Overview
- Interview Summary
- Ruth Heilbrunn and her sister Irmgard Ellison (both born in Gau-Odernheim, Germany) describe their parents, Christine “Toni” Koehler and Robert Katzenstein, who married circa 1908; Ruth getting papers to leave Germany in 1938 and her journey through Switzerland with her aunt and uncle (Fritz and Irma Koehler); Irmgard leaving Germany, at the age of 18, with her aunt and grandparents in 1940 and flying to Moscow, Russia before going to Japan via Vladivostok; waiting in Kobe, Japan for six months, waiting for new travel papers; being helped by the Jews in Kobe during their stay; arriving in the United States on Thanksgiving Day in 1940; their brothers, Hans and Alfred Katzenstein, who left Germany in the early 1930s; and the family eventually settling in Chicago, IL.
- Interviewee
- Ruth Heilbrunn
Irmgard Ellison - Interviewer
- Judy Faitek
Leon Faitek - Date
-
interview:
after 1980-before 1990
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Judy Faitek
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
2 CDs.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Restrictions on use. Restrictions may exist. Contact the Museum for further information: reference@ushmm.org
- Copyright Holder
- Judy Faitek
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Holocaust survivors--United States. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Personal narratives. Jewish families. Jews--Germany--Gau-Odernheim. Sisters. World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Japan--Kōbe-shi. World War, 1939-1945--Refugees. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Chicago (Ill.) Gau-Odernheim (Germany) Kōbe-shi (Japan) Moscow (Russia) United States--Emigration and immigration. Vladivostok (Russia)
- Personal Name
- Ellison, Irmgard Katzenstein. Heilbrunn, Ruth Katzenstein.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Judy Faitek donated the oral history interview with Ruth Heilbrunn and Irmgard Ellison on September 15, 2016. The interview was recorded in the 1980s by Leon and Judy Faitek.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:39:51
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn550891
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