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Oral history interview with Elza Friedman and Sofie Tihel

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1990.338.22 | RG Number: RG-50.037.0022

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    Oral history interview with Elza Friedman and Sofie Tihel

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Sofie Tihel (born in 1911) is the mother of Elza Friedman (born in 1931 in Jassy [Iasi], Romania). Elza describes her happy childhood and studying piano, French, and Hebrew; her father’s small manufacturing business that made bottles and metal accessories; the war coming to Romania in 1941 and the subsequent pogrom by the local population aided by the Nazis, during which about one-half of the Jewish population was killed; her immediate family surviving; the deportation of most of her extended family; the looting of their home; being threatened by drunk soldiers; attending a Jewish school; her father’s business being operated by an appointed gentile and the factory producing goods for the army; being poisoned by a German soldier and being sick for months; conditions in the city; the murder of Jewish men; learning about events from friends with radios or from newspapers by reading between the lines; moving to Bucharest, Romania in 1944 when the Russians were approaching; life between 1945 and 1948; attending a Russian school; studying chemistry at a university; being on the blacklist because her father was considered a bourgeois; having to pay a high tuition and selling her personal belongings to get money; the Russians taking many people to work on a canal between the Danube and the Black Sea, where many died; her father’s death in 1949; her mother marrying a pharmacist in 1958; Elza working as a chemist; her mother and younger sister going to Buffalo, NY in 1966; Elza’s marriage to an engineer, who was not allowed to do proper work because of their planned emigration; her mother helping by sending packages from the United Stated; being helped to leave by an Englishman; arriving in Buffalo in 1971; finding a job at a chemical laboratory at a university; and how people should appreciate their freedom and their won struggles were worth it.
    Interviewee
    Sofie Tihel
    Elza Friedman
    Interviewer
    Mrs. Toby Back

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    1 videocassette (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

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Toby Ticktin Back of the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo conducted the interview with Elza Friedman and Sofie Tihel with the cooperation and support of WIVB-TV in Buffalo, NY. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch received copies of interviews from the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo from 1990 - 1993. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection by transfer from the Oral History branch in February 1995.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:08:18
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn511781

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