Oral history interview with Jack Unikowski

Oral history interview with Benjamin Lewin

Oral History

Benjamin Lewin, born in 1926 in Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary), Czech Republic, describes his father, who was a traveling salesman for a shoe manufacturer; his mother, who ran a kosher "Pensionat" (i.e. a small hotel), accommodating 50 guests; the increase in Nazism in 1936; his family moving to Aussig (Ústí nad Labem), Czech Republic; the German takeover of the Sudeten in 1938; his family moving to Prague, Czech Republic; the living conditions in Prague after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939 and being fraught with fear; his family manufacturing of electric kettles for export to Germany in conjunction with a workshop, which was formerly owned by his uncle and transferred to non-Jewish management; the Jewish life in Prague and his bar mitzvah; their manufacturing job lasting until May 1941 when they ran out of production materials; being provided food by Czech farmers; how the Czech police hated the Germans and behaved "decently"; the deportation of Prague Jews to Theresienstadt beginning in May-June 1941; the lists of the Jewish population that were drawn up by the Jewish administration and how call-ups for "resettlement" took place in alphabetical order; his family being sent to Theresienstadt in September 1941; working as an electrician in the camp; his mother being assigned to the kitchen, which helped him get extra rations; the poor conditions in the camp; he and his father being in a barracks with German Jews and his belief that they received preferential treatment; the well documented visit of the Swiss Red Cross officials and the sham perpetrated by the Germans; being taken with his father to Auschwitz during the summer of 1944; he and his father surviving the selection; being protected by a Kapo along with two other youths; being taken to Czechowice (Tschechowitz), where his father died; being marched to Obitz and then transported in open cattle cars to Buchenwald; how only 1,000 of the 7,000 people on the train survived; being liberated by the Russians; returning to Prague in August 1945; finding his mother and sister who were liberated in Theresienstadt; being called up for military service in the Czech Army; going to Belgium where he briefly attend school; his adjustment to life in Australia; and how he attributes his survival to youth.

Oral history interview with Lea Rehberger Heimler

Oral History

Lea Heimler (née Rehberger), born March 3, 1927 in Gyor, Hungary, describes her father, who owned a pub and was killed in an accident in 1939; moving with her mother to the small town of Farád nearby and living near other family members; the local Jewish population consisting of only eight families and her mother running a small store; the Germans occupation of Hungary in March 1944 and the local Jews being forced into a small ghetto in Csorna; being moved several weeks later to a larger ghetto/camp in Sarvar; being transported with all the camp inmates, mostly women and children, to Auschwitz by cattle cars in June 1944; arriving in Auschwitz; being separated from her mother and never seeing her again; being held in barracks for about six weeks; being transported to Allendorf concentration camp in Frankenberg, Germany in August 1944; working in an underground munitions factory and the conditions there; being marched for approximately 60 kilometers to the vicinity of the town of Homberg (Kreis Kassel), Germany; the German guards disappearing and being liberated the next day by American troops; returning to Gyor in 1946; getting married in 1948; and leaving Hungary for Austria with her husband and daughter and immigrating the same year to Australia.

Oral history interview with Sara Shur Lamdanskaia

Oral History

Oral history interview with Abram Goldberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Izabella Sztein Krol-Stupecki

Oral History

Oral history interview with Simon Michalowicz

Oral History

Oral history interview with Veronika Roth Varga

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gunter Sondheim

Oral History

Oral history interview with Floris Gryfenberg Kalman

Oral History

Floris Gryfenberg Kalman, born in Brussels, Belgium, describes her Polish parents who had immigrated in 1929; fleeing to France in May 1940; her father being inducted in the Polish Army in France; being sent back to Belgium with her mother and younger sister by the Germans in late 1940; living fairly normally until the summer of 1942 when the deportations started; her experiences as a hidden child, which she still feels the effects; her relationship with her parents deteriorating and feeling abandoned by them; her family surviving the war and immigrating to Australia in 1949; finishing high school and earning a university degree; returning to the Jewish religion through her children despite the protests of her parents who were of Bundist conviction; her involvement with her children and grandchildren; and how her newly found faith has made her a happier person.

Oral history interview with Helena Storch Jacobs

Oral History

Oral history interview with Stephen Curtis

Oral History

Stephen Curtis (né Istvan Kertesz), born September 7, 1918 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in a middle class, non-religious family; being inducted into a work battalion of the Hungarian Army in 1942; how the conditions were not bad and there were several lengthy periods when he could return to Budapest; getting married in April 1944 and having to go back to the camp; working for the Wehrmacht in Poland digging ditches; how his wife and mother-in-law were sent to a camp in Burgenland (now Hungary) and survived; getting back to Burgenland toward the end of the war; his family returning to Budapest on April 18, 1945; immigrating to Israel (then part of Palestine) in 1946; spending time in the Hagana and in the War of Liberation (1948); participating in the battle to open up the road to Jerusalem; moving in 1955 to Australia because he got tired of serving every year in the reserves; and his advice to fellow Jews.

Oral history interview with Frank Jenner

Oral History

Frank Jenner (né Gazirovsky), born on January 2, 1920 in Düsseldorf, Germany, describes his youth in Düsseldorf and Wuppertal, Germany; not experiencing much antisemitism until well into the Nazi period; being counseled in 1938 to join a Jewish training farm for young people; his memories of Kristallnacht when he and other students over the age of 18 were arrested and taken to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany; conditions in the camp; being released in early 1939 when he received a visa to Australia, which was in need of agricultural workers; and arriving in Australia in the summer of 1939 and working for two years on farms.

Oral history interview with Jakob Ginzberg

Oral History

Jakob Ginzberg, born in Lodz, Poland on March 10, 1920, describes being raised in a family of seven children; his father, who was a Gerrer Chasid and the owner of a small knitting factory; his father’s death when Jakob was 14 years old; his family escaping the ghetto with the help of a Volkdeutsch acquaintance; going to his mother’s hometown of Koinck (near Radom, Poland); being taken to Chelmno and Lublin, where he was forced to work on airplanes; being taken to Ukraine to do forced labor on roads and fortifications; having an accident and going to the hospital; being sent back to Koinck; winding up in the Radom ghetto, where he worked in a bicycle factory; learning the electrical welding trade, which later became the secret of his survival; working in a munitions factory in Skolna (ph) as a welder; being taken on a five-day march as the Russians approached; winding up in Auschwitz; continuing to Wehingen, Germany, where there was a French prisoner of war camp and eventually to Dachau; being taken to Seefeld and Garmisch Partenkirchen, where he was saved by a German woman; being liberated by the United States Army; and believing that he survived in order to share his story with future generations.

Oral history interview with Magda Fried Curtis

Oral History

Magda Fried Curtis, born in Kismarok, Czechoslovakia in 1921, describes her father dying while she was an infant; her mother and two older brothers; moving with her mother to Budapest, Hungary in 1929, while her brothers stayed in Czechoslovakia; the anti-Jewish laws beginning in Hungary in 1939 and not being allowed to get a higher education; finding a job as a secretary in a non-Jewish cosmetics company, where she managed the business; meeting her husband Stephen (RG-50.407*0012) in 1938; the war beginning and her husband serving in the Hungarian military labor camps; getting married during the German occupation of Hungary; the severe conditions in Budapest when they were moved to “Jewish Houses”; how she and her mother were among 2,000, mostly Jewish women, who were taken to Deutschkreis in Burgeland in October 1944; being left behind with her mother and approximately 30 other women to clean up the camp, while most of the other prisoners were taken to Bergen-Belsen; managing to get back across the Hungarian border and being liberated by the Russian Army; her husband surviving; making their way back to Budapest where only her father-in-law had survived; immigrating with Stephen to Israel in 1948; immigrating to Australia in 1957; and ascribing her survival to luck and a positive mental attitude.

Oral history interview with Anna Grunfeld Danko

Oral History

Anna Danko (née Gruenfeld), born June 29, 1924 in Verek Berchova (ph), Czechoslovakia near Munkacz (Mukacheve, Ukraine), describes her religious family; her brothers attending Yeshiva in Bratislava; how her hometown became part of Hungary during the war; the formation of the ghetto; being deported to Auschwitz; how she and her sister were able to help many fellow prisoners while in the camp; being sent to Ravensbrück and then Reichshof, traveling by foot and by cattle car; and being liberated by the Russian Army.

Oral history interview with Klara Litvak Eydina

Oral History

Oral history interview with Bela Garfinchel Meylikh

Oral History

Bella Garfinchel Meylikh, born August 1925 in Benderi, Romania (Bender, Moldova), describes the population of 50,000-60,000 inhabitants, of which approximately half were Jewish; her parents, who were both medical doctors; her father’s death when she was five years old; growing up in a non-religious environment, but with a feeling of Jewish belonging; her family moving to Kishinev (Chisinau, Moldova) in 1930; Jabotinsky’s speech about the coming dangers for the Jewish people; the political upheavals in Romania when the Iron Guard came to power; how in 1940 Bessarabia was taken over by the Soviets; escaping into Russia with her mother in 1941; winding up in a small village in Kazakhstan, living under extremely primitive conditions; her mother continuing to practice medicine in Kazakhstan; entering the university in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 1942; receiving permission in 1944 to return to Kishinev; finishing college and studying medicine in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg, Russia); the nightmarish antisemitism of Stalin’s final days; and receiving permission to leave the Soviet Union in 1970 and settling in Australia.

Oral history interview with Miriam Blumenstock Unreich

Oral History

Miriam Unreich (née Blumenstock), born April 30, 1923 in Spicka Staravetz (ph), Czechoslovakia, describes her father’s store selling clothes and textiles and his involvement in the lumber business; the deportations beginning in March 1942; the Aryanization of the family business and the new proprietor giving them permission to stay; how only eight Jewish families remained in their town by the end of 1942; preparing to go into hiding in 1943 but being betrayed and handed over to the Germans at the Polish border; being kept in prison for a short time then sent to Plaszów concentration camp near Kraków, Poland; being separated from her mother; her mother hiding 500 dollars in Miriam’s clothes; receiving help from a German inmate, who got her extra food; being transferred after two months to Birkenau; meeting a friend who was a Blockälteste and protected her; being sent on death march to Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany on January 18, 1944; going to Neustadt-Glewe; and being liberated on April 30, 1945 by the Russian Army.

Oral history interview with Alex Heimler

Oral History

Alex Heimler, born on May 16, 1924 in Vered, Hungary, describes his town as small with 30 or so Jewish families; his father’s wholesale grain business, grocery, and fuel depot; finishing high school, apprenticing as an automobile mechanic, and obtaining his certification in 1943; how after the Germans entered Hungary, he had to go to a labor camp and was put to work in a manganese mine; escaping from the camp after Hungary pulled out of the war on October 16, 1944; making his way to Budapest, Hungary and surviving the war under the protection of the Red Cross and the Swedish Legation; liberation and working for three months for the Russians, rounding up Nazi collaborators; returning to Vered in March 1945; and escaping in 1956 to Austria and immigrating to Australia the same year.

Oral history interview with Serry Wolf

Oral History

Serry Wolf-Gans, born in 1927 in Winterswijk, the Netherlands, describes her father, who had a wholesale knitwear business; her family being strictly observant; her family going into hiding in 1943 and being subsequently betrayed; escaping while her family was arrested; the deportation of her family; finding a new hiding place, where she stayed until two months before liberation; walking with a friend towards the liberators; meeting up with Scottish troops somewhere in Germany; getting married to a Holocaust survivor; immigrating first to New Zealand and then to Australia; and how her family is still strictly observant.

Oral history interview with Sam Pick

Oral History

Sam Pick, born October 27, 1924 in Pabianice, Poland (near Lódz), describes his family’s Orthodox background and his father’s prosperous textile business; the persecution during the first years of the war; being sent to a labor camp in 1941 in Zbąszyń, Poland; arriving in the camp and working on German railroads under supervision of the Bahnpolizei (railway police); the conditions in the camp and having sufficient food to survive; being sent with his fellow inmates to Auschwitz in June 1943; being recruited after three weeks to work on the cleanup of the ruins of the former Warsaw ghetto; how is group of 80 prisons were the only polish speakers of the some 9,000 workers sent to Warsaw; conditions while working in Warsaw for a year; finding valuables in the rubble, which eventually helped him to survive; being sent to Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where he worked in underground hangars on German fighter-planes; winding up in the Tyrol, Austria, where he was supposed to work on the "Nazis redoubt” towards the end of the war; being liberated by the United States Army near the Starnberg Sea in Bavaria; being reluctant to tell his story until recently; how he believes his story is common and Elie Wiesel's and Primo Levi's wonderful retellings of their experiences; and attributing his survival to the grace of God and simple luck.

Oral history interview with Zofia Hockin and Maria Robe

Oral History

Zofia Hockin, born in Warsaw, Poland in 1947, describes her parents, Leon Nadel and Estella Lipshitz, who were both born Jewish but survived the Holocaust by passing as non-Jews; how after the war her parents continued to live in Poland under their assumed identities; how her father was a university professor and her mother worked in Polish radio; not knowing of her Jewish background as a child and discovering it as a teenager when a Jewish boyfriend pointed it out to her; her father being demoted in 1968 during the anti-Jewish campaign and choosing to stay in Poland; struggling with her identity; looking for spiritual meaning in her life; joining a group of second generation holocaust survivors; and being accompanied to the interview by her Aunt Maria Roba, who is Zofia’s only relative who left Poland before the war and never concealed her Jewish background.

Oral history interview with Renia Rutman

Oral History

Renia Rutman, born in Warsaw, Poland on May 15, 1921, describes being the youngest of six children (three girls and three boys); her father, who was a tailor and a manufacturer of men’s clothing; how one of her brothers had good connections with non-Jews and managed to find hiding places for his mother and three sisters; how a Polish girl fell in love with her brother and managed to save them; her brother getting married to this girl after the war; instances of betrayal and the family’s miraculous escapes; how during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, the family was arrested by the Germans, but not identified as Jews; being separated from their brother; going to Germany, where the four women managed to keep up the masquerade as Polish non-Jews; she and her sisters speaking Polish perfectly while their mother feigned deafness in order to hide her Jewish accent; and being liberated near Leipzig, Germany and returning to Warsaw, where they were reunited with their brother.

Oral history interview with Jack Widawski

Oral History

Jack Widawski, born on November 28, 1926 in Lodz, Poland, describes his parents, Victor and Esther Widasky; being raised in a traditional Jewish home; his family owning a jewelry shop; life in the Lodz ghetto, where he worked in a “engineering factory” on a milling machine; his father working at a food distribution center; the curfew in 1942 and the subsequent selections and deportations; the Judenrat members and his mixed feelings about the Jewish police; his mother dying in the ghetto in 1943; being deported to Auschwitz with his three sisters and father; staying with his father and surviving the selections together; volunteering with his father as tradesmen; being sent to Germany, where they worked in a car factory; the bombing of the factory and moving to another factory in Sigmar-Schoenau (located in Chemnitz, Germany); being put on a death march in April 1945; escaping with a friend and being liberated near the Czech border; finding his father again; his father getting married; the family immigrating to Australia in 1949; and his belief that it is important to “stick to Jewishness.”

Oral history interview with Guta Goldstein

Oral History

Guta Goldstein (née Koppel), born in Lódz, Poland in 1930, describes how her father was a textile merchant and came from a large Orthodox family; being only ten years old when the Lódz ghetto was established; her escape from a “children’s camp” during one of the Aktions; the Judenrat chief, Chaim Rumkowski, urging parents to give up their small children; being deported with her mother to Auschwitz concentration camp in August of 1944; their arrival and her first impressions of the camp; still looking like a young child, but surviving several selections; being taken to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in November of 1944; being taken to Mehltheuer, a subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp in Germany, where she worked as a chambermaid for German officers; being liberated on April 16, 1944 by the United States Army; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Samuel Dason

Oral History

Sam Dason, born in Pinczow, Poland on March 1, 1924, describes being put to work on roads shortly after the German invasion; the deportation of his family in 1942; being forced to work in a munitions factory in Czestochowa, Poland; being transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in 1943 then Schlieben concentration camp, where he worked for six months repairing railroad tracks; working in the factories in Myslowice and Bamberg, Germany before being sent on foot march to Theresienstadt (Terezin, Czech Republic); escaping the march and being taken in by a Czech farmer who harbored him for six weeks, until liberation; going to Australia; and how he spent time in Geneva, Switzerland, where he married.

Oral history interview with Vera Ray

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ida Hampel

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kim Mordchell

Oral History

Kim Mordchelll, born September 5, 1924 in Grodno, Poland (Hrodna, Belarus), describes his father, who was a house painter and glazier and had difficulty finding work before the war; the Russian occupation of eastern Poland and his family’s financial condition improving; how there were fewer problems associated with antisemitism during this time; the German invasion and he and his brother having to report for forced labor; working in a mechanical shop repairing German military vehicles; the liquidation of the Grodno ghetto in January 1943; being deported with his family to Auschwitz concentration camp; being assigned to work in "Kanada," sorting the belongings confiscated from new arrivals; how this work allowed him to acquire additional food and clothing, which helped him survive; working in "Kanada" for about six months; being assigned to farm work outside the camp; working on the construction of the crematorium, where he assisted Russian POWs doing iron work; spending time in Gleiwitz concentration camp in Poland as well as a few other minor camps; being liberated in January 1945 after escaping while on death march to Blechhammer concentration camp; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Esther Blatt

Oral History

Oral history interview with George Blatt

Oral History

Oral history interview with Edward Schreiber

Oral History

Edward Schreiber, born in 1934 in the town of Kumene, Czechoslovakia (now in Slovakia), describes his Orthodox family, including his parents and four siblings; how his father was a textile importer and wholesaler; his parents sending he and his younger sister to their grandmother in Hungary in 1943; the deportations beginning in Hungary and being sent with his sister back to their family; their father arranging hiding places in the vicinity of Bratislava, Slovakia for all seven members of the family; the entire family being betrayed and handed over to the Nazi authorities in December 1944; being sent to Auschwitz concentration camp along with his mother and siblings while his father was taken to a labor camp in Germany; being transported with his mother and his siblings to Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic, where they survived the war; his father surviving and reuniting with the family in Bratislava; his father’s death in 1946 from the aftereffects of his labor camp experiences; his family’s move to Australia in 1952; and his regret that he never had a proper education.

Oral history interview with Rozia Krakowski

Oral History

Oral history interview with Luba Olenski

Oral History

Luba Olenski, born in Kidau (Kedainiai), Lithuania on March 3, 1931, describes how in 1935 her family moved to Kovno (Kaunas, Lithuania), where her father established a wholesale tobacco and cigarette business; how her family was strictly orthodox and her father was an adherent member of the "Mussar" movement; the Soviet occupation of Kovno and her father fleeing with her to Bialystok, Poland days before the German invasion; the occupation of Bialystok on July 3, 1941 and how three days later her father was among 6,000 Jewish men killed by the Nazis; remaining in the Bialystok ghetto, where she was cared for by relatives; the liquidation of the ghetto on August 15, 1943 and how the 60,000 remaining Jews were put on transports to Treblinka concentration camp; escaping the transport and wandering the countryside; getting help from local Poles; joining a Jewish partisans unit, where she met her future husband; remaining with the group until they were liberated in the fall of 1944; moving with her future family to Briansk, Russia and eventually escaping to Poland; immigrating to Australia in 1947; and getting married in 1950 and raising three children.

Oral history interview with Leo Wayman

Oral History

Leo Wayman, born on January 7, 1924 in Radom, Poland, describes his memories of the Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky speaking and predicting disaster for the Jews; the establishment of the ghetto and the living conditions; how his family was well-to-do before the war and his father managed to get along with the Nazi Treuhändler put in charge of the family business; continuing to do business and smuggling supplies into the ghetto; the liquidation of most of the ghetto and the brutal roundups by the SS; being taken to work in a munitions factory in Radom and the awful working conditions; the liquidation of the last ghetto; being made to march to Tomaszów, Poland and then being taken by cattle cars to Auschwitz concentration camp; being sent on to a succession of other concentration camps, including Weinigen (possibly Vaihingen/Wiesengrund concentration camp near Karlsruhe, Germany), Hessenthal, and Dachau; being liberated by the United States Army while on a transport to Tirol, Austria; surviving the war with his father, who decided to stay in Germany and was successful in business; immigrating to Australia and having little contact with his father; becoming a successful businessman in Melbourne; being a member of the corn exchange; the inhumane treatment by Jewish Kapos during the war; and how his father was able to bring one Kapo to justice after the war.

Oral history interview with Szoel Balbin

Oral History

Szoel Zeilig Balbin, born February 1, 1926 in Rawa Mazowiecka, Poland, describes his parents and three siblings; attending school; being in the Rawa Mazowiecka ghetto; the liquidation of the ghetto in September 1942; living in hiding in Zawady, Poland after 1942; going to Berlin, Germany in February 1946; immigrating to Australia in April 1951; and getting married and having four children.

Oral history interview with Ivan Jarny

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kurt Jilovsky

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rena Shisman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Tzipora Landau

Oral History

Oral history interview with Aron N. Babuh

Oral History

Aron Nuhimovich Babuh, born May 13, 1927 in Vladimir-Volinsk (Volodymyr-Volyns'kyĭ), Ukraine, describes his parents and three siblings (none of whom survived); the Vladimir-Volinsk ghetto; being liberated by the Russian Army in June 1944; living in after the war; immigrating to Australia in December 1994; getting married twice after 1945; and having one son and one daughter.

Oral history interview with Sonia Hornstein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Joseph West

Oral History

Oral history interview with Henry Tonkin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Leo Parker

Oral History

Oral history interview with Paul Ryber

Oral History

Oral history interview with Herta Ryber

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lola Rapoport

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rose Fixler

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jack Bart

Oral History

Jack Bart, born September 2, 1929 in Lódz, Poland, describes his parents and two siblings (none of who survived); the ghetto in Lódz; being deported to Auschwitz for three months; working in the factory in Braunschweig for five months; marching to Ravensbrück; being sent to Ludwigslust labor camp; being liberated; being in the Bergen-Belsen orphanage; living in England (1945-1948); immigrating to Israel and living there from 1948 to 1964; immigrating to Australia in 1964; and his marriage and three children.

Oral history interview with Dina Webb

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ludwig Sokolov

Oral History

Oral history interview with Marcus Hirshorn

Oral History

Oral history interview with Albert Katz

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kaziemierz Stalmach

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lisa Finkelstein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Wilhelm Korn

Oral History

Oral history interview with Alice Halasez

Oral History

Oral history interview with Elizabeth Herzog

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jechiel Gutman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Fela Goldbaum

Oral History

Oral history interview with Henry Lipschitz

Oral History

Oral history interview with George 'Gecel' Steinic

Oral History

Oral history interview with William Waller

Oral History

Oral history interview with Miriam Gutman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rita Ross

Oral History

Oral history interview with Alex de Zoete

Oral History

Oral history interview with Margit Richter

Oral History

Oral history interview with Paula Boltman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Simon Kon

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rose Butt

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jacob Rosenberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Frank Loffler

Oral History

Oral history interview with Israel Ungar

Oral History

Oral history interview with Zvi Sharp

Oral History

Oral history interview with Susan Reichman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Pearl Recht

Oral History

Oral history interview with Roma Frey

Oral History

Oral history interview with Leib Fryszer

Oral History

Oral history interview with Eniv Lebovich

Oral History

Oral history interview with Marianne Roth

Oral History

Oral history interview with Leo Lew

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rose Pop

Oral History

Oral history interview with Henriette Liebman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rachel Lebovich

Oral History

Oral history interview with Alice Spierer Landau

Oral History

Oral history interview with Israel Blass

Oral History

Oral history interview with Doba-Necha Cukierman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Alice Plesser

Oral History

Oral history interview with Helena Blass

Oral History

Helena Bronislawa Blass, born March 28, 1921 in Bochnia, Poland, describes her parents and three siblings; being in Sosnowiec, Poland when the war began in 1939; being taken to work for the Germans in 1939; her father and brother being taken away in 1940; working with her mother and sister in 1941 for the Germans; being taken to the ghetto; being taken April 14, 1943 to Hirschberg concentration camp; being sent in August 1943 to Bolkenheim (Bolkenhain) concentration camp; working in a textile factory; being sent on a death march in January 1945; being liberated May 9, 1945; going to Landsberg, Germany in September 1945; going to France in 1947; going to Israel in 1947; moving to Italy then Australia in 1956; and her marriage and two children.

Oral history interview with Mendel Blicblau

Oral History

Oral history interview with Joseph Ronec

Oral History

Joseph John Ronec, born June 1, 1924 in Topol'cany, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), describes his family; being expelled from high school; Jews having to wear the Star of David; living as a refugee with false identification papers in Budapest, Hungary from 1942 to 1944; being sent to the Hungarian-Slovak border (possibly Salgótarján, Hungary); being transported to Auschwitz in May 1944; being sent to Buna (Monowitz concentration camp), working as a slave laborer for I.G. Farben; going to Buchenwald in transit from January 28 to February 1945; being sent to various camps in Germany between February and April 1945, including Buchenwald and Theresienstadt; returning home in June 1945; living in Prague, Czech Republic; living in France from April 1951 to August 1953; going to Melbourne, Australia in September 1953; and getting married and having three children.

Oral history interview with Elchanan Sosnowski

Oral History

Oral history interview with Mayer Frenkel

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gerta Bennett

Oral History

Gerta Bennett, born December 26, 1913 in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia (Plzen, Czech Republic), describes her father and husband (neither of whom survived the war); being in Prague, Czech Republic when the war began in 1939; living in the Lodz Ghetto with her parents-in-law and husband from 1940 to 1943; leaving the ghetto August 25, 1944 and being deported to Auschwitz with her mother-in-law and husband; going to Stutthof in 1944 then Dresden, Germany; escaping from Dresden in February 1945; going to Prague and being liberated by Russians in May 1945; living in Stockholm, Sweden in the fall of 1946; immigrating to Australia in 1946; living in Melbourne; and remarrying and having one child.

Oral history interview with Motek Kinderlerer

Oral History

Motek Kinderlerer, born September 23, 1920 in Sosnowiec, Poland, describes his parents and five siblings; working as a shop assistant; being in Lviv, Ukraine in 1940 when it was occupied by Russians and worked whatever jobs were available; going to Chernowitz, Romania (Chernivtsi, Ukraine) illegally in 1941 and working as a waiter; being captured in July 1942 in Sosnowiec and sent to a labor camp near Breslau (possibly Markstadt); going to several other camps; being in Fünfteichen camp (Laskowitz-Meleschwitz) in January 1944; marching to Gross-Rosen and Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Germany; immigrating to Australia in July 1949; and getting married and having two daughters.

Oral history interview with Alex Strauss

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ida Rozen

Oral History

Oral history interview with Paul Grossman

Oral History

Dr. Paul Grossman (originally Pavel Ulrich Albrecht Grossman; and in Nazi records,Paul Grossmann) August 3, 1924 in Teplice-Šanov, Czechoslovakia, describes his parents and two siblings; fleeing from the Germans and going to Úsobí, Czechoslovakia (Havlíckuv Brod, Czech Republic) to his parents' home; starting an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker; doing forced labor in a forest near Chotěboř, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic); the assembly of Jews June 5-9, 1942 in Kolín, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic); being in Theresienstadt from June 9, 1942 to the end of the war; being liberated on May 5, 1945; returning to Úsobí; living in Prague, Czech Republic; going to England from July 1949 to March 1950 en route to Australia; life in Australia; getting married in 1956; and his two children.

Oral history interview with Uldis Kurzem

Oral History

Oral history interview with John Wingate

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sabina Jakubowicz

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rachmil Szejer

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rachel Szejer

Oral History

Oral history interview with Blima Frenkel

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rina Starikova

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Oral history interview with Erna Fishman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Samuel Hirsh

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Oral history interview with Edith Preston

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Oral history interview with Alex Bodian

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Oral history interview with Mira Zylberman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Regina Lipshut

Oral History

Oral history interview with Godel Wroby

Oral History

Oral history interview with Emil Braun

Oral History

Oral history interview with Pinchas Ringelblum

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jadzia Opat

Oral History

Oral history interview with Edith Tarjan

Oral History

Oral history interview with Elyane Hoffman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Frank Kun

Oral History

Oral history interview with Semyon Shamrakov

Oral History

Oral history interview with David Sternschuss

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gisella Frayman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Hans Friend

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sophia Bitenki

Oral History

Sophia Bitencki (also Bitenki), born October 25, 1924 in Bratslav, Ukraine, describes her parents and sibling; living in the Bratslav ghetto in 1941; being sent to the Pechora labor camp in December 1941; being freed in 1944 and going to Uzbekistan; immigrating to Australia in December 1994; and her marriage and two children.

Oral history interview with Deborah Zuben

Oral History

Oral history interview with Maximilian Frayman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Mikhail Rossinsky

Oral History

Oral history interview with Khaim Frayman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Martin Gelberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Agnes Kadar

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sara Kolber

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jack Krauskopf

Oral History

Oral history interview with Amalia Miller

Oral History

Oral history interview with Joseph Rubinstein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sonia Wajcman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Abraham H. Biderman

Oral History

Abraham Hersz Biderman, born August 20, 1924 in Lódz, Poland, describes his parents and one sibling; his education; going to the Lódz Ghetto on May 1, 1940; being deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau; being evacuated to Dora on January 18, 1945; being evacuated to Bergen-Belsen during the first week of April 1945; being liberated by the British Army on April 15, 1945; crossing the border to Belgium in November 1945; arriving in Australia January 11, 1949; and getting married and having one child.

Oral history interview with Lea Bonk

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gitla Borenstein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Bep-Rie Gomperts-Gerritse

Oral History

Oral history interview with Herman Jam

Oral History

Oral history interview with Mikhail Minkovitch

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gregori Umanski

Oral History

Oral history interview with Pola Vaver

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ester Braitberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jack Fields

Oral History

Oral history interview with Oscar Freedman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Herszel Goldwaser

Oral History

Oral history interview with Anne Handelsmann

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jan Kostański

Oral History

Oral history interview with Clara Leventer

Oral History

Oral history interview with Motl Mindelis

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jossif Oklander

Oral History

Oral history interview with Vladimir Patent

Oral History

Oral history interview with Helmut Reifenberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Julian Scelwyn

Oral History

Oral history interview with Victor Sirota

Oral History

Oral history interview with Dora Steiner

Oral History

Oral history interview with Fajga Szyfman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Joseph Teitelbaum

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lejka Weintrub

Oral History

Oral history interview with Michele Bude

Oral History

Oral history interview with Abram Bursztyn

Oral History

Oral history interview with Andre Dubrovin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Tibor Farkas

Oral History

Oral history interview with Bernard Friedman

Oral History

Oral history interview with George Ginsburg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Yelena Gorodetsky

Oral History

Oral history interview with Boris Kiner

Oral History

Oral history interview with Efim Kordonsky

Oral History

Oral history interview with Stanislaw Kron

Oral History

Oral history interview with Naum Plotkin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Henry Prinz

Oral History

Oral history interview with Judy Racz

Oral History

Oral history interview with Chaim Rozenberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sara Saaroni

Oral History

Oral history interview with Curt Scharf

Oral History

Oral history interview with Katalin Tyler

Oral History

Oral history interview with Henry Vollweiler

Oral History

Oral history interview with Blanka Willinger

Oral History

Oral history interview with Christine Winecki

Oral History

Oral history interview with Abram Zaltsman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lily Zimet

Oral History

Oral history interview with Leopold Zylberman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Erika Bence

Oral History

Erika Charlotta Bence, born March 11, 1928 in Spišská Nová Ves, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), describes her parents and brother; attending school for six years; learning to be a dental assistant; living in Liptovský Mikuláš, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia) in 1942; fleeing to Závažná Poruba, Slovakia in August 1944; hiding in a bunker; the Germans occupying the nearby village and getting caught; being sent to a collection camp and doing forced labor; being sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp in January 1945; liberation; going to Bratislava, Slovakia in July 1945; returning to Spišská Nová Ves; going to Liptovský Mikuláš in January 1946; living in Prague, Czech Republic; going to Vienna, Austria in October 1949; immigrating to Australia in 1950; living in Melbourne; and getting married and having one child.

Oral history interview with Stan Fox

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sholem Rosenberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Albert Shelling

Oral History

Oral history interview with Eva Slonim

Oral History

Oral history interview with Samuel Stopnik

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gisele Vadasz

Oral History

Oral history interview with Harry Barr

Oral History

Harry Barr (originally Chaskel Barszcz), born January 21, 1920 in Maków Mazowiecki, Poland, describes his parents and six siblings; immigrating in March 1939 to Australia, where two of his sisters were already living there; getting married; and having four children.

Oral history interview with Zygmunt Bryce

Oral History

Oral history interview with Doba-Necha Cukierman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Abraham van Zuiden

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gretl Luber

Oral History

Oral history interview with Fania Molnar

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lola Schindler

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rubin Wassertheil

Oral History

Oral history interview with Paulette Goldin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Maria Curtis

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gerald Bantjes

Oral History

Gerald Bantjes, born September 5, 1922 in Medang, Sumatra, Indonesia, describes his parents and four siblings (all of whom survived); studying in Nymegen (Nijmegen), Holland when the war began in 1939; being a judo instructor; his arrest in 1940 by Dutch Nazis for sabotage; being arrested again in December 1943 as a monarchist; being in a detention center for four months then released; hiding in Nymegen from August 1944 until liberation; working as a translator for the British Army in Wychen (Wijchen), Netherlands in September 1944; being with the Second British Army in the 15 S division; traveling to Belgium, France, and Germany as dispatch drier (being a sergeant and later a lieutenant); leaving the British Army in November 1948; immigrating in 1949 and going to Melbourne, Australia; and never getting married.

Oral history interview with Rosa Cirol

Oral History

Oral history interview with Maria Kohn

Oral History

Oral history interview with Charlotte Layton

Oral History

Oral history interview with Anna Lustman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Maria Malina

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gertrud Sturm

Oral History

Oral history interview with Emanuel Wajnblum

Oral History

Oral history interview with Harry Van-Hamond

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jozef Hulanicki

Oral History

Oral history interview with Irina Lazar

Oral History

Oral history interview with Regina Zielinski

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jerucham Karpel

Oral History

Oral history interview with David Benge

Oral History

David Benge, born July 9, 1925 in Bialystok, Poland, describes his six siblings (none of whom survived the war); being a student in Wellington, New Zealand in 1935; apprenticing as a cabinet maker; joining the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in 1943; being stationed on Bougainville Island (Papua New Guinea) in 1944; being discharged in 1945; moving to Melbourne, Australia in 1948; and getting married and having two children.

Oral history interview with George Burger

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lena Chaberman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Zina Edelstein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Magda Geiger

Oral History

Oral history interview with Cornelis Hos

Oral History

Oral history interview with Dorothy Kawecki

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gabor Kony

Oral History

Oral history interview with Mira Nekritina

Oral History

Oral history interview with Frankie Paper

Oral History

Oral history interview with Susan Pask

Oral History

Oral history interview with George Reinisch

Oral History

Oral history interview with Genecza Sandler

Oral History

Oral history interview with Maria Shenfield

Oral History

Oral history interview with Hanna Shevach

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ruth Stein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Esther Werblud

Oral History

Oral history interview with Hanna Schevah

Oral History

Oral history interview with Paul Stein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Klara Grunfeld

Oral History

Oral history interview with Elizabeth Jablonski

Oral History

Oral history interview with Chana & Rene Rosenblatt

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sonia Delander

Oral History

Oral history interview with Anat Rosberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ester Dzialoszynski

Oral History

Oral history interview with Maly Kohn

Oral History

Oral history interview with Irene Hall

Oral History

Oral history interview with Erich Cahn

Oral History

Oral history interview with George Koch

Oral History

Oral history interview with Helen Burstin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Moshe Drajer

Oral History

Oral history interview with George Barany

Oral History

Dr. George Julian Barany, born September 3, 1937 Budapest, Hungary, describes his parents; the German occupation; moving around to different houses under Swiss protection; being liberated by the Russians in 1945; going to Vienna, Austria in December 1956; immigrating to Australia in May 1957; going to Melbourne; living in East Paterson (Elmwood Park), NJ for a year (May 1966-February 1967); and getting married in 1945 and having one child.

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Also in Oral history interviews of the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre (Melbourne, Vic.)