
    You looked like this, you looked weak, they took you out
    and the rest went out to work.
    It was on a Thursday.
    I always remember that day.
    It was on a Thursday.
    And it was raining, the monsoon rains, without stop.
    What time of year was this?
    Pardon me?
    What time of year was this?
    '44, it must have been spring, March maybe.
    And he stopped.
    He was walking around, looking at who was weak.
    Being I was short, so I was always at the end of the line.
    And he comes over, straight to me.
    I was the third one in the line.
    He grabbed me like this.
    He was the captain over here.
    He always had a dog with him, always a big dog.
    And he took me out.
    And I look around, and I says, where is he taking me?
    I was thinking.
    And I start crying.
    And I know that was it.
    That's it.
    But I was still looking healthy and good.
    And he ordered the rest of the people to March out to work.
    And he was holding me.
    And he pushed me in another group of people.
    I don't know.
    It was dark still.
    I don't know.
    6 o'clock in the morning, I don't know where I was.
    So I stayed there, wet and crying.
    And finally an elderly man came over to me.
    At that time he was elderly, you know.
    He was about 55 or so.
    He says to me, do you speak Polish?
    I say, yes.
    He says, why are you crying?
    What can I tell him?
    I had no answer because I didn't know where I am.
    He says to me in Polish, this is the kitchen group.
    I thought he was kidding me.
    He said, the kitchen group.
    I said, what am I going to do here?
    He said, don't worry.
    You're going to work.
    And everybody, this group, went into the kitchen.
    At this point, you were separated from your brother,
    right?
    Yes, yes, yes, he was working in another area.
    And they gave me a white apron.
    And he says to me, you're going to peel potatoes.
    Good, peel potatoes, fine.
    It was like in a basement, a few steps to go down.
    And upstairs was a kitchen, one for the inmates,
    and right next to the kitchen for the SS, the guards.
    They had better food, of course, like everything else.
    And there were separate kitchen workers for them,
    separate for inmates.
    I worked over there.
    And about an hour later, a young man comes down.
    He says to me, [SPEAKING GERMAN].
    I told him.
    Hmm.
    He says, are you hungry?
    Hungry, yeah, we're always hungry, yeah, hungry, yeah.
    He brought me down a bowl of soup, you know.
    I ate the soup.
    I felt better a little bit.
    He says to me, just do your work, what you're told.
    He was like a foreman.
    Do your work, what you're told, no one will bother you.
    In other words, mind your own business.
    Whatever you see here, you didn't see a thing.
    He was Jewish in other words?
    Yeah, he was Jewish, yeah.
    And I was there.
    And I worked there for about four weeks, five weeks.
    Then one day I came home, and my brother was no longer there.
    So I asked the other people in the block what happened.
    They said they took him away in the morning.
    Now I already had a chance to do something for him,
    the work in the kitchen.
    I could help with food or who knows, maybe even
    bring him into work with me.
    I don't know, maybe through somebody else here.
    It wasn't anymore.
    And I worked there for quite a while.
    And in the camp, when you worked in a job like I had,
    it was considered a good job.
    So people got to know you quick, the man
    who was in charge of the block, the man who
    was in charge of the room, the first aid people, doctors.
    And there was one doctor from Bratislava,
    from Czechoslovakia, a Jewish guy.
    And he got to know me.
    He lived in the same block.
    And he says, I need a favour from you.
    What kind of favor?
    I say, what can I do for you?
    He says, bring me some potatoes, raw, raw potatoes.
    I looked at him.
    I said, OK, let me try.
    He's a very intelligent person, educated.
    I said, I don't promise, I will try.
    Every other day, another one from the kitchen group
    had to lock the door at night in the kitchen.
    This night was my turn.
    I figured this is the best time to do it, to help this guy.
    I took a few potatoes in my pocket.
    You couldn't take too many, just a few here
    and few there in both pockets.
    Then I walk out, happy.
    I walk up the stairway.
    I come to the door.
    And I want to open the door and lock it and go home, right.
    Go home, I mean, go to the barracks.
    Who do you think opens the door before me?
    The same captain who gave me the job, always with a dog.
    He walks in.
    And instead of walking straight, like not showing
    like I'm guilty, I'm hiding something,
    I start running backwards and down the stairs
    into where the potatoes were.
    He ordered the dog, he said bring him [GERMAN],
    bring him up.
    This dog made one jump.
    He caught me on my foot.
    Well, you better go with him or he would
    take your foot right there.
    I went with him.
    So he says to me, [SPEAKING GERMAN],
    what do you have?
    I refuse to say.
    I say, nothing.
    He took out the gun, put it to my forehead.
    He says, [SPEAKING GERMAN]?
    I said, [GERMAN].
    I had only maybe two or three left over.
    You understand German?
    He said, [SPEAKING GERMAN], are you hungry?
    No.
    So next question was [SPEAKING GERMAN],
    for who did you steal it?
    You got the wrong person here.
    I'm not going to talk.
    I said, you kill me, you kill me.
    Why should I involve the other guy?
    He's not guilty.
    I didn't answer.
    For a while something comes to your mind, and it works.
    I said, yeah, I was told that the first aid--
    I'll have to show you this.
    There's certain spots here, on both legs.
    From hunger we used to--
    Scratch.
    --scratch.
    Yeah.
    And there was like blood and infections all over.
    And they are still on there, both feet, this one too.
    Yeah.
    And I said, I was told to put the raw potatoes
    on these things, and this will heal it.
    He got furious.
    He didn't buy it.
    He got furious.
    He looks at me.
    And tears were coming down because I
    knew he's going to kill me.
    And I had nothing else to say.
    What can I say?
    He took the revolver, and put it back.
    You know, at that moment, you thank God.
    What else can you say, right.
    And I had a feeling he's not going to kill me
    no more, so he put it back.
    He says, [SPEAKING GERMAN], come with me, you dog.
    He took me in a place where we kept the flour
    and bread, a little warehouse.
    He says to me, excuse me, he says to me, let your pants down.
    Yeah, let your pants down.
    And he found a big stick on the side there.
    And he says to me, I will hit, and you will count.
    Better than to die.
    So I grabbed the--
    bowed like this with my hands.
    He hit me once.
    And I could feel the blood is running all over.
    I didn't cry, no.
    He hit me another time.
    I didn't cry.
    He hit me--
    I was counting, one, two, three.
    When he hit me the third time, the stick broke in half.
    So he grabbed me just the way I was.
    The same way he gave me the job, this way.
    He grabbed me the same way.
    He opened the door.
    And his big boot, the German boot, he kicked me behind.
    And he yelled after me, [SPEAKING GERMAN],
    you never come back here to work here.
    This was the punishment.
    All right.
    The news spread so quick through the camp.
    This camp wasn't as big as Auschwitz.
    It was a much smaller camp.
    The doctor must have--
    I don't know how.
    He must have found out.
    He knew what happened here.
    Why they throw me out, for what?
    Did I do?
    He came running.
    He said like this, come with me, come with me.
    Took me to first aid.
    He did whatever he had to do.
    He was a doctor, right.
    And I said, all right, now I'm going
    to go to where my brother is.
    He says, no, no, no.
    He said, tomorrow morning you report over here to work.
    I said, how can I do that?
    I don't belong here.
    He says, look, you come here.
    You can work here.
    You can help out, scrubbing the floor, whatever.
    We keep you busy.
    Who do you think comes in--
    I report to work there.
    Who do you think comes in the first day?
    The kommandant.
    He was in charge of the whole thing.
    So he had to go to every department and check.
    He walks in.
    He said-- the first thing--
    [SPEAKING GERMAN]
    He recognized me.
    What is he doing here?
    So the doctor says, oh, this is a good man, you know.
    He's helping out with sick people.
    He's cleaning the floor.
    He says, I want him out of here in three days to go to work.
    I don't want him in here.
    I said, all right, OK, [SPEAKING GERMAN], whatever.
    I worked there for a week.
    He came in every day.
    Why am I still there, he says.
    Oh, he's so helpful, you know, and we want him--
    let him work a few more days.
    He slammed the door and walked out.
    The following day, I come into work.
    And the doctor says to me, oh, by the way, Schwartz,
    he says tomorrow morning you report back to the kitchen.
    I say, are you out of your mind?
    How can I go there?
    He says, listen to me, listen to me,
    he was transferred to another camp.
    The new guy who has taken over, he
    has no idea what happened over here.
    There's no record that they kept that so and so happened.
    OK, I couldn't believe it.
    But I went there.
    I came in.
    These boys over there, they grabbed me, they kissed me.
    And they said, it must be a miracle or something.
    It's the truth, the God's honest truth,
    I went back to the same job I had before.
    I worked there until January 18, '45, when the Russians came
    and we were ordered, everybody out, and we went to Mauthausen.
    Now, I didn't know if this was a miracle, it was fate,
    I don't know.
    I finished my job till the end.
    And this man remained there.
    The doctor, he remained there.
    He went with us to Mauthausen.
    Now, whether he's alive or not, I have no idea.
    We were separated in different directions.
    And on January 18, the whole camp was liquidated.
    And we went to-- we were sent to by train, to Mauthausen.
    This time it was cattle train, all locked up.
    And it was January, wintertime.
    It took us maybe--
    I don't know-- 10 days, eight days.
    We made it over there.
    Some people jumped the train.
    I don't know whether they survived.
    I have no idea.
    But they did jump.
    In Mauthausen, it was the worst thing
    I ever seen through all the other camps.
    This was a real--
    like the final solution, that was it,
    whether you make it or you die.
    And there we had the Hungarian Jews.
    They came there in the middle of '44,
    those who could not be saved.
    So Eichmann ordered them out of--
    Adolf Eichmann, he was in Budapest at that time.
    And all the Jews were sent to Mauthausen.
    So they were really like in charge
    over there, the Hungarian Jews.
    There were no gas chambers there, were there?
    Or were there?
    I don't think so, unless there was and I didn't know about it.
    Because none of us, from this transport, none of us
    were sent to the gas chambers.
    And we worked at the--
    what do they have there?
    They made shotguns, yeah, [GERMAN].
    That was bad.
    It was bad over there.
    I mean bad.
    You got beaten, you had to work, bad conditions, dirty.
    The other camp was not dirty before.
    Did you have food?
    Food they gave us, maybe 1/4 of a kilogram of bread.
    They were claiming that they don't have any more food.
    The war was almost coming to an end.
    So they gave us just a little bit.
    And there was some soup was given.
    There was nothing in the soup, just water.
    People died like flies, every day, here, there, here.
    It was terrible.
    In April, there came an order, we have a dead march.
    So they didn't tell us that.
    We had marching.
    We were going to a new camp.
    And we walked, we walked, we walked, we walked.
    Whoever couldn't walk was shot.
    It was whether you walked or you died.
    That's it.
    And we kept going and going.
    We had no idea where we were going.
    We walked.
    Finally, we went up in a camp.
    We could see unfinished camps just starting to be put up.
    It was like in the forest.
    And the first look I took, I saw bodies piled up
    like wood, this way and that way, all the way up,
    up in the sky.
    And the smell.
    And then I knew, I get out of here I don't know how,
    but I'm going to try.
    And another thing, every night since the first camp
    I went to, until the end, before I went to sleep,
    I always had one prayer, the same prayer.
    I said, God, please, I want to survive
    and I want to see the end.
    Nothing else.
    Did you know at that time the end was coming?
    Yes.
    Yes, there were German papers lying around.
    I could read it, yeah.
    I saw it already in the other camp,
    in Swietochlowice, when I worked in the kitchen.
    The Germans, they read the paper and they dropped it.
    So I sneaked in.
    Oh, yeah, I didn't know exactly what I was reading.
    But half a sentence I could make out, and the other half--
    you read the whole thing.
    And slowly, day by day, I could read the whole paper.
    I knew what's going on.
    Their paper was propaganda most of the time.
    But it did say they were retreating.
    That was on the front page.
    And you could read that.
    Oh, I understood very well.
    I knew.
    Then we used to hear from the elderly people at that time.
    They used to say, oh, the Russians are very close,
    they're here, they're here.
    They knew.
    I don't know how.
    They knew.
    They knew soon they're going to be here.
    And at the end, we heard the shots.
    We knew the Russians are here.
    Then when they took us out the day before that.
    So in the last few days, May came.
    I couldn't get up no more.
    Even so, I worked in the kitchen before.
    Everything was-- I couldn't walk.
    So they didn't bother us.
    They didn't kill us because sooner or later, you're
    going to die.
    So they let us stay there.
    And this particular day, May 4, when I was liberated,
    I was outside, laying in the grass.
    It was hot inside.
    You couldn't stand it.
    All day, just laying there.
    And I picked my head up.
    And I see the German guards--
    some of them we knew by seeing every day--
    were throwing their hats off, thrown away.
    One guy is throwing off the uniform, his gun.
    And they're running.
    I couldn't even get up.
    I tried.
    I couldn't get up.
    I couldn't.
    So I was thinking, God, I mean, this must be the end of the war,
    you know.
    And we didn't see anybody else.
    Finally, just by the time when--
    [NON-ENGLISH], the time where you--
    [INAUDIBLE] just evening, dark--
    I see a Jeep.
    It was full of soldiers.
    And I thought they're Russians.
    That my head was, Russians, Russians.
    And I knew the Americans are coming from this side,
    from [INAUDIBLE].
    And they came over to us.
    And they look at us.
    And they're all crying--
    Americans.
    We didn't cry because we gave up, you know, so.
    The four guys, we were laying there, one next to the other.
    He looks at us.
    And one of them says-- he was a medic.
    He says, yeah, do you speak English?
    We didn't know any English.
    I said, German.
    He says, Yiddish?
    I say, Yiddish, yeah.
    He says, I'm American.
    I said, [SPEAKING GERMAN]?
    I said, this is supposed to be Russians or English.
    He says, no, no, we're Americans.
    I know the English had come.
    And he says, look.
    He says don't go anyplace.
    And I said, where am I going to go?
    I can't even get up.
    He said, the war is over.
    We are here now.
    I see, sir, I can't do for you nothing at this moment.
    But we'll be back tomorrow morning,
    and we take you out of here.
    So you hear such words and so you feel good.
    And we fell asleep.
    We were weak, we fell asleep.
    Get up in the morning, look around, no one is there,
    just the dead bodies piled up.
    These guys came back.
    They came back, the same guys, the Americans.
    Were there other survivors?
    Or you were alone in this--
    No, there was four guys with us, laying there.
    We couldn't move.
    We couldn't go no place.
    And that's all there was?
    There was others, laying around too, but in the inside,
    in the barracks.
    We were outside, laying in the grass.
    And the same guy comes over.
    He says, come on, guys, come on, guys.
    They picked us up and they put us in the Jeep.
    They drove with us, I don't know, maybe two miles or so,
    three miles.
    And he said, you must be hungry.
    And there was a little pot, the army pot with food, you know.
    There was probably there for 20 people at least,
    25 people at least.
    It was the biggest mistake in my life what I did.
    And we finished all of it, four of us.
    We felt good.
    Now later, yeah, we got up, you know.
    We were drinking--
    I remember soda or something.
    I can't remember what it was.
    The same day, we all ended up in the hospital, all four.
    We got typhoid, diarrhea, typhoid, all this.
    Instead of eating a little bit and a piece of bread--
    they meant good.
    We didn't know, you know.
    We just-- yeah.
    We are free, right.
    We end up in the hospital.
    There was Wels.
    Wels is near Linz in Austria.
    It was not too far from Vienna and not too far from Salzburg,
    like the centre.
    I'm going to stop you here at this point for a few minutes--
    OK.
    --just so they can change the tape.
    OK.
    And we'll continue momentarily.
    OK.
    Would you please continue?
    Yes.
    Are we on now?
    Yes.
    Oh.
    In that hospital, it was a awful thing.
    Even so, I was fighting not to give in.
    I mean, not to survive.
    I could feel I'm getting weaker and weaker.
    The fever was so high, they typhoid and everything else.
    And every morning I got up I saw somebody's
    missing from this side and from that side.
    And there was three from the same guys who were together,
    four of us.
    And one day, a German doctor walks over.
    He wants to give me an injection.
    He's Austrian.
    By the way, this was a Catholic hospital,
    the nuns, the black things and the cross was hanging down.
    When I saw this--
    oy vey.
    And I told the doctor, look, you're not going to kill me.
    So he came with a needle.
    He looked at me.
    He says, [GERMAN], what you talking about?
    And I said, look, you killed enough.
    I survive without the injection.
    Don't you get close to me.
    So he walked away.
    But there was Americans who were there watching what's going on.
    They were in charge.
    The war was over.
    He comes over to me, a medic.
    He says, what's the problem?
    And I told him, I said I don't want this guy to kill me.
    In what language did he speak to you?
    I spoke in German, yeah, to the guy.
    I spoke-- Oh, the American, no, Yiddish, Yeah.
    He says to me, look, the war is over.
    We are watching here.
    This man's a doctor.
    He's not going to harm you.
    He said, I promise you.
    Let them give you an injection because you need it.
    I gave in.
    He gave me the injection.
    They gave me more the next day and the following day.
    I don't know, about four days here, I didn't know--
    I wasn't there.
    I don't even remember what happened.
    But one morning I remember getting up
    and my eyes are wide open.
    And I pinched myself.
    He saved my life.
    I thought everybody is dead, right.
    I must be alive.
    The doctor walks in, the same guy.
    He comes over to me.
    He says, [SPEAKING GERMAN].
    That means, boy, you made it.
    I looked at the guy and I felt different.
    And I say thank you, doctor.
    Then I realized what happened before, maybe I was wrong.
    I said thank you, doctor, because I felt good.
    And he says to me, do you want breakfast?
    I say, yeah, yeah, yeah.
    They brought me food.
    He said [NON-ENGLISH]-- little bit, little bit.
    A little bit, a little bit every day.
    And about the fifth day, he walks in and he says,
    you can go now whenever you want.
    He says, you're a free man.
    The day before that, a English chaplain
    comes over to me, an army chaplain.
    He says to me, where you from?
    I said, from Poland, and so and so-- family--
    he took the whole history.
    Do you have any relatives in the United States?
    I said, no.
    Do you have any relatives period?
    I said, yes, in England.
    He says, in England?
    I say, yeah.
    I say I have two uncles.
    I have my mother's brother and my father's brothers.
    He said, give me their names.
    And I said, Philip Glassman.
    He's a rabbi there.
    And he is my mother's brother.
    He said, are you kidding me?
    I said, why would I be kidding you.
    He is my uncle, my brother, my--
    And the fact is he was in Poland in 1937.
    And I describe it to you how he looks.
    He says go ahead.
    I said all right.
    He's a man, I said, about 5-8, 5-9.
    He had a little beard.
    And he was wearing like a cylinder, the English--
    yeah.
    I think he was a rabbi.
    And he came to see his mother, my grandmother, to Poland.
    And he told us he has to do it-- he means it like a [INAUDIBLE],
    that he must do it before the mother passed away.
    She was an old lady already.
    And then he says, bad times are coming to Europe.
    He told us that.
    And I was waiting for him at the station in our town.
    I see a man, didn't look like any Polish guy,
    with the hat and this--
    and the picture I was holding of him--
    I said to him, are you Uncle Fisher?
    In the English was Philip--
    Uncle Fisher.
    He said, [NON-ENGLISH].
    So I told him, I am Rochel's [INAUDIBLE].
    He says, you know, the chaplain, why I ask you all this?
    I said, I have no idea.
    He says Philip Glassman is my closest friend.
    So here is hope again.
    And I thought, now I'm going to England, be with my uncle.
    Have no problems, right?
    He said, who is your other uncle?
    And I told him Carmen Schwartz.
    I said Schwartz that time because Schwartz is English.
    He says, Carmen Schwartz.
    He says, where did he live?
    I said, I have address.
    He said, you have-- yeah, I have it.
    Where?
    I said, I memorized it.
    And I gave the address of both uncles.
    He said, he's a rich guy, your father's brother.
    He said if he lives in that area, he's a rich guy.
    And I remember my father used to tell me
    that he had a piece goods store, a few stores.
    He was a very rich man.
    He said, OK, OK, I won't bother you no more.
    I will get in contact with these people.
    That was it.
    I didn't hear from him no more--
    I mean, for a while.
    In the meantime I left the hospital.
    And I went to Salzburg.
    And over there was a big DP camp, in Salzburg.
    From there, all the young people, like my age,
    they were sent to Palestine.
    And they told me being I have no one, you don't have to,
    they said, but we suggest you should go to Palestine.
    That was '45 now.
    I said, OK.
    It was most people my age.
    Fine, the girls and boys, they gave us clothes and food,
    and some money to pocket.
    We were free, eh?
    And I was-- in a way, I was happy.
    I'll go to Palestine.
    After all, I belonged to the Betar before the war.
    And Jabotinsky was my hero.
    So why not?
    I go there.
    And we were sent to Italy to a town of Modena.
    There was a big tremendous camp.
    And being in Modena, I met more people, Poland, and Hungary,
    and from all over Europe, Czechoslovakia.
    And one evening, we were standing
    outside talking, and somebody-- my shoulder on the back.
    I turn around.
    There's a friend from my hometown,
    from the same town, Stawiszyn.
    Like you see somebody from the grave.
    You can't believe somebody is alive.
    He says-- I said, what are you doing here, to him.
    He said, oh, don't be a fool, the war is finished.
    I live in Germany.
    I heard Germany,
    I got so excited.
    Do you live in Germany now?
    He says, listen here, it's a new world now.
    I live in Germany and I go back and forth to Italy.
    I said, doing what?
    He was buying things, and then bring them over there,
    and selling.
    So the first question, normally, he asked anyone from my family,
    of course.
    He says, no, I didn't see anyone from your family.
    [INAUDIBLE]
    I said, anybody from our town?
    He said, yeah, your cousins there.
    Also in Germany?
    He said, yeah.
    You know what I told him, the first thing?
    I mean, asked about--
    when are you going back?
    He says, tomorrow morning.
    I said, do me a favor, wait for me tomorrow morning
    at the station.
    I said, please don't--
    he says, I'll be there.
    What time?
    He say, be there 4:00 in the morning.
    And my mind was made up right there,
    I'm not going to Palestine.
    Where were you staying?
    Modena.
    But I mean--
    Big camp, was rooms, like 20, 30 in one room,
    big rooms, big rooms.
    I couldn't sleep anymore the whole night.
    I was making plans--
    do this, I'll do this, and this, because I
    wanted to go to Palestine.
    But he told me, my cousins they're there.
    They said, maybe someone from my family is there too.
    I got up 3 o'clock in the morning,
    no one even heard me walking out.
    I took whatever I had with me, a few things.
    I walked towards the station.
    He was there waiting for me.
    We came on the train.
    I had not no tickets.
    I not a thing.
    We had to pass three borders to get back to Germany.
    There's a [INAUDIBLE].
    There's Italy, France, and Germany, right there,
    three corners.
    So of course, the guy comes over to me,
    a conductor-- your ticket?
    I says, what?
    I speak to him--
    I spoke to him in German--
    I don't understand.
    And the guy looks at me.
    He says, no-- he was arguing in Italian.
    You have to have a ticket, otherwise
    you have to get off the train.
    I says, look, mister--
    and like this I show him the number.
    Ah, he let me go.
    We came to the next station, the next borderline,
    the same question.
    A French-- he came up-- the French police.
    I remember he--
    [NON-ENGLISH], or something-- where do you travel?
    I couldn't make what he was talking about.
    And I said, Alemania--
    Germany.
    He says, Alemania-- ticket?
    I don't have it.
    I answered in German--
    [GERMAN]
    He said, you can't go.
    I said, yeah, I can go.
    I was arguing with him.
    I can go.
    I said I just came out of the camp.
    He says, camp?
    I say, you see this?
    And he says, go ahead.
    And I got through three border lines.
    And I came to Germany.
    With them, I had a little bit more courage.
    He comes over, asks me for the same thing.
    He wants a ticket.
    Him, I gave it to good.
    I said, you want a ticket?
    Otherwise, what are you going to do?
    You going to put me in the ovens?
    This was the German.
    Yeah.
    And he says, what?
    [GERMAN]
    I said, you didn't hear me?
    He said, where are you going?
    I said, none of your business.
    He walked away.
    Because I answered him like this,
    you know, I'm Jewish-- he walked away-- he walked away.
    Ended up in Munich.
    In Munich, we got off the train.
    Then we end up in Feldafing.
    From Munich, I went to Feldafing.
    It was a camp, a DP camp.
    And I was there, oh, a few hours maybe.
    I didn't like it.
    No, I'm sorry, no, it was Landsberg--
    Landsberg, Just a few hours.
    There was supposed to be a friend to my hometown.
    I wanted to see them.
    And I see things I didn't like.
    I said, goodbye.
    Went back to the train to Munich.
    It was a different direction, Landsberg and Feldafing.
    Can you tell us what you saw that you didn't like?
    Pardon me?
    Can you tell us what you saw?
    Yeah, well, they were from my hometown.
    And to be honest with you, there was a girl there which,
    like a childhood sweetheart, all right?
    I was a youngster.
    I said-- I asked her if you survive the war, wait for me.
    I mean, don't just run and whatever--
    get married.
    And I looked there and I saw another guy with her.
    I knew what the score is.
    I don't have to ask her more.
    But I walked over.
    And I said, hello, hello.
    He says-- after a while, I says-- took her aside,
    who is this guy?
    And she said, well, a man I got to go in the camp here.
    I says, fine.
    I say, you still healthy, I wish you all the best.
    Walked away.
    I said, finished.
    I didn't want no part anymore.
    First of all, she didn't keep her promise.
    Wait a little bit--
    I mean, wait.
    Maybe I'm alive.
    I am alive, I'm here, right?
    All right, not important.
    I went back to the train and I end up in Feldafing, in the camp
    there.
    And Feldafing, I didn't like.
    It was just-- remind me of the concentration camps--
    blocks.
    I was DP camp.
    And it wasn't so clean.
    I didn't like it.
    My cousin lived in a private town, private,
    in a town outside of Munich.
    And I knew where he lived.
    So I was in Feldafing maybe three months.
    I went to school in the meantime.
    I kept up whatever I didn't do before.
    I start learning English.
    And I end up in the little town, Moosburg.
    And in Moosburg I met my cousin.
    And right away, they gave you an apartment.
    The German police, they had to-- not they gave us.
    The American-- this was the American zone.
    The Americans told them any DP person comes in to this town,
    you have to provide a room.
    They didn't like it, but anyone who was in the party,
    not any other people, only party people, Nazis,
    they were forced to give up one or two rooms to people like me.
    So the chief of the police there-- it was a small town--
    he says, all right, all right, come with me, come with me.
    He took me his police car.
    We went up like three blocks away from the police station
    there, in the room, look at these people--
    elderly man, in his 60s.
    He didn't even look at me-- are you kidding-- say hello.
    But his wife said, oh, hello, hello.
    Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
    They gave me two rooms.
    I paid rent, of course.
    I paid rent here.
    And over there I stayed till I went to--
    I registered for United States.
    But before that I received a letter from my uncle,
    from my father's brother.
    I'll tell you the truth, he didn't write letter,
    his wife did--
    Yiddish, she wrote in Yiddish.
    This was not the rabbi, this was--
    No, that was my father's-- he wasn't the rabbi, no.
    My mother's brother.
    And she writes, we are so happy-- in Yiddish, of course--
    to hear that you are alive.
    And we are sorry that you are the only one who survived.
    And then quickly she adds to it, if you
    would be a brother instead of a nephew it would be much easier
    to bring you out to England.
    I didn't buy that.
    He has the same name.
    It's a nephew, right?
    I'm a nephew.
    But what can I do?
    I mean, I cannot force them to make some papers from me
    and bring me out.
    So I answered in a nice way--
    if you cannot, you cannot.
    What can I say?
    And I stopped writing.
    I says, I want no part of it.
    If you can be so cold.
    There were only two brothers, my father and him.
    There were two brothers, that's all.
    But he left earlier.
    Because at that time, he didn't want
    to go to the Russian army or whatever.
    So he escaped.
    He went to England.
    And he remained there.
    He married.
    He had a family.
    Very wealthy people.
    His daughter was at that time conductor
    on the BBC Radio in London.
    She was the director.
    She had like so many girls--
    she sent me pictures, everything.
    I have it.
    I still have it here, yeah, yeah.
    And I stopped writing.
    Then I received a letter from my mother's brother.
    But he would take me out.
    I know he would.
    His house he lived in was bombed by the Germans.
    And he was injured badly, very badly.
    He had eight operations.
    He didn't survive.
    So the aunt wrote a letter to me, also in Yiddish.
    She described what happened.
    And she said the truth, if this wouldn't have happened,
    there'd be no problem.
    We would take you out.
    So the score was settled.
    He cannot do because he's sick and the other one doesn't want
    to do.
    Simple as that, right.
    So I said, why you keep bothering
    and asking again and again.
    I mean, forget it.
    I went to the HIAS, or the UNRRA at the time,
    and I simply said I would like to go to America, that's it.
    And they said fine, make an application, yeah.
    And that came the question then about my birth certificate.
    So the fellow says we can't send you to America because we
    have to be sure of your age.
    And I said, I can't prove it to you.
    You have to believe me.
    He says, no, Try.
    Well, I send a letter to Poland.
    Polish, I know, of course.
    And in the house we lived in there was a Volksdeutsche,
    a German born in Poland.
    He was my father's best friend.
    They went to school together when they were young.
    And in fact, he was the only one--
    he came with food to the school.
    At the very beginning, when they took us from our hometown,
    the only Gentile--
    truth-- you know what a koszyk is?
    Yeah.
    A little--
    OK.
    Yeah, with bread.
    In fact, he even had kielbasa in there, but we wouldn't touch it,
    you know, we were kosher.
    And he says to the guard, this is
    for my friend, Joseph Schwartz.
    And they guard said, well, you cannot bring it in here,
    you're not allowed.
    He says, please, give it him.
    He's my best friend.
    And he spoke to him in German.
    So the guard looked around.
    He said, all right.
    And they was calling our name.
    And then they gave it to us.
    I write him a letter.
    I sent a letter to him--
    I have his letter at home.
    I have it-- in 1947.
    And I said, I am-- in the letter--
    I am so-and-so.
    I'm the son of Joseph Schwartz.
    And you used to be good friends and so and so.
    And I need a favor here.
    The truth, you know, I'm trying to go to the United States
    and they want proof, they want the birth certificate.
    Do you know, in seven days, I got a letter, airmail.
    I was shocked.
    With a copy of the birth certificate.
    And he writes a letter-- he was a very intelligent person--
    four pages.
    Beautiful Polish handwriting.
    Did you think for one minute that I didn't know who you are?
    Yeah, this here.
    He said, the minute I received your letter I went to the--
    and I took care of it, he said.
    And I wanted to do something for him.
    So I made out a package of tea, and coffee, things
    they don't have it over there.
    And I made it to him.
    He answered, he received it.
    He appreciates all this here.
    And when I came to United States,
    he asked me I should let them know when I arrive here.
    And I did.
    So he was at that time 80 years old.
    Oh.
    Yeah.
    And he writes to me if I could send him medicine.
    He had arthritis, rheumatism.
    He couldn't get it in Poland, this special medicine.
    He couldn't get it.
    I went to--
    I worked.
    I worked here in Newark.
    I worked with two brothers.
    They were Polish Gentiles.
    And I told them I want to help this man,
    but I don't know how to go about it.
    He says, give me the prescription
    and tomorrow we'll let you know how much it costs.
    And directly we send it out to Poland.
    There was a PKO--
    that's a Polish organization.
    Medicine could be sent immediately.
    They get it there, like, well airmail, maybe the second day
    it arrives.
    He did receive it.
    I paid the boys whatever it was.
    He didn't what to do in that letter.
    How beautiful and nice that I didn't forget and I did
    send it to him.
    And he don't need nothing, no food, nothing.
    He says I'm rich.
    He was a well-to-do man.
    He had a few houses there.
    He had a business.
    I don't need anything, he said.
    I'm an old man, medicine, that's what I need.
    And I sent another letter.
    And there was no more answer.
    So I assumed he must've passed away.
    But he was a nice-- a very nice person, yeah.
    And well, of course, I came to United States and I got married.
    And I have two children.
    The first marriage didn't work out.
    I'm married again now.
    And I already have grandchildren.
    I have two--
    I have a daughter and a son.
    What kind of work did you do?
    I was starting in shipping and receiving.
    And then I end up being a traffic manager.
    After all those years, 40 years.
    Where did you live when you here?
    Pardon me?
    Where did you live when you came here?
    I lived in Brooklyn, in Brooklyn, yeah, for--
    '49 I came here--
    not long, maybe 18 months or so.
    Then my first wife was from Newark.
    And I came to Newark.
    Got married here in Newark.
    I worked in Newark for a while.
    And that's it.
    And I remained in New Jersey.
    I didn't move back anymore.
    I lived in the--
    you know where White House is?
    White House Station?
    Mm-hmm.
    Yeah, I lived there.
    Then I moved back to Newark.
    And then was the divorce and this and that.
    And I met my wife, present wife.
    Yeah, also, at home I was religious.
    I was brought up in a religious home.
    We were not fanatic religious, but we were religious.
    We kept a kosher home.
    I was davening every day.
    We went to shul Friday night, Saturday.
    And was strictly kosher, strict.
    On Shabbos, nothing was done.
    On Friday night till Saturday night, nothing was done.
    It was a real day of rest.
    In our area, stores were not open on Saturday.
    It's not like United States, everything was closed.
    Everyone, believer or non-believer, the store
    was closed for Shabbos.
    And when I came over here--
    well, in the camps, it's funny, there was no meat to eat.
    So there was no problem with kosher or not kosher.
    When I came out of the camp, I remember the first time--
    and it was in Germany--
    and I want to have a meal.
    I couldn't ask for a kosher meal, so whatever was available,
    right?
    I believe it was kielbasa or something, the sausage,
    the German sausage.
    I was afraid to swallow it.
    I was afraid to swallow, the first swallow, I might choke.
    I know it's not kosher.
    But there was thing else to eat.
    So I swallowed it.
    And for about-- till I came to this country,
    I was not kosher, no, not at all.
    It bothered me in the beginning, yes.
    But then we established a little Jewish center there
    in that town.
    And we brought a rabbi from Munich.
    And we had the Jewish center.
    We had the shul.
    Had a little committee.
    And after a while, we had-- by 1948--
    about 70, 75 Jewish families, each living in their own homes--
    I mean like apartments, not homes.
    And it was real--
    like almost like going back to the days in Poland.
    Not exactly, no, far away from exactly.
    But in Germany we were more modern.
    Certain things we couldn't do what we did in Poland.
    We couldn't do it.
    But we kept the holidays, Shabbos.
    And like I said, we had a rabbi, kosher.
    The rabbi was also [INAUDIBLE].
    Yeah.
    We went to him and he killed the chicken
    or whatever had to be done.
    And when I came to the United States, I was again kosher.
    Yeah.
    Not 100% strict, but I was kosher, yeah.
    And now, in our house, strictly kosher.
    I work on Saturday, yes.
    But as far as--
    the foundation was laid when I was young.
    And it is hard to get away from it completely.
    You can't do it.
    You can't do it.
    I wouldn't order in a restaurant nothing which is not kosher.
    I go out to eat in a restaurant, yes.
    I would order fish.
    I know that fish are not completely
    100% kosher, because there are other things cooked
    in the same--
    but I order fish.
    I eat fish, yeah.
    And with any opportunity, I always will go to a kosher place
    to eat.
    If I go to New York, there's a kosher restaurant there.
    Can I ask you what your feelings were about God?
    Yes, about God, yes.
    Well, I believed in God 100%, even in the bad times,
    even when I lost my father, and I lost my brother,
    and I lost my little ones, the little brother
    and the little sister.
    I was angry many times.
    I was asking why.
    Why?
    If you're so merciful, why?
    No one answered.
    So you just say, well, maybe that's the way it should be.
    Or that's-- not that it should be,
    maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.
    Who am I to question?
    And they say, [NON-ENGLISH]-- you know some Hebrew?
    [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH].
    So I start to explain, the way you tried to explain to me,
    that maybe it should be.
    Maybe my questions are the wrong questions.
    I don't know.
    Then I even said, maybe God let me
    live that I should be the one to tell the story.
    I don't know.
    Maybe I'm wrong.
    But you explained to yourself so many different ways.
    I asked the question, why did I survive?
    Yeah, why did I survive?
    Who am I?
    Am I a tsaddik?
    Was I such a--
    I was not tsaddik.
    I was an ordinary person.
    I don't know.
    I don't know.
    Maybe it was a nes.
    Maybe it was fate.
    Or maybe I was in the right place at the right time.
    I try to explain to myself why.
    I have no answer.
    The ultimate answer is, thank God that I survived.
    I can't explain any other way.
    I don't know.
    I don't know.
    I always had that question why were
    children slaughtered, innocent, innocent, innocent.
    Innocent souls, so clean, just born, a month, two months.
    What did they sin?
    What did they do?
    Why?
    Because the mother or father was Jewish,
    this is the reason to kill or get killed?
    I don't know.
    I asked a rabbi in Germany the same thing.
    He couldn't answer.
    I asked a rabbi right here in Union, Rabbi [PERSONAL NAME].
    I don't know if you've heard of him?
    Yes.
    In Temple Israel, he's my rabbi.
    We belong there.
    We are members there.
    He said, Mr. Schwartz, I cannot answer.
    I said I wasn't so strong.
    I was weaker than my other brothers, but I survived.
    Have you spoken of this to your children?
    I tried.
    They were smaller yet, much younger.
    And they didn't comprehend what happened, they didn't.
    They asked me questions, yes.
    They were about four or five.
    They asked me, we have no grandfather or no grandmother?
    It's hard to explain to a child that's four or five why
    they don't have a grandfather.
    But I did the best way I knew how.
    When they were like seven or eight, then I--
    slowly it came out.
    And I explained there was a war.
    And they killed people.
    And they killed my father, and my mother, and my brothers--
    the whole story.
    So they asked me, why?
    All right, I explained why.
    Because they were Jewish.
    Because they were Jewish.
    My father and mother were Jewish.
    And we were born to them.
    So we [? automatically ?] were also Jewish.
    And anyone who was Jewish was bad--
    according to Germans this was If you're a German,
    you cannot live.
    I mean, you were Jewish, you cannot live.
    Then come the question, you survived.
    And I explained, maybe I was lucky.
    Or maybe God wanted it this way.
    I say, I survived.
    So here I am and I can tell you what happened.
    And after all this, she asked me again,
    my daughter, you don't have a brother or a sister?
    It didn't-- it didn't register all of it.
    Don't you have one brother or one sister?
    Yeah.
    Of course, now they're much older.
    They understand what happened.
    And life goes on.
    Life goes on.
    But thank God--
    I have to say it now--
    that I picked the United States instead of England.
    Because I would probably have problems over there
    with my family or in any other way.
    So I came here to United States, to a strange country
    with no relatives, no friends.
    I came to the United States, that's it, one person.
    And thank God I made it.
    I raised a family.
    I don't say perfect, not perfect.
    I raised them.
    My son is a lawyer.
    My daughter's a teacher.
    And I have a good wife now.
    We live good.
    We're happy.
    We did good.
    I came with empty pockets, just what
    I had on me, nothing else, nothing.
    I had no one penny to my name, nothing.
    And today, I can say to everybody
    I have the same as the other one,
    the third one, the fifth one.
    Because the opportunity is here.
    If you want to, if you're not lazy,
    and if you want to work hard, you can do it even from work.
    You don't have to be a big businessman.
    You can do it.
    And use your head once in a while.
    Don't be a fool.
    Use your head.
    Make decisions, not always the right ones.
    Sometimes they're not the right ones.
    So you learn, a little mistake.
    The second time, you make the right decision.
    I would say I made good decisions.
    And I have to in closing say, thank God that I did survive.
    And thank you for giving me the opportunity to come here
    and tell my story.
    Thank you.
    You have a remarkable outlook on life.
    Very positive.
    Thank you very much.
    Can I take it off?
    OK, yeah.

    Overview

    Interviewee
    Fred Schwartz
    Interviewer
    Bernard Weinstein
    Date
    interview:  1989 July 31
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Holocaust Resource Center at Kean University

    Physical Details

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

    Rights & Restrictions

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

    Copyright Holder
    The Holocaust Resource Center at Kean University

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Schwartz, Fred, 1928-

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Provenance
    The interview was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum along with other interviews between 1993 - 1997 by the Holocaust Resource Center at Kean College (now Kean University).
    Funding Note
    The creation and display of the time-coded transcript for this collection was completed with assistance from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.
    Record last modified:
    2025-02-13 10:49:59
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    Oral history interview with Pepa Gold

    Oral History

    Pepa Gold, born in 1924, discusses her childhood in Buczacz, Poland (Buchach, Ukraine); recollections of occupation by the Russians in 1939 and occupation by the Germans from June 1941 until March 1944; memories of life under Russian occupation; her memories of living under German occupation; her memory of a two-day "Aktion" in February 1942 after which 1,000 people were taken away and typhus was introduced; her time hiding in several Polish homes; her escape from detection by Germans by hiding in abandoned Jewish home in February 1944; her liberation by Russian soldiers on March 24,1944; her return to Buczacz after liberation; her move to the Russian side of the front; her move to the Russian-Polish border where she lived for three months; her return to Buczacz in July 1944; her move to Kraków, Poland, in July 1945; her time in Breslau, Germany (Wrocław, Poland), with two of her brothers from July 1945 until May 1946; her recollection of the confiscation of her father's candy factory by Germans to sew soldiers' caps; her time in Berlin, Germany, from 1946 to 1948; her memories of support by United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration; her life in Munich, Germany from 1948 to 1951; her move to the United States in 1951; and her life in the US after 1951.

    Oral history interview with Ernest Gottdiener

    Oral history interview with Ernest Gottdiener

    Oral History

    Ernest Gottdiener, born October 13, 1920 in Hajdúnánás, Hungary, discusses his life in Debretzen (Debrecen), Hungary and Hajdúnánás; his recollections of his father's death from cancer in 1935; his memories of secular and religious elementary education; his Yeshiva education; his business education and business career; his memory of the outbreak of war in 1939; his brother's army service and death from typhus; his brother's experience as a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union from 1944 until 1947; his relatives hiding in a monastery as well as Hungarian homes with Wallenberg and their Gentile papers; hiding in Wallenberg's "Swedish House;" his brother's move to Palestine in 1939; his many relatives who were murdered in Auschwitz; forced labor units; the change in Jewish lives after March 19, 1944 when Germany became dominant in Hungarian affairs; his several escapes from Nazi capture; his "Swedish papers;" his memory of ghettos in Budapest after liberation; his life in Debretzen and Hajdúnánás from March 1945 to 1948; his marriage to Judith Gottdiener in Budapest, Hungary, in 1948; his memory of communist domination of Hungary; his move to Vienna, Austria, in 1948; his immigration to the United States in 1959; and his life in Elizabeth, NJ, after 1961.

    Oral history interview with Judit Gottdiener

    Oral history interview with Judit Gottdiener

    Oral History

    Judit Gottdiener, born in 1936 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her early childhood in Budapest; her recollections of enjoyable family life and religious experience; the Royal Air Force bombing Budapest; her father's tobacco accessories store; her memories of wearing a yellow star; her family's attempt to escape to Palestine; her transport to Bergen-Belsen; participating in the daily counting; her memories of Yom Kippur in Bergen-Belsen; her transport to a Red Cross Camp in Switzerland; her memories of her grandparents' deaths in the Budapest ghetto; her marriage to Ernest in 1948; her move back to Vienna, Austria, from the United States in 1958; and her permanent move to the United States in 1961.

    Oral history interview with Arie Halpern

    Oral history interview with Arie Halpern

    Oral History

    Arie Halpern, born in 1918, discusses his life in Chorostkow (Khorostkiv, Ukraine); recollections of Polish occupation of the area in 1920; Hasidism and Zionism in Chorostkow; his public school education and "cheder" education; his career as a bookkeeper; his eldest’s brother's move to Lemberg, Galicia (Lʹviv, Ukraine) in 1934 to work in a Zionist organization; his conscription by the Soviets in 1941 into an army construction battalion; his memory of the Russian-German war beginning on June 22, 1941; the German occupation of Chorostkow in October 1941; the Judenrat in Chorostkow and in Terebovlya (Terebovlia), Ukraine; hiding in Poland and in Ukraine; performing manual labor for the German labor force; his memory of "Chol Hamoed Succot" in October 1942; his proposition to the parents of Mary Schwartz, a local survivor, to build a secret tunnel together; his memory of an "Aktion Night" in Chorostkow; his escape to Terebovlya in November 1942; his memories of the Terebovlya ghetto; the murder of his family by Germans in April 1943; his time spent in a labor camp outside of Terebovlya in April 1943; his time in hiding with his brother Sam in the barn of a Polish-Ukrainian farmer from July 8, 1943 until March 22, 1944; and returning to Chorostkow after he came out of hiding.

    Oral history interview with Gladys Halpern

    Oral history interview with Gladys Halpern

    Oral History

    Gladys Halpern discusses her childhood and family in Zólkiew, Poland (ZHovkva, Ukraine) and those family members who survived; the Russian occupation between 1939 and 1941; her memories of pogroms, murders, and selections when the Germans arrived in June 1941; the Jews being moved to Belzec, Poland, and their murders; the murder of her father and the remaining Jewish population of Zólkiew in March 1943; the Jews buried in three mass graves outside of L'vov, Poland (now L'viv, Ukraine); hiding for 18 months in L'vov; meeting her future husband in Poland; living in Bayreuth, Germany, between 1946 and 1949 with her husband; going to New York, NY in 1950; and establishing contact with the daughter of the Halitskys, a Polish couple who hid her family during World War II.

    Oral history interview with Samuel Halpern

    Oral history interview with Samuel Halpern

    Oral History

    Samuel Halpern discusses his childhood in Chorostkow (Khorostkiv, Ukraine), near the Polish border; his memories of a diverse population of Jews, Polish, and Ukrainians; his interactions with Gentiles at school and in business; his memory of the Nazis killing one of his brothers; his survival with his brother, Arie; his memories of a second brother's death before World War II; the liquidation of the family's business; his father working for the occupying Russian government; his memories of Jewish reactions to Adolf Hitler's propaganda; the ghetto in Kam'iane Pole (Kamenka), Ukraine; the liquidation of the Khorostkiv ghetto in October 1942; his father's deportation to the Belzec concentration camp; the transport of his mother and brother to the ghetto in Terebovlia, Ukraine; his mother's death in the Terebovlya aktion of March 1943; joining with his brother, Arie, in Kam'iane Pole; his escape from Kam'iane Pole; his time in Ivanovka, Ukraine; his time in hiding on the farm of a Polish family; his memories of Russian liberation in March 1944; his move to the United States in 1949; his feelings of obligation to tell the story of the Holocaust for those who died; and his feelings of bitterness at the failure of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin to address the plight of the Jews during World War II.

    Oral history interview with Luna Kaufman

    Oral history interview with Luna Kaufman

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with David Kempinski

    Oral history interview with David Kempinski

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Eva Kempinski

    Oral history interview with Eva Kempinski

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Clara Kramer

    Oral history interview with Clara Kramer

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Rose Kramer

    Oral history interview with Rose Kramer

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Rae Kushner

    Oral history interview with Rae Kushner

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Mayer Lief

    Oral history interview with Mayer Lief

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Isak Levenstein

    Oral history interview with Isak Levenstein

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Sally Levenstein

    Oral history interview with Sally Levenstein

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Manya Mandelbaum

    Oral history interview with Manya Mandelbaum

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Allen Moskowitz

    Oral history interview with Allen Moskowitz

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Sonya Oshman

    Oral history interview with Sonya Oshman

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Liesel Mayerfeld

    Oral history interview with Liesel Mayerfeld

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Lisa Reibel

    Oral history interview with Lisa Reibel

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Paul Schmelzer

    Oral history interview with Paul Schmelzer

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Susan Schmelzer

    Oral history interview with Susan Schmelzer

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Adela Sommer

    Oral history interview with Adela Sommer

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Jack Spiegel

    Oral history interview with Jack Spiegel

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Abraham Zuckerman

    Oral history interview with Abraham Zuckerman

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Paul Gast

    Oral history interview with Paul Gast

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Mina Zuckerman

    Oral history interview with Mina Zuckerman

    Oral History

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

    Oral History interview with Henry Butensky

    Oral History interview with Henry Butensky

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with David Dorfman

    Oral history interview with David Dorfman

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Max Findling

    Oral history interview with Max Findling

    Oral History

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

    Oral History interview with Lilly Gottlieb

    Oral History interview with Lilly Gottlieb

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Zygmunt Gottlieb

    Oral history interview with Zygmunt Gottlieb

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Alice Lefkovic

    Oral history interview with Alice Lefkovic

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Charles Levine

    Oral history interview with Charles Levine

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Eva Laks

    Oral history interview with Eva Laks

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Naftali Laks

    Oral history interview with Naftali Laks

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Leonard Linton

    Oral history interview with Leonard Linton

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Henry Lowenbraun

    Oral history interview with Henry Lowenbraun

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Paul Monka

    Oral history interview with Paul Monka

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Walter Nachtigall

    Oral history interview with Walter Nachtigall

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Judah Nadich

    Oral history interview with Judah Nadich

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Herma Rappaport

    Oral history interview with Herma Rappaport

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Robert Rothschild

    Oral history interview with Robert Rothschild

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Morris Rubell

    Oral history interview with Morris Rubell

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Aaron Schwarz

    Oral history interview with Aaron Schwarz

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Ida Schwarz

    Oral history interview with Ida Schwarz

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Gertrude Sonnenberg

    Oral history interview with Gertrude Sonnenberg

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Joseph Weinbuch

    Oral history interview with Joseph Weinbuch

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Sol Urbach

    Oral history interview with Sol Urbach

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Luba Zeidel

    Oral history interview with Luba Zeidel

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Teddy Zweig

    Oral history interview with Teddy Zweig

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Susan Lederman

    Oral history interview with Susan Lederman

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with David Altholz

    Oral history interview with David Altholz

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Ann Schatz

    Oral history interview with Ann Schatz

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Aron Grynwald

    Oral history interview with Aron Grynwald

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Gitla Grynwald

    Oral history interview with Gitla Grynwald

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Sally Chase

    Oral history interview with Sally Chase

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Renee Cantor

    Oral history interview with Renee Cantor

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Lotte Baum

    Oral history interview with Lotte Baum

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Aba Prawer

    Oral history interview with Aba Prawer

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Dina Weinreb Jacoud

    Oral history interview with Dina Weinreb Jacoud

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Margie Appel

    Oral history interview with Margie Appel

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Victor Wegard

    Oral history interview with Victor Wegard

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Edith Farben

    Oral history interview with Edith Farben

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Robert Mansfeld

    Oral history interview with Robert Mansfeld

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Henry Yungst

    Oral history interview with Henry Yungst

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Zelda Peters

    Oral history interview with Zelda Peters

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with David Rosenblum

    Oral history interview with David Rosenblum

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Mila Bachner

    Oral history interview with Mila Bachner

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Ernest Bokor

    Oral history interview with Ernest Bokor

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Jola Hoffman

    Oral history interview with Jola Hoffman

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Leon Bass

    Oral history interview with Leon Bass

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Michael Hersh

    Oral history interview with Michael Hersh

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Jack Ring

    Oral history interview with Jack Ring

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Lee Merel

    Oral history interview with Lee Merel

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Harold Zelmanovics

    Oral history interview with Harold Zelmanovics

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Gertrude Lichtenfeld

    Oral history interview with Gertrude Lichtenfeld

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Regina Faigenbaum

    Oral history interview with Regina Faigenbaum

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Enock Trencher

    Oral history interview with Enock Trencher

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rose Lazarus

    Oral history interview with Rose Lazarus

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Leonard Woloski

    Oral history interview with Leonard Woloski

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Hugo Princz

    Oral history interview with Hugo Princz

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Roney Haliczer

    Oral history interview with Roney Haliczer

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Halina Kleiner

    Oral history interview with Halina Kleiner

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Norman Salsitz

    Oral history interview with Norman Salsitz

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Amalie Salsitz

    Oral history interview with Amalie Salsitz

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Hans Fisher

    Oral history interview with Hans Fisher

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Mike Goldberger

    Oral history interview with Mike Goldberger

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with John Farinella

    Oral history interview with John Farinella

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Herb Carlson

    Oral history interview with Herb Carlson

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with John Coulston

    Oral history interview with John Coulston

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Gladys Helfgott

    Oral history interview with Gladys Helfgott

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Martha Eckstein

    Oral history interview with Martha Eckstein

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Dora Schoen

    Oral history interview with Dora Schoen

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Elsie Brunstein

    Oral history interview with Elsie Brunstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Henry Erlich

    Oral history interview with Henry Erlich

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Bernard Ahrend

    Oral history interview with Bernard Ahrend

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with George Popper

    Oral history interview with George Popper

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rose Schwartz

    Oral history interview with Rose Schwartz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Libby Feit

    Oral history interview with Libby Feit

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Hella Bailin

    Oral history interview with Hella Bailin

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Shlomo Biezunski

    Oral history interview with Shlomo Biezunski

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Ida Borenstein

    Oral history interview with Ida Borenstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Helena Bokor

    Oral history interview with Helena Bokor

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lisbeth Brodie

    Oral history interview with Lisbeth Brodie

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Irene Buchner

    Oral history interview with Irene Buchner

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sol Einhorn

    Oral history interview with Sol Einhorn

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Frieda Fried

    Oral history interview with Frieda Fried

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lilly Goldberger

    Oral history interview with Lilly Goldberger

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Reubin Weitzman and Milton Goldberg

    Oral history interview with Reubin Weitzman and Milton Goldberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Pearl Gruenberg

    Oral history interview with Pearl Gruenberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Eddie Harvit

    Oral history interview with Eddie Harvit

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Helen Yomtov Herman

    Oral history interview with Helen Yomtov Herman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lucie Jacobson

    Oral history interview with Lucie Jacobson

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Marguerite Jeremias

    Oral history interview with Marguerite Jeremias

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Ernest Pollack

    Oral history interview with Ernest Pollack

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Henry Ricklis

    Oral history interview with Henry Ricklis

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Justin Rothschild

    Oral history interview with Justin Rothschild

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Mala Sperling

    Oral history interview with Mala Sperling

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Adam Spiro

    Oral history interview with Adam Spiro

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Cyla Stal

    Oral history interview with Cyla Stal

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Elizabeth Stern-Szollosi

    Oral history interview with Elizabeth Stern-Szollosi

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lee Weinberg

    Oral history interview with Lee Weinberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with David Werdiger

    Oral history interview with David Werdiger

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Ilona Werdiger

    Oral history interview with Ilona Werdiger

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rosalyn Rueff

    Oral history interview with Rosalyn Rueff

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lillian Ettinger

    Oral history interview with Lillian Ettinger

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Jeanette Ehrlich

    Oral history interview with Jeanette Ehrlich

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Suzanne Winarsky

    Oral history interview with Suzanne Winarsky

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Francis Weisman

    Oral history interview with Francis Weisman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Dora Roth

    Oral history interview with Dora Roth

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Ruth Friedman

    Oral history interview with Ruth Friedman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Cecile Seiden

    Oral history interview with Cecile Seiden

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Kamilla Ehre

    Oral history interview with Kamilla Ehre

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Ann Monka

    Oral history interview with Ann Monka

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Edith Kornbluth

    Oral history interview with Edith Kornbluth

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with William Kornbluth

    Oral history interview with William Kornbluth

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Solomon Lasky

    Oral history interview with Solomon Lasky

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Irving Gerenstein

    Oral history interview with Irving Gerenstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Zygmunt Lehman

    Oral history interview with Zygmunt Lehman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with A. Kevin Quinn

    Oral history interview with A. Kevin Quinn

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Aaron Rosenblum

    Oral history interview with Aaron Rosenblum

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Joan Bonder

    Oral history interview with Joan Bonder

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Ada Abrahamer

    Oral history interview with Ada Abrahamer

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Leo Laufer

    Oral history interview with Leo Laufer

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Karolyn Freud

    Oral history interview with Karolyn Freud

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Michel Thomas

    Oral history interview with Michel Thomas

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Pearl Shames

    Oral history interview with Pearl Shames

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Elbridge Holland

    Oral history interview with Elbridge Holland

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Arnold Herzberg

    Oral history interview with Arnold Herzberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Henry Kolber

    Oral history interview with Henry Kolber

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Morris Bergen

    Oral history interview with Morris Bergen

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Pearl Davis

    Oral history interview with Pearl Davis

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lillian Ross

    Oral history interview with Lillian Ross

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Nathan Schwarcz

    Oral history interview with Nathan Schwarcz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Susanne Prager

    Oral history interview with Susanne Prager

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lien Con

    Oral history interview with Lien Con

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Lauryann Friedman

    Oral history interview with Lauryann Friedman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Nathan Glass

    Oral history interview with Nathan Glass

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Benjamin Katzwer

    Oral history interview with Benjamin Katzwer

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sarah Osak

    Oral history interview with Sarah Osak

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Julia Altholz

    Oral history interview with Julia Altholz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Alter Pekier

    Oral history interview with Alter Pekier

    Oral History

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

    Oral history interview with Bennett Silberstein

    Oral history interview with Bennett Silberstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Albert Marzurkiewicz

    Oral history interview with Albert Marzurkiewicz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Joel Frisch

    Oral history interview with Joel Frisch

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Leo Stahl

    Oral history interview with Leo Stahl

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Herta Erreich

    Oral history interview with Herta Erreich

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Freida Yeager

    Oral history interview with Freida Yeager

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Abraham Shlomowitz

    Oral history interview with Abraham Shlomowitz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Fred Eisner

    Oral history interview with Fred Eisner

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Aida Brydbord

    Oral history interview with Aida Brydbord

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Martha Klein

    Oral history interview with Martha Klein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Saul Weinberger

    Oral history interview with Saul Weinberger

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Eliasz Glanz

    Oral history interview with Eliasz Glanz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sylvia Wirtzbaum

    Oral history interview with Sylvia Wirtzbaum

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Philip Lederman

    Oral history interview with Philip Lederman

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Stella Rabner

    Oral history interview with Stella Rabner

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Shlomo Weinglas

    Oral history interview with Shlomo Weinglas

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with David Katz

    Oral history interview with David Katz

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rose Laiter

    Oral history interview with Rose Laiter

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Maurice Rauchweld

    Oral history interview with Maurice Rauchweld

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Leon Faigenbaum

    Oral history interview with Leon Faigenbaum

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Helen Raff

    Oral history interview with Helen Raff

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Musia Luttenger-Gross

    Oral history interview with Musia Luttenger-Gross

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Jack Chevlin

    Oral history interview with Jack Chevlin

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Jerry Miron

    Oral history interview with Jerry Miron

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Richard Tisch

    Oral history interview with Richard Tisch

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Nella Bergen

    Oral history interview with Nella Bergen

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Sam Stimler

    Oral history interview with Sam Stimler

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Eugene Fried

    Oral history interview with Eugene Fried

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Rosalie Klein

    Oral history interview with Rosalie Klein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Alvin Weinstein

    Oral history interview with Alvin Weinstein

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Henry Landsberg

    Oral history interview with Henry Landsberg

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Herschel Schacter

    Oral history interview with Herschel Schacter

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Celina Rosenblum

    Oral history interview with Celina Rosenblum

    Oral History

    Oral history interview with Idek Rosenblum

    Oral history interview with Idek Rosenblum

    Oral History

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