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Oral history interview with Fred Firnbacher

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 2010.251 | RG Number: RG-50.030.0587

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    Oral history interview with Fred Firnbacher

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Fred Firnbacher, born on May 19, 1930 in Regensburg, Germany, discusses his childhood in Straubing, Germany; his birth name Manfred Firnbacher which he later changed to Frederick Stephen Firnbacher; his father’s profession in the horse and cattle trade; his mother’s hometown of Buttenwiesen, Germany; his childhood memories of visiting his maternal grandfather in Buttenwiesen; being raised as an Orthodox Jew; attending a Protestant school; being expelled from school at the age of six when he was threatened by a Nazi youth; meeting with a retired religious leader who clandestinely taught Jewish children; German troops passing through during invasions of Austria and Czechoslovakia; his memories of Kristallnacht; his father’s arrest and deportation to Dachau the day after Kristallnacht; his family’s journey to the United States Consulate in Stuttgart, Germany in December 1938 for visas; traveling by train to Holland in January 1939; immigrating to the United States and settling in Washington, DC with his family at the age of eight; how his great-grandfather Moses Firnbacher commissioned the creation of a Torah from which four generations of Firnbachers were Bar Mitzvah’d; how his father Maier Firnbacher brought the family’s Torah out of Germany; censored mail from extended family in Germany during war; being stationed in Germany in 1954-55 during the Korean War; being stationed in Wildflecken, Germany; traveling to Buttenweisen, Würzburg, Munich, Augsburg, and Straubing while stationed in Germany; and his mother’s bitterness towards Germany and Germans.
    Interviewee
    Fred Firnbacher
    Interviewer
    Susan Goldstein Snyder
    Ina Navazelskis
    Date
    interview:  2010 September 16

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    1 digital file : WAV.

    Rights & Restrictions

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

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Firnbacher, Fred, 1930-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Ina Navazelskis, Program Coordinator for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch, conducted the interview with Fred Firnbacher on September 16, 2010. The interview was transferred to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in October 2010. A preliminary interview with Mr. Firnbacher, conducted on March 1, 2010, was added to the collection in January 2011.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:03:44
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn42019

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