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Oral history interview with Sonja Samson

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1997.A.0441.121 | RG Number: RG-50.462.0121

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    Oral history interview with Sonja Samson

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Sonja Samson, born in Aurich, Germany in 1931, into an assimilated but observant Jewish family; living with her grandparents for a year in Luxembourg circa 1936 until she joined her parents, who had moved to France; her family history and her childhood; her speculations on why her parents stayed in France instead of immigrating to the United States; her father volunteering for the French Army and his internment in 1939; staying briefly with her parents in the commune of Gurs then living in Garlin until August 26, 1942 when they were rounded up by French police and sent to Gurs; being transported to Rivesaltes in September 1942; her parents’ deportation and her mother managing to keep Sonja from going on the transport with the help of Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE); never seeing her parents again and still profoundly resenting this separation; conditions in the two camps and her life and schooling in the villages of Garlin and Gurs; staying in a convent and then an orphanage at Palavas-les-Flots with other Jewish children, under the auspices of the Union Générale des Israélites de France (UGIF) and the OSE; staying with distant relatives who were in hiding; staying in a boarding school in Chambéry, constantly on guard; a failed attempt to cross the border into Switzerland; working as a maid at an inn that was a substation of the Armeé Secréte (the French underground); inventing a new identity for herself as a non-Jewish war orphan and participating in Catholic rites to avoid discovery; becoming a messenger for the underground; how her presence of mind foiled a plot by the so-called "Butcher of Grenoble" to blow up the underground’s headquarters just after liberation in August 1944; her post-war life at the Chambéry boarding school, with her cousins; her search for her parents and being an active member of Hashomer Hatzair in Paris; how she learned what she needed in order to survive; how the loss of her parents affects her to this day; the changes to her outlook on religion, Jewishness, and Zionism as she matured; going to the United States from Sweden on the Gripsholm as a war-orphan in 1947; the difficult adjustment to life in the US; how she managed to get the higher education she wanted; and her post-war trips to Israel.
    Interviewee
    Sonja Samson
    Date
    interview:  1985 June 03
    interview:  1985 August 04
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    5 sound cassettes (60 min.).

    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
    Samson, Sonja, 1931-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive conducted the interview with Sonja Samson in Philadelphia, Pa., on June 3, 1985 and August 4, 1985. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the tapes of the interview from Gratz College in August 2003.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:36:39
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn515646

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