Frank (born Frantisek) Sim (1920-2005) was born to Rudolf (1877-1944) and Fredericka (nee Berger, 1897-1944) Sim in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. He had one sister, Helen (later Krzak, 1913-?), and a brother, Otto, who died as a child during World War I. Rudolf worked as an attorney while Fredericka stayed at home. Ostrava was an industrial town of 250,000, with a large Jewish minority population. While Fredericka went to synagogue regularly, Rudolf was not religious at all, and they only celebrated the major holidays. The family spoke Czech at home, and most of Frank’s friends were not Jewish. He even participated in a scouting program. Frank attended the public primary school and then gymnasium, where he had to study Latin and Greek, as he wanted to be a doctor. He also had studied German and French, and had obligatory religious education.
In the fall of 1938, under the terms of the Munich Pact, Germany annexed the Sudetenland, a border region of Czechoslovakia. By May of 1939, Germany, Hungary, and Poland had partitioned Czechoslovakia and the nation no longer existed. Before the occupation, Frank and his family had never experienced any anti-Semitism, but had learned about the violence against Jews from German Jews who were seeking asylum. Frank’s sister decided to immigrate to England, and in 1939, the German army occupied Ostrava and burned the synagogues down. The family fled the city for Lipník, his mother’s hometown. There, the Jews had to live in one designated street, with two families to an apartment. In Lipník, Frank received training to work as an auto mechanic.
In June 1942, Frank and his parents were ordered to the nearby city of Olomouc, and forcibly placed on transport AAG to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in the northern region of German-occupied Czechoslovakia. There, he was assigned to a work group in the transport department, shoveling coal and unloading supplies that came to the ghetto. Although he had to live separately from his parents, Frank often stole potatoes for them to supplement their meager rations.
On September 28, 1944, Frank was put on a cattle car, with no water or bathroom facilities, for transport to what the prisoners believed was a temporary labor assignment. Instead, they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German-occupied Poland. Upon arrival, Frank was spared during the selection process, but was stripped of all his clothing except for his shoes and issued uniform pants, a jacket, and a shirt. Frank was assigned to a work group destined for Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, but was not scheduled to leave immediately. For six weeks at Auschwitz, he did not have to work, but volunteered to clean the latrines in order to receive extra rations. When he finally left, he was sent to Meuselwitz, a subcamp of the Buchenwald camp system. The new camp was much cleaner, and he was allowed a bath, a spoon, a plate, and his own bunk. In addition, he received underpants that the Germans had made out of a tallis, the specialized shawl worn by Orthodox Jewish males during morning prayers. Undergarments were not given out at Auschwitz, and the use of tallis for such a purpose was an intentional insult and desecration of a Jewish religious object. Overall, the conditions and treatment Frank received at Meuselwitz were much better than at Auschwitz. He worked at the Hugo Schneider AG (HASAG) armaments factory under a somewhat sympathetic supervisor. Once, he was allowed to step outside the factory alone and stole a box of beets. Although he was caught, he was spared punishment.
In April 1945, American troops were approaching and the Germans liquidated the camp. Frank was put on a transport train, in a cattle car, headed to Kraslice, just over the Czech border, but the train was bombed during the trip, and the prisoners were forced to march instead. There were not enough SS men to guard the whole group, so the first night of the march, Frank escaped. He made his way to Kraslice, where a Czech family took him in for four days and gave him civilian clothes. Frank then walked to Plzeň, Czechoslovakia, encountering a French prisoner of war camp on the way. After the American army liberated Plzeň on May 6, he went by bus to Prague, and then to Theresienstadt to find his parents. While his girlfriend was at Theresienstadt, she told Frank that his parents had been put on a transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau in October, a month after he had, where they were killed. Frank stayed in Theresienstadt with his girlfriend’s family, who has half Jew and half Christian, until the Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies and Soviets on May 7, and the ghetto was liberated by Soviet forces on May 9.
After liberation, Frank returned to Lipník and then went to Brno, Czechoslovakia, after learning that relatives had survived and were living there. He enrolled at the university there to study chemical engineering. In the spring of 1947, he met Edith Weinstein (b. 1925), the niece of his former boss at Theresienstadt. Edith was originally from Příbor, Czechosolvakia, and was transported to Theresienstadt in September 1942, then deported to the family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a work detail in Hamburg, Germany, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which the British forces liberated on April 15, 1945. Frank and Edith married in February 1948, the same day that the Communist Party assumed control of the Czechoslovakian government. They did not want to live under communist control, and applied unsuccessfully for visas to immigrate to the United States. Frank worked as a chemical engineer at a photochemical factory, and served in the Czech army school for reserve officers for five months in 1948. The couple had two daughters, Susan and Pavla. After the 1968 reform movement known as the Prague Spring, the family was allowed to travel, and they went to Vienna, where they were able to stay before immigrating to the United States in 1969. Frank continued to work as a chemical engineer; Edith was unable to get a job at first, but eventually worked for a family friend.
Edith Weinstein (born Edita, 1925) was born to Josef (1885-1944) and Paula (1890-?) Weinstein in Příbor, Czechoslovakia (now Příbor (Czech Republic). She had an older brother, Ernst (born Ernost, 1924-1945). Josef owned a textile store, and Paula worked there with him. Edith’s parents were not Orthodox and only moderately religious, but the family kept kosher for her Orthodox grandmother, who lived with them. Příbor was a small town with a small Jewish community, so Edith and Ernst had no Jewish friends. They attended the public school, and attended weekly lectures for their Jewish education.
In fall 1938, Germany annexed the Sudetenland, a border region of Czechoslovakia close to Příbor. Although Edith did not personally experience any anti-Semitism, her parents decided to move the family to Vsetín, a town where her father’s four brothers lived. The family couldn’t get an apartment, so they split up among their relatives’ households. The arrangement kept her immediate family apart, but Edith was able to continue attending school. She experienced a large amount of anti-Semitism, and was not able to make friends. In March 1939, German forces occupied the Czechoslovak provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. As a result, Vsetín became subject to anti-Semitic legislation and numerous restrictions aimed at destroying the political and economic rights of Jewish people. Edith had had to stop going to school. Edith’s parents sent her brother, Ernst, to Prague, where there were some Jewish schools led by Zionists, and Edith later followed. She lived in student housing and studied a variety of subjects, including Hebrew in preparation for a move to Israel.
In 1941, her parents decided to move to Brno, so Edith and her cousin went to school there, but did not know any non-Jews at the time. On September 1, 1941, all Jews in the Reich six years of age or older were required to wear a yellow Star of David badge to identify themselves as Jewish. The badge was used to stigmatize and control the Jewish population. After about a year, the family moved again to Ostrava. Edith learned how to sew and attended private lectures in English.
On September 21, 1942, Edith, her parents, and her brother were forcibly placed on transport Bi from Ostrava to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in the northern region of German-occupied Czechoslovakia. The family was split up, and Edith lived with a group of other young people in former soldier barracks. Her brother, Ernst got a job in a bakery, working under their cousin’s husband. Edith started out working where needed, mostly cleaning buildings. She later used acquaintances from her time in Prague to get work in the farm fields. Edith was able to steal food from the fields and bring vegetables to her parents to supplement their meagre rations and the packages sent by their former housekeeper and nanny, Maria Viznar.
In December 1943, when Edith’s parents were assigned to a transport out of the ghetto, Edith volunteered to go with them, even though her job was protected. Her brother remained in Theresienstadt. Edith and her parents were on Transport Ds, a cattle car to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German-occupied Poland. When they arrived, there was a lot of shouting, yelling, and panic. When the doors of the train were opened, they were received by SS guards and dogs. Instead of going through the selection process, they were tattooed with numbers and placed in the family camp for Jewish families deported from Theresienstadt. Despite being called the family camp, Edith and her family were split up into barracks according to age and gender. They could not believe the rumors about gassing and mass murders. Edith got depressed and began sleeping constantly. She was eventually assigned to work in an armaments factory. Edith’s father, Josef, died in March 1944. Three months later, Edith was chosen for a work detail. She tried to convince her mother to go with her, but Paula had Rheumatic fever, and would later die.
Edith’s work detail was sent to Hamburg, Germany, where she and 900 others cleaned up buildings after bombardment, cleaned bricks, and built houses. Conditions were better than at Auschwitz, and they were guarded by German soldiers who were not able to serve on the front. Her supervisor was very nice, and one of the guards even gave her some extra bread. In February 1945, she was transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where conditions were in total chaos.
British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945, and Germany surrendered to Allied forces on May 7, ending the war. Like most of the 60,000 prisoners, Edith was severely ill. She was taken to the hospital, delirious with fever, where all of the caretakers expected her to die. She recovered, however, and when allowed to leave, Edith returned to Příbor and her former nanny. After learning that she had cousins in Brno, Czechoslovakia, who had survived, she moved there and began attending a private school and an English institute. Her brother’s fiancée also survived, and Edith learned that he had been forced onto a transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 1944, and then to Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where he died from typhoid in March 1945.
In the spring of 1947, Edith met Frank Sim, a fellow survivor. Originally from Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, Frank and his parents were forcibly transported to Theresienstadt, and later to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Frank was then assigned to work at an armaments factory at Meuselwitz, a subcamp of the Buchenwald camp system in Germany, and escaped a death march. The couple married in February 1948, the same day that the Communist Party assumed control of the Czechoslovakian government. The couple did not want to live under communist control, so applied unsuccessfully for visas to immigrate to the United States. Edith and Frank had two daughters, Susan and Pavla. After the 1968 reform movement known as the Prague Spring, Edith and Frank were allowed to travel, and they went to Vienna, where they were able to stay. The Sim family was finally able to move to the US in 1969 and Frank continued to work as a chemical engineer. Edith was unable to get a job at first, but eventually worked for a family friend.
