Biography
Renee Hoover (born Renia Pilzer) is the daughter of Romek and Hannah Goldberg Pilzer. Renia's parents immigrated to Israel in 1933 but returned to Poland two or three years later. Renia was born on July 15, 1937 in Krakow, Poland where her father was a jewelry designer. Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Renia and her family moved to the Krakow ghetto. The following year, a Catholic friend of her parents by the name of Habowski agreed to take her out of the ghetto in exchange for money. Renia's father smuggled her out of the ghetto in a backpack, which he transferred to Habowski. Renia lived with Mr. Habowski for a short while, and then he took her to the Limanowa district about an hour away. For the remainder of the war she lived with different Catholic families in different villages in Limanowa, under the name of Irka Meresh. On one occasion a train filled with Ukrainian soldiers stopped in the village and began killing anyone they found in a reprisal raid against partisan activity in the region. Renia managed to escape with two Polish children and went to another village. In May 1945, Soviet soldiers liberated Renia in a village in Limanowa. Meanwhile, both of Renia's parents had been deported from Krakow to the Plaszow concentration camp. From there Romek was sent to Bergen-Belsen and Hannah was deported first to Czestochowa and then to Gross-Rosen. Both of Renia's parents perished in concentration camp. Renia's aunt, Netle, was with Hannah but managed to survive. After her liberation she found Mr. Habowski and asked him how she could reunite with her niece. Habowski, who had planned to put Renia in a convent, refused to allow Netle to take the girl unless she paid him a substantial amount of money. Since Netle did not have any money, she sought the aid of the Jewish Agency in Krakow, who gave her funds with which to reclaim Renia. Still, Habowski would not give her up and placed Renia in an orphanage. After a few weeks, Netle managed to remove Renia from the orphanage. Renia went with her aunt to Krakow, Richbach, and eventually the Hasenecke displaced persons'camp outside of Kassel. Netle married Joseph Goldman, and Renia lived with them for ten years under the name of Rivka Goldman. In August 1948 they immigrated to Israel and lived in the Beth Shan in the Galilee. Renia received a nursing degree and worked as a nurse near Tiberius while pursuing graduate work in Bar Ilan. In June 1966 she married Arthur Hoover, also a survivor, and immigrated to the United States.
