Oral history interview with Ferdinand Fixel

Oral history interview with Charlotte Dessen

Oral History

Charlotte Dessen (née Behrens), born on September 18, 1925 in Gardelegen, Germany, discusses her childhood and education; studying horticulture; her attempt to immigrate to South Africa prior to WWII; her deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she stayed from May 1943 to January 1945; her work in a munitions factory and losing a finger; her transfer to Ravensbrück; and her immigration to Northern Rhodesia in 1947; and her arrival in Australia in July 1966; and settling in Chatswood, N.S.W.

Oral history interview with Friedrich Grunseit and Agathe Grunseit

Oral History

Oral history interview with Eva Nagler

Oral History

Eva Nagler (née Ginat), born October 28, 1926 in Łódź, Poland, discusses her early life in Łódź and Andrzejów; her parents’ backgrounds; experiencing antisemitism in school; being a member of the Hanoar Hatzioni; the beginning of the war and her family perishing soon after the German occupation; life in the Łódź ghetto; being sent to several concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Stutthof, and Schippenbeil; surviving the mass shooting at Palmnicken (now Yantarny, Russia); receiving help from a Feldgendarmerie during her flight from the massacre; sailing illegally on a ship from Ostia, Italy and being detained and later released; legally immigrating to Palestine in 1946; and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Szerena Loewy Fein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rebecca Lissing

Oral History

Rebecca "Betty" Lissing (née Wynschenk), born February 11, 1923 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, discusses her family’s background; her childhood and schooling; not experiencing antisemitism before the Nazi occupation; the anti-Jewish laws decreed by the Germans; the Dutch underground; escaping to Brussels, Belgium in 1943; being arrested and sent to Auschwitz; working in a munitions factory; life in the camp; the evacuation from the camp in January 1945 and being forced to march for several days to Ravensbrück camp; being sent to Neustadt-Glewe in February 1945; liberations from the camp; convalescing in Enschede, Netherlands and in a castle in Ommen, Netherlands; finding out her husband was alive; returning to Amsterdam; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Ilona Blair

Oral History

Ilona Blair (née Reichman), born December 12, 1929 in Uzhhorod, Czechoslovakia (now in Ukraine), discusses her childhood and education; her family in Uzhhorod; experiencing antisemitism; the beginning of the war; being sent to Auschwitz in May 1944; being transferred to Hamburg, Germany in July 1944; being sent to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated; going to Sweden in June 1945; living in Paris, France between 1947 and 1950; and immigrating to Australia in 1951.

Oral history interview with Bruno Busch

Oral History

Bruno Busch (né Bütschovitz), born in 1915 in Vienna, Austria, discusses his childhood and education; being fired from his job at a drug store after the Anschluss; being arrested on Kristallnacht; being sent to Dachau and remaining there until June 1939; clandestinely traveling to Bratislava; his imprisonment in 1939; illegally departing for Palestine and being interned in Mauritius from 1940 to 1944; joining the Pioneer Corps of the British Army; and being discharged from the army in Sydney, Australia in 1946.

Oral history interview with Ernest Morgan

Oral History

Ernest Morgan (né Ernest Morgenstern), born in 1910 in Brno, Czechoslovakia (now in Czech Republic), describes his childhood and education; the beginning of the war; forced paid labor in an airplane factory; being sent to Theresienstadt January 28, 1942; being transferred to Auschwitz in December 1943; his experiences in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz; returning to Czechoslovakia after the war; immigrating to Sydney, Australia in 1949; his work in Australia; and his thoughts on Germany and Israel.

Oral history interview with David Sheps

Oral History

David Sheps (né David Szeps), born November 25, 1907 in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland, discusses his childhood and education; attending Warsaw University and medical school in Basel, Switzerland; returning to Poland in May 1939; the beginning of the war; living on false Aryan papers in Glinks, Czechoslovakia from 1939 to 1942; arriving in Brody, Poland (now in Ukraine) in 1943; working at night in a factory from 1948 to 1949 while retaking his fourth and fifth years at medical school; and immigrating to Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Maurice Itzchak Fremder

Oral History

Maurice Itzchak Fremder, born August 11, 1930 in Wolomin, Poland, describes his childhood and education; his father’s leather business; the antisemitism in Wolomin, including physical abuse towards Jews and the boycott of Jewish shops; witnessing the burning of the local synagogue in November 1939; fleeing to Russia with his father and two siblings in 1939; returning to Poland after the war; leaving Poland in July 1946 after the Kielce pogrom; going to Stettin, Germany (Szczecin, Poland); going to Hamburg, Germany then Bergen-Belsen, where he stayed from August 1946 to February 1947; immigrating to Sao Paolo, Brazil in 1947; living in Israel from 1948 to 1950; immigrating to Melbourne, Australia in 1951; never wanting to return to Germany, Austria, or Poland; participating in the Jewish community; and his children.

Oral history interview with Olek Elchanan Minc

Oral History

Olek Elchanan Minc, born August 31, 1925 in Sosnowiec, Poland, discusses his childhood and education; his father, who was a finance broker and a hero of the Polish underground in Upper Silesia; the fights between Polish and Jewish youths; his father’s death in Bendzin (Bedzin), Poland in September 1941; getting black market headache powder; the Sosnowiec ghetto; working in various camps on construction; wanting to leave Poland after the war; being sponsored by his girlfriend's family to immigrate to Australia; his business partner Abraham Horowitz; and not feeling any hostility towards younger generations of Germans.

Oral history interview with Nechama Zucker

Oral History

Nechama Zucker (née Gingold), born August 15, 1917 in Mlawa, Poland, discusses her childhood and education; growing up in an extremely religious family; training as a kindergarten teacher; getting married in September 1938 (married name Sieradzki); her experiences in the Pabianice and Łódź ghettos; being deported to Auschwitz with her sister; being sent to Hambühren then Bergen-Belsen concentration camps; being liberated in April 1945; an Australian soldier helping her contact her sister in Sydney, Australia; going from Hanover, Germany to Paris, France to Australia; getting married to another Holocaust survivor in 1949; having no intention to ever return to Poland or Germany; not being as religious as she was as a child; and her participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Hans Dreyer

Oral History

Hans Dreyer, born April 21, 1912 in Berlin, Germany, discusses his childhood and education; his apprenticeship as a fur sorter and buyer and traveling throughout Western Europe; not experiencing antisemitism before Hitler came to power; being arrested in March 1933 for possessing Marxist books; being sent to a camp in Waidmannslust (in Berlin, Germany), which was run by the Nazis; remaining in Waidmannslust until April 1934; going to Zurich, Switzerland and Paris, France; going to Shanghai, China in 1938; immigrating to Australia in 1946; visiting Israel several times; and his participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Jacob Y. Raykin

Oral History

Jacob Yasha Raykin, born August 5, 1922 in Wilno, Poland (currently Vilnius, Lithuania), discusses his childhood and education; experiencing antisemitism; the beginning of the war and living in the ghetto; being taken for execution at Ponary, but escaping and returning to the ghetto; life in an Estonian camp; being sponsored by the Australian Jewish Welfare Society to emigrate after the war; his immigration to Australia in 1950; his life and work in Australia; returning to Germany in 1965 to be a witness in a trial of an SS man named Krutt; visiting Israel in 1973; and his involvement in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Sever Sternhell

Oral History

Sever Sternhill (né Severyn Sternhell), born May 30, 1930 in Lvov, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), discusses his childhood and education; experiencing antisemitism; his Jewish education; the Einsatzgruppen action in Nadworna (Nadvirna, Ukraine) in September 1941; various actions in the ghetto; the liquidation of the ghetto; being sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; living in Palestine from 1945; immigrating to Australia; attending Newington College and the University of Sydney; his interactions with Germans and Poles; and his religious observations.

Oral history interview with Marghethe Kernegg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Bernard Feiler

Oral History

Bernard Feiler born August 5, 1911 in Nowa Gora, Poland, describes his childhood and education; his military service in the Polish Army; experiencing some antisemitism before the war; selling produce with his father in Skala and Pilica; returning to Nowa Gora; hiding for 26 months with a Polish friend; leaving Poland after the Kielce pogrom in 1946; traveling through Czechoslovakia to Vienna, Austria; going to Paris, France; deciding to go to Australia and arriving in 1951; his life and work in Australia; and visiting Poland and Israel.

Oral history interview with Alisa Brosan

Oral History

Alisa Brosan (née Weinberger), born in 1932 in Senta, Yugoslavia (now in Serbia), discusses her childhood and education; experiencing mild antisemitism until it intensified with the Hungarian invasion in April 1941; the German takeover just before Passover in 1944; being sent with her family to Szeged, Hungary in April 1944 then Baja camp; her father’s death in Auschwitz; being sent with her remaining family to Ganserndorf, Austria (Strasshof concentration camp) and Ulrichskirchen, Austria; returning to Senta after the war; going through Arad, Romania and Varnal, Bulgaria to board the “Pan York”; staying in a detention camp in Cyprus; arriving in Israel in June 1948; living in Tel Aviv and New York; her immigration to Australia in 1959; living with her sister in Waverley; working for Wills tobacco; her thoughts on Germans and Germany; and her Jewish identity and not feeling religious.

Oral history interview with Miroslav Share

Oral History

Miroslav Share (né Sher), born in 1916 in Dravce, Slovakia, discusses his childhood and education; his family’s farming background; his father’s dying young; attending school in Uzhhorod (Ukraine); learning the clothing trade in Mukachevo (Mukacheve, Ukraine); living in the Ivancice, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) while he waited to emigrate; the German invasion and being sent to Poland in September 1939; getting out of it on the grounds of his Hungarian birth; going to Brno, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) then Bratislava, Slovakia; traveling down the Danube and boarding a ship in Varna, Bulgaria that was part of a three-ship convoy (included the "SS Pacific", "SS Milos", and "SS Atlantic"); going to Haifa, Palestine (Israel) via Agios Nikolaos, Crete; the explosion on the "SS Patria" in 1940; being freed from a camp in August 1941; immigrating to Australia in 1951; his work in Australia; visiting his sister in Germany; and his participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Hilary Hans Pryer

Oral History

Hilary Hans Pryer (né Hans Prerauer), born in 1906 in Landeshut in Schlesien, Germany (now Kamienna Góra, Poland), discusses his education and childhood; studying in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and Berlin, Germany; his shoe factory in Germany; immigrating to Australia in 1936; getting married in 1937 to Beate Woolf; starting a haircare company with his father-in-law; visiting Germany after the year; and his involvement with the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Rudolf Gunz

Oral History

Rudolf Gunz, born October 9, 1905 in Bonn, Germany, discusses his childhood and education; his family’s background in Germany; learning the trade industry in Chemnitz and Augsburg in Germany; experiencing discrimination in his job in the chemical industry; his thoughts on Hitler; being in London, England from April 1934 to April 1935 with his Jewish employer and meeting his future wife, who was Australian; leaving Germany in November 1935 via Antwerp, Belgium; arriving in Newcastle, NSW in January 1936; his work in Australia; moving to Sydney, NSW; attending a reunion of former Bonn residents in 1980; and his Jewish identity.

Oral history interview with Abraham Wajnryb

Oral History

Abraham Wajnryb, born October 7, 1912 in Kielce, Poland, discusses his childhood and education; his family’s background in Wislica, Poland; his Jewish education; attending medical school at Warsaw University; a pogrom in Kielce in November 1918; and antisemitism in Poland. [Note that the interview did not want to continue recording after this first interview.]

Oral history interview with Henry Max Adler

Oral History

Henry Max Adler (né Heinrich Maximillian Adler), born January 17, 1914 in Berlin, Germany, discusses his childhood and education; his family’s origins in Tarnow, Poland; the boycott of Israel's Department Store, where he worked; not experiencing antisemitism before 1933, except when he competed in rowing club competitions; applying for a landing permit in Australia in 1937; immigrating to Australia in 1938; sailing on the "Empress of Britain" and landing in Sydney in August 1938; his work in Australia; his relations with German friends in Australia; and his participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Ilse Walters

Oral History

Ilse Walters (née Trebitsch), born May 3, 1929 in Vienna, Austria, discusses her childhood and education; her paternal and maternal grandparents; experiencing antisemitism; being forced to scrub cobblestones by the Nazis; her father escaping arrest; being sponsored by her mother’s sister to go to Australia; arriving in Australia in July 1939; her father’s timber business in Sydney; her experiences as the first Jewish refugee in her Australian school; the synagogue; visiting Vienna in 1979; her thoughts on Israel; and her participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Hilde C. Wolf

Oral History

Hilde Clarisse Wolf (née Erlanger), born February 27, 1915 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, discusses her childhood and education in Frankfurt am Main; working as a buyer in a warehouse; meeting her future husband in a hockey club; Kristallnacht, during which her fiancé was arrested and imprisoned in Buchenwald; getting her fiancé out of the camp; receiving a permit to travel from her cousin (Hannchen Goldschmitt); immigrating to Sydney, Australia in 1939; working as a maid and cook; her husband’s work; her two children; being widowed and remarrying; her life and work in Australia; and her involvement with the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Sidney Muller

Oral History

Sidney Muller (né Siegfried Muller), born in Berlin, Germany in 1920, discusses his childhood and education in Berlin; his Polish parents, whose families were from towns near Tarnopol (Ternopil', Ukraine); being raised an only child; attending an Orthodox synagogue (Kaiserstrasse); being dismissed from an apprenticeship because he was Jewish; the arrest of Polish Jews in October 1938 and his father’s deportation; getting to Antwerp, Belgium; obtaining a visa to Australia from Julius Rosenberg; leaving London for Australia in 1939; his work in Australia; visiting Germany many times after the war; and his participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Julius Wolff and Hilda Wolff

Oral History

Julius Wolff, born March 22, 1900 in Aurich, Germany, discusses his family’s background; how his ancestors were expelled from Spain in the 15th century then lived in Aurich for 500 years; his childhood and education; his older brothers participating in WWI; his work in the cattle trade and being forced out of the trade in November 1936; working for a Jewish cattle firm; receiving a permit to immigrate to Australia from Eric Hallenstein and leaving in 1936; going to Largs Bay in Adelaide, SA on July 14, 1939; spending six weeks at the Chelsea Park Training Farm (in Baulkham Hills, N.S.W.); his job on the Geurie homestead, working for Charles Shauner; and never returning to Germany. Hilda Wolff (née Engländer), born March 29, 1906 in Aurich, Germany, describes her family’s background; her childhood and education; her family’s friendship with Julius Wolff’s family; working with Julius and as a housekeeper; the antisemitism they experienced when Julius was forced out of the cattle trade; working for B. Willner; getting a permit to go to Jersey but not using it; receiving a permit to immigrate to Australia from Eric Hallenstein and leaving in 1936; arriving in Sydney on July 14, 1939; being sponsored by the AJWS (Australian Jewish Welfare Society) and going to the Chelsea Park Training Farm; living in several places in Australia; and contributing to the JNF (Jewish National Fund).

Oral history interview with Jana Gottscholl

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kurt Neubauer

Oral History

Kurt Neubauer, born January 22, 1909 in Brno, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses his family’s background in Lvov, Poland (now L'viv, Ukraine); his older sister; his childhood and education; training as a textile engineer; working in the textile industry in Czechoslovakia until 1940 when he was dismissed from his job; being forced to do labor on the railway; being sent to Terezín (Theresienstadt) in January 1942 and staying there until August 1944; his mother’s death in Terezín from tuberculosis; being in Auschwitz-Birkenau from August to October 1944; being transferred to Meuselwitz concentration camp; leaving Czechoslovakia illegally after the war; living in displaced persons game in the US zone of Germany; being sponsored by Ernest Morgensten to immigrate to Australia; arriving in Sydney on January 24, 1951; working for GM Holden, Ingot Mill (part of Alcoa Inc.), and Revlon Cosmetics; building a house in Northbridge (suburb in Sydney); and occasionally attending services at Temple Emanuel.

Oral history interview with Werner F. Baer

Oral History

Werner Felix Baer, born April 29, 1914 in Berlin, Germany, discusses his family’s background; his childhood and education; working in Jüdischer Kulturbund Berlin; marrying in 1938; being evacuated from Singapore in September 1940; winning an Australian song competition for composing “Sounds of Europe”; and visiting Germany several times after the war.

Oral history interview with Peter Lom

Oral History

Peter Lom (né Löw), born July 26, 1920 in Brno, Czechoslovakia, discusses his family’s background; his childhood and education; the arrest of his father in July 1939; his imprisonment in Theresienstadt from January 1942 until December 1943; being sent to Auschwitz then Schwarzheide; being close to Rabbi Benjamin Béla Vojtech Gottshall during his time in the camps; the end of the war and receiving a landing permit to got to Australia from Karl Hofmann (his mother’s cousin); arriving in Sydney in 1949; his relatives in Melbourne; working at General Motors Holden; never returning to Czechoslovakia; and his support of Jewish organizations.

Oral history interview with Emil Buckler

Oral History

Emil Buckler (né Buchler) discusses his birth in Budapest, Hungary in 1922; being sent to Ercsi; his experiences on a forced march to Budapest; being smuggled out of Hungary to Czechoslovakia; traveling to Vienna through Bratislava; and immigrating to Australia in 1951.

Oral history interview with Maria Sternhell

Oral History

Oral history interview with Zygmunt Nebenzahl

Oral History

Zygmunt Nebenzahl, born March 27, 1900 in Kraków, Poland, describes his family’s background; his childhood and education; his father’s leather business; growing up Hasidic; antisemitism in Poland; getting married in 1928; leaving Poland on May 5, 1939 and going via London, England to Fremantle, Australia; arriving in Sydney on June 28, 1939; becoming a partner in a timber mill near Tamworth, NSW; his children and grandchildren; buying the firm that sold used Paul Ditisheim Swiss watches; visiting Austria and Germany after the war; his feelings towards Germans and Poles; visiting Israel several times; and his involvement in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Victor H. Bennett

Oral History

Victor Hyman “Chaim” Bennett (né Miseretzsky), born in London, England April 21, 1917, describes his family’s background in Ukraine; his childhood and education; moving to Palestine with his parents in 1930; living in Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Haifa; his schooling in Jerusalem and participation in Jewish youth groups; working on the Haffa port construction; being deported from Palestine in 1939 to the UK after smuggling arms for the Irgun; spending five years in the British Palestine Army; fighting for the Irgun in 1948; and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Edith Kramer and Friedrich Kramer

Oral History

Dr. Edith Kramer (née Liebeck), born October 7, 1899 in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia), describes her family’s background; her childhood and education; her younger brother; studying medicine in Königsberg and Munich; doing an internship in Berlin and meeting her future husband; getting married in 1925; her husband losing his job at Charité Hospital and dying in 1937 of natural causes; keeping up her practice and being asked by German agents to do illegal things; being sent to work as a doctor at a camp in Posen, Germany (now Poznan, Poland) within the quarantine camp for women, Fort Radziwill; working in Antoninek (an area in Poznan); the suicide of her paternal aunt; taking care of prisoners; making daily reports of the three camps; accusations of sabotaging German work leveled against her; her arrest and imprisonment in the Gestapo Prison of Poznan, Berlin-Alexanderplatz Prison, and Theresienstadt; life in the camps; liberation; moving to Switzerland immediately after the war; receiving a permit to go to Australia in 1947; immigrating to Australia in 1948; studying medicine in Sydney; getting married to Friedrich Kramer in Melbourne, Vic. in 1951; visiting Israel; and her life in Australia. Friedrich Kramer, born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) in 1902, discusses his training as a violinist in Vienna, Austria; working for Shell Oil Company; leaving Vienna after the Anschluss and receiving a permit to go to Australia; immigrating to Australia in 1938; being a laborer in Melbourne; playing for the Victoria Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; and visiting Germany in 1970 and 1981.

Oral history interview with Edmund Josephs

Oral History

Edmond Josephs (né Edmund Jozefowicz), born October 28, 1912 in Wanne, Germany (part of Herne, Germany), discusses his family’s background; his childhood and education; moving with his family to Grudziadz, Poland in 1918; his work as a bookkeeping clerk in an iron foundry; doing his military service in the military police; going to Konski to work in an agricultural cooperative under German control; being arrested on August 20, 1943 and sent to Auschwitz (his number was 138040); being in Birkenau and quarantined in Block 30 (B II d); receiving a landing permit from the government in 1949 and immigrating to Australia; meeting his future wife on the ship “Protea”; working in the Camp Bathurst in New South Wales for two years; working in a factory in Surry Hills, NSW; and how his feelings about Germans have changed over the years.

Oral history interview with Fred D. Heim

Oral History

Fred Dagobert Heim, born November 13, 1930 in Berlin, Germany, discusses his family’s background; his childhood and education; being beaten up by children in his neighborhood for being Jewish; wearing Jewish insignias; hiding with his parents in the cellar of hid grandparent’s flat; life underground from October 1943 to May 1945; his decision to go to Australia instead of the United States; obtaining a landing permit sent by his aunt and uncle; arriving in Sydney, Australia in 1947; getting a job in a factory; getting married in 1953; his three sons; working for the commonwealth public services for 11 years as a clerk; and his feelings towards Germans.

Oral history interview with Sophie Barold

Oral History

Sophie Barold (née Singer), born on November 7, 1926 in Cologne, Germany, describes his family’s Polish background; his childhood and education; his religious upbringing; his father’s death in the late 1920s; experiencing antisemitism from his peers; being sent by his mother to Nancy, France in 1938 to live with her youngest brother (Charlie Rozenberg), returning to Germany, and then going to Paris, France; joining the Eaubonne Orthodox OSE home; being evacuated to Montintin (in Château-Chervix, France); being in Nexon, France and escaping a deportation; going into the French underground; her work to find and gather Jewish children hidden during the war; receiving sponsorship to go to Australia and immigrating to Australia in 1951; living in a boarding house in Woollahra (suburb of Sydney, N.S.W.); living in Rose Bay; her work; never wanting to return to Germany; and her participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Israel I. Weinbaum

Oral History

Israel Isidor Weinbaum (also known as Israel Wine), born September 16, 1912 in Nowy Korczyn, Poland, describes his family’s background, including his ancestor Elimelech of Lizhensk; his childhood and education; working in the textile industry beginning at the age of 17; getting married February 6, 1936; the births of his sons in 1938 and 1950; being hidden during the war in a bunker by Polish friends in Leka, Poland; life in the bunker; being liberated by the Russians January 14, 1945; leaving Poland in September 16, 1945; staying in a displaced persons camp for two months; living clandestinely in Paris, France for three and a half years; immigrating to Australia in June 1949; living in Kingsford (suburb of Sydney); his company, Wine’s Knitting Co.; and retiring in 1975.

Oral history interview with Gerda Schott

Oral History

Gerda Schott (né Lewinnek), born November 23, 1914 in Berlin, Germany, discusses describes her family’s background; her childhood and religious education; being a member of a Zionist youth group; training as a dressmaker; remaining in Berlin during the war; the imprisonment of her fiancé (Bully Schott, RG-50.617*0027) in Auschwitz and sending him food; visiting her fiancé and helping him escape Auschwitz; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Rosalia White

Oral History

Rosalia White (née Fenster, later Weiss, now Michael), born May 23, 1924 in Vienna, Austria, describes her parents’ Polish background; her childhood; her secular and religious educations; the arrest of her brother (Samuel) and father during Kristallnacht and their imprisonment in Dachau; trying to emigrate; being imprisoned in several camps, including Gurs, Saint-Cyprien, and Rivesaltes; travelling through France, Brussels, and Israel after the war; immigrating to Australia in 1954; living in Bondi (suburb of Sydney); working as a salesperson in food shops; and her son.

Oral history interview with Edward Dahl

Oral History

Edward Dahl (né Eduard Dahl), born June 23, 1921 in Elberfeld, Germany, discusses his family’s background; his childhood; his secular and religious educations; attending Geneva International School (April 1938-August 1939); being shunned in school; going to London, England on August 25, 1939; leaving for Australia on the “Dunera” and arriving in September 1940; being imprisoned in Hay and Tatura internment camps; living in Melbourne and Alice Springs; visiting Germany in 1953 and again in 1962 when he was invited by the City of Wuppertal; getting married in 1950; his two sons; and being more Orthodox now than his earlier life due to his experiences in Hay and Tatura.

Oral history interview with Solomon Schonberger

Oral History

Solomon Schonberger, born October 19, 1929 in Velka Barezne, Czechoslovakia (now Velykyĭ Bereznyĭ, Ukraine), describes his family’s background; his childhood; being raised Orthodox; the fights between Jewish and non-Jewish children; Jewish businesses being taken away in 1941; hearing about the final solution; the creation of a ghetto on March 16, 1944; working in a factory in Uzhhorod, Ukraine; being deported to Auschwitz on May 30, 1944; being transferred in June 1944 to Bunzlau; being liberated by Russian troops in February 1945; returning briefly to Velka Barezne; spending two years in Liberec, Czech Republic; immigrating to Australia in 1948; being a merchant of ceramic tiles; getting married and his three sons; his feelings about Germans; and his participation in and support of the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Fritz H. Reuter

Oral History

Fritz Henry Reuter, born September 19, 1905 in Vienna, Austria, describes his family’s background; his childhood; his parents’ divorce in 1910; moving to Berlin, Germany with his mother; his education in Berlin, Thuringia, and Munich; attending Humboldt University in Berlin and Morabit Hospital; being unable to be appointed to an academic or research job because of his Jewish origins; immigrating to London, England in September 1933; being employed at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; going to Australia in 1938 to work in the Sydney University Department of Organic Chemistry; founding the journal "Food Technology in Australia" in 1949; being an associate professor of Food Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (1952-1970); and his wife and children.

Oral history interview with Georges G. Bossak

Oral History

Georges Gedaliah Bossak, born July 1, 1915 in Dereczyn, Russia (now Dziarechyn, Belarus), describes his family’s background; his childhood and religious education; being an apprentice to a tailor; being a member of Hechalutz Hatzair; serving in the Polish Army (1937-1938); the endemic antisemitism in the Slonim area; being in the artillery in the Polish Army and hiding at home after the retreat; joining a partisan group led by Icheskel Atlas with three other Jews; joining the Bulak group; getting married in 1946; his two daughters; going to Israel in 1948; going to Germany in 1951; immigrating to Australia in 1955, sponsored by the American Jewish World Service; his feelings towards Poles and Germans; working as a building contractor; and his participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Hannah Witton

Oral History

Hannah Witton (née Schab, formerly Witkowski), born July 1, 1915 in Berlin, Germany, describes his family’s background; his childhood and education; getting married to Emil Hans Witkowski; not experiencing antisemitism on a personal level until Kristallnacht when her father’s business was destroyed; buying tickets to Shanghai, China; her brother and husband going to Australia in early 1938; her father leaving for Australia in May 1939; going to Australia in June 1939; living in Rose Bay (suburb of Sydney); visiting Germany in 1972 and 1982; not considering herself Jewish; and her thoughts on Judaism and Israel.

Oral history interview with Harold G. Jensen

Oral History

Harold Geoffrey Jensen, born August 23, 1920 in Unruhstadt, Germany (now Kargowa, Poland), describes his childhood and education; attending gymnasium in Züllichau (Sulechów, Poland); moving with his family in 1934 to Schönebach, Germany; his experiences with antisemitism in Unruhstadt; learning a trade in Hamburg, Germany; his experiences in Hamburg during Kristallnacht; going to Bombay (Mumbai), India and arriving February 25, 1939; apprenticing as a textile worker; immigrating to Australia in 1947; his work in the textile industry; getting married; his children; visiting Germany briefly after the war; visiting Israel; his participation in the Jewish community; and being the president of a B'nai B'rith lodge in 1973.

Oral history interview with William Link

Oral History

William Link (né Wilhelm Link), born June 30, 1905 in Berlin, Germany, describes his family’s Hungarian background; his childhood and education; working for an export firm; the religious youth movement ESRA; experiencing antisemitism in his work; the denouncement of his father to German police; receiving a special permit to train as a glass embosser in 1938; immigrating to Australia in 1949; visiting Germany in 1978; visiting Israel; and his participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Frederick Kahn

Oral History

Frederick Kahn, born October 15, 1908 in Bruhl, Germany, discusses his family’s background; his childhood and education; his studies in Cologne and Frankfurt; his membership in Kameraden, deutsch-jüdischer Wanderbund and becoming a leader of the group in Cologne in 1927; working as clerk in a feather and flower wholesale firm; being forced to end his legal studies; experiencing antisemitism; his experiences during Kristallnacht and being imprisoned in Dachau for five days; traveling through Paris, Le Havre, New York, and Vancouver; traveling on the “Niagara” to Sydney, Australia in 1939; getting married; buying a poultry farm in Milperra (suburb of Canterbury-Bankstown Council); being part of the 3rd Australian Employment Company; his various jobs; visiting Germany in 1979; and his limited involvement with the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Gitta Buchwald

Oral History

Gitta Buchwald (née Rosenbaum), born in 1933 in Eisenstadt, Austria, discusses her family’s background; losing her parents when she was a young child; being raised by her maternal grandparents in Eisenstadt, Austria; her grandfather’s arrest in March 1938; going with her grandmother to Vienna, Austria and receiving assistance from the Jewish community; contracting tuberculosis and being placed in a convent with a hospital; staying in the hospital for over two years; the deportation of her grandmother; the attack of the mother superior by Gestapo; being sent to Theresienstadt, where she survived until the end of the war; being sent to England and adopted by a German-Jewish couple; the early deaths of her adopted parents; getting married to an academic; and immigrating to Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Leslie Korda

Oral History

Leslie Korda (né Ladislav Klein), born September 7, 1922 in Kosice, Slovakia, discusses his childhood and education; being prevented from entering higher education in Hungary because of the numerus clausus; being deported to Birkenau; being transferred to Falkenberg, Fürstenstein, and Donaueschingen; the death of his father; getting married in 1948; immigrating to Australia in 1950; never returning to Czechoslovakia; and his participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Fritz Katz

Oral History

Fritz “Fred” Katz (né Chaimowicz), born April 15, 1925 in Osmolin, Poland, describes his childhood and education; moving to Lowicz, Poland, where his father had a grain mill; his siblings; his imprisonment in several camps, including Inowraclaw, Gutenbrunn, Posen (Poznan), Zbaszyn, Auschwitz, and Fürstengrube; the conditions on a forced march from Dora to Bergen Belsen; liberation; moving to Switzerland; and immigrating to Australia in 1950; his three sons; his work in Australia; and his active participation in the Jewish community.

Oral history interview with Stephen Horvath

Oral History

Stephen Horvath (né Istvan Horvath), born August 21, 1903 in Győr, Hungary, describes his family’s background; his childhood and education; studying engineering in Budapest, Hungary; being kicked out of the university because he was Jewish; working in a Hungarian labor battalion; being imprisoned in Mauthausen labor camp; leaving Hungary in 1948 for Zurich, Switzerland and immigrating to Australia in November 1948; receiving help from HIAS; living in Neutral Bay (suburb of Sydney); and visiting Hungary a few times since his immigration.

Oral history interview with Michael Dobes and Ruth Dobes

Oral History

Michael Dobes, born November 7, 1909 in Kovarce, Slovakia, describes his family’s background; his childhood and education; his father’s death on the Russian front in Bukovina in 1915; attending school in Nitra and Topolcany; studying electrical engineering at a technical college in Brno and living in a hostel for war orphans as an atheist; passing as a non-Jew to avoid discrimination; being deported to Theresienstadt in April 1942; being transferred to Majdanek then Zamosc labor camps; escaping from Zamosc on July 23, 1942 and going through L'viv, Ukraine to Prague, Czech Republic; being imprisoned for three weeks on his way to Bratislava, Slovakia; passing as a Gentile in Bratislava until May 1945; and immigrating to Australia in 1949. Ruth Sureh “Barabara” Dobes (née Hornung), born March 14, 1918 in Vitkovic, Morawska-Ostrowa, Czechoslovakia (Vitkovice neighborhood in Ostrava), describes her family’s background; her childhood; getting married on June 30, 1938 to Michael Dobes; training as a dressmaker; being deported with Michael to Theresienstadt in April 1942; being transferred to Majdanek then Zamosc labor camps; escaping with Michael and going to Bratislava, Slovakia; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Kitty Fisher

Oral History

Kitty Fischer (née Haas), born July 12, 1927 in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), describes her family’s background; her childhood and education; attending a Jewish secondary school and a convent school during the German occupation; being taken to Sered, Slovakia on September 13, 1944; being transported to Auschwitz for four weeks in October 1944; being transferred to Merzdorf (Marciszów, Poland) and working in a weaving factory from November 1944 to May 1945; her decision to emigrate; studying sociology in Czechoslovakia; going from Prague, Czech Republic to Genoa, Italy and immigrating to Australia in 1949; being married from 1954 to 1960; having one son; working for Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany from 1968 to 1970; living in Israel from 1973 to 1975; working in Darwin, NT from 1975 to 1976 after the cyclone; her relationship to Judaism; and settling in Sydney in 1984.

Oral history interview with Anna Green

Oral History

Anna Green discusses her birth in Siegburg, Germany in 1909 and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Edith Lowbeer

Oral History

Edith Lowbeer discusses her birth in Senec, Slovakia in 1924; her imprisonment in the Senec ghetto, Nove Zamky, Auschwitz, and Trutnov camps; liberation; leaving Czechoslovakia in 1948; and immigrating to Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Janka Nagel

Oral History

Janka Nagel discusses her birth in Ardanovce, Slovakia; her imprisonment in Patronka and Auschwitz; receiving a permit for Costa Rica and then Australia; traveling through Europe, Asia and Australia; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Hans Eisler

Oral History

Hans Eisler discusses his birth in Vienna, Austria in 1924; becoming stateless; leaving Vienna in 1938 for Frankfurt, Brussels, and London; and immigrating to Australia in 1939.

Oral history interview with Israel Sevek

Oral History

Israel Sevek (b. Severyn Pejachowicz) discusses his birth in Radzyn Podlaski, Poland in 1912; deserting from the Soviet amry in 1939; his imprisonment in the Minksi ghetto; escaping the ghetto; going to Paris; and immigrating to Australia in 1947.

Oral history interview with Ursula Flicker

Oral History

Ursula Flicker discussers her birth in Łódź, Poland in 1926 and being deported to Siberia in 1941.

Oral history interview with Gert Lippman

Oral History

Gert Lippman discusses his birth in Berlin, Germany in 1914; his time in the Vaguemestre camp; being released in November 1939; tranferring with this job to France and Strasbourg; and immigrating to Australia in 1946.

Oral history interview with Albert Yacoel

Oral History

Albert Yacoel discusses his birth in Salonica, Greece in 1908; his imprisonment in Averoff, Haidari camp near Athens, and Auschwitz; being evacuated to Mauthausen; returning to Greece after the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Enzel Pilcer

Oral History

Enzel Pilcer discusses his birth in Krakow, Poland; becoming stateless; and immigrating to Australia in 1962.

Oral history interview with Alfred Steiner

Oral History

Alfred Steiner discusses his birth in Kosice, Slovakia in 1928; his imprisonment in Auschwitz; working in a brick factory; being evacuated to Buchenwald; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Joseph P. Merfield

Oral History

Joseph P. Merfield discusses his birth in Koln, Germany in 1903; leaving Germany in 1938; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Robert King

Oral History

Robert King (b. Robert Koenig) discusses his birth in Vienna, Austria in 1913 and his immigration to Australia in 1938.

Oral history interview with Egon Forsher

Oral History

Egon Forsher discusses his birth in Moravska-Ostrava, Czechoslovakia; being deported to Theresienstadt in 1941; his deportation to Auschwitz; briefly living in the so-called "Gypsy" camp; receiving an Australian visa in 1949; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

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