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Oral history interview with Frieda Sysman

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1990.338.54 | RG Number: RG-50.037.0054

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    Oral history interview with Frieda Sysman

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Frieda Sysman, born in Cologne, Germany, describes her father, who had a textile business; she and her younger brother having a very happy childhood; her grandparents, who had left Poland because of the persecution of the Jews long before the Nazis came to power in Germany; her grandparents being sent back to Poland in 1938 and not surviving the war; being nine years old in 1939 when they were warned by a friendly non-Jewish neighbor that all the Jews would be killed; being sent with her seven-year-old brother to Brussels, Belgium, where the Red Cross helped to place them with Jewish families; her parents going into hiding and being smuggled to Belgium a few months later; the German occupation of Belgium and her family fleeing to France, but being caught by the Germans and sent back to Belgium; her father being deported in August 1942 and killed in Auschwitz; a priest taking her brother to an orphanage and her mother and herself to a convent; staying with a woman who did not feed her much food; being taken into the convent; being placed in charge of some younger children including her brother; the convent arranging for her to learn shorthand and typing; liberation and finding a job as secretary for the American Army; still being in touch with the convent, where she spent four years; meeting her future husband who had escaped from Poland and whose entire family had been killed; the antisemitism in Poland; getting married in 1947 and moving to Israel in 1949; her mother moving to Israel then the United States; immigrating in 1958 with her husband to the US and settling in Buffalo, NY; being affected by the memory of her experiences and finding it difficult to talk about it; and not telling her children but how they now know about the events.
    Interviewee
    Frieda Sysman
    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

    Personal Name
    Sysman, Frieda.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Toby Ticktin Back of the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo conducted the interview with Frieda Sysman 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 08:08:29
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn511817

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