Oral history interview with Ben Muler and Bernice Muler

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1992.A.0123.1.5 | RG Number: RG-50.035.01.0005

Overview

Interview Summary: Bernice Muler (née Braha “Bronia” Fogul), born in 1925, describes living in Tomashov (Tomaszów Lubelski), Poland; her brother and sister; hoping to become a teacher; the Russian occupation; being advised to leave and having little time to pack their belongings; 2000 people including her immediate family and some of the neighbors leaving in army trucks bound for Russia; her family staying in a small hut with a dirt floor for six months; not being allowed to stay there and deciding to go to Odessa, Ukraine; travelling in cattle cars in January 1940 for 20 days and arriving in some wood cabins by the Ural mountains, close to Siberia; her family moving to a city where she attended eighth and ninth grades in a Russian school; having to work at age 16 in a factory for twelve hours a day; and going with her mother to Sumz, Russia, where she met her future husband Ben.
Ben Muler, born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1922, describes his family; keeping up with the news as the Nazis rose to power; antisemitism in the 1930s; German Jewish refugees arriving in Poland; the Lithuanians being abusive towards the Jewish population; the Russians arriving; the German bombardments in 1941; trying unsuccessfully to convince his family to leave; the journey with his friends to the Russian border; arriving in Osmiany (Ashmiany, Belarus) and separating from his friends; reuniting with his friends in Minsk, Belarus; working on a collective farm in Ukraine with other refugees; going to the Ural Mountains; being drafted into the labor army and sent to work cutting timber for a copper mine; meeting Bernice; and corresponding with his aunt in Mississippi.
Ben and Bernice describe returning to Poland in 1946; the fates of their family members; the Jewish underground helping them cross the border illegally into Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany; going to the Deggendorf displaced persons camp; arriving in Boston, MA on October 14, 1949; going to a small town in Mississippi; and moving to Dayton, Ohio.
Interviewee: Ben Muler
Bernice Muler
Interviewer: Renate Frydman
Date: interview: 1986

Physical Details

Language: English
Extent: 3 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

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Antisemitism--Lithuania. Collective farms--Ukraine. Forced labor. Holocaust survivors--United States--Interviews. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Jewish refugees--Lithuania. Jewish refugees--Soviet Union. Jews, Lithuanian--Soviet Union. Jews, Polish--Soviet Union. Jews--Education--Soviet Union. Jews--Lithuania--Vilnius. Jews--Persecutions--Lithuania. Jews--Poland--Tomaszów Lubelski. Refugee camps--Germany. World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor--Soviet Union. World War, 1939-1945--Refugees--Soviet Union. Men--Personal narratives. Women--Personal narratives.
Geographic Name: Alapaevsk (Russia) Ashmiany (Belarus) Austria. Czechoslovakia. Dayton (Ohio) Germany. Lithuania--History--German occupation, 1941-1944. Lithuania--History--Soviet occupation, 1940-1941. Minsk (Belarus) Mississippi. Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945. Soviet Union. Tomaszów Lubelski (Poland) Ukraine. United States--Emigration and immigration. Vilnius (Lithuania)
Personal Name: Muler, Ben, 1922- Muler, Bernice, 1925-
Corporate Name: Deggendorf (Displaced persons camp)

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: Renate Frydman conducted the interview with Ben and Bernice Muler in 1986 in cooperation with Wright State University Television Center with support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch received the tapes of the interview in 1992. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes via transfer from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch in February 1995.
Special Collection: The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive

Record last modified:: 2023-11-16 08:08:03
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn507328

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