Media Essay
Bergen-Belsen - ID Card/Oral History
Doriane Kurz
Doriane Kurz’s parents, Klara and Emil Meilech Kurz, settled in Vienna, where her father ran a thriving branch of the family's multinational optical frames business.
1933-39: Doriane was born in Vienna just two years before the Germans annexed Austria in March 1938. Her family fled to the Netherlands soon after the annexation. The Kurz family moved to the town of Maastricht where a branch of the Kurz Brothers' optical frames business was located. Doriane attended nursery school in Maastricht, but the family then moved to Amsterdam.
1940-45: In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands. Eventually, the German occupiers required Jews, including Doriane, to wear a yellow star of David. Doriane’s father Meilech was arrested and imprisoned in the Westerbork transit camp. From there he was deported to Auschwitz. In February 1944, Doriane, her mother, and her brother Freddie were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where they were imprisoned for more than a year.
In April 1945, Doriane, Freddie and their mother Klara were among the approximately 8,000 Jewish inmates evacuated from Bergen-Belsen in freight cars. Eventually, their guards abandoned the train and they were subsequently freed by Soviet troops. Doriane, Freddie, and Klara returned to Amsterdam. But Doriane’s father Meilech did not. He did not survive. Klara died less than a year after they returned to the Netherlands. She was in ill health as a result of starvation and disease she experienced while in Nazi captivity. Doriane and Freddie sailed to the United States on the SS Gripsholm in 1946. Once in the United States, they went to live with an uncle.
Item ViewAlice Lok Cahana describes arrival at Bergen-Belsen
Germany occupied Hungary in 1944. Alice was deported to Auschwitz in the same year. At one time she was selected for the gas chamber, but survived because of a malfunction. As Allied forces approached the camp, Alice and other inmates were evacuated to the Guben labor camp. Alice, her sister, and another girl escaped during a forced march from the camp but were found and sent on to Bergen-Belsen. Alice's sister was taken to a Red Cross hospital, but Alice never saw her again. After the war, Alice immigrated to the United States.
Item ViewBella Jakubowicz Tovey describes conditions in Bergen-Belsen
Bella was the oldest of four children born to a Jewish family in Sosnowiec. Her father owned a knitting factory. After the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, they took over the factory. The family's furniture was given to a German woman. Bella was forced to work in a factory in the Sosnowiec ghetto in 1941. At the end of 1942 the family was deported to the Bedzin ghetto. Bella was deported to the Graeben subcamp of Gross-Rosen in 1943 and to Bergen-Belsen in 1944. She was liberated in April 1945, and immigrated to the United States in 1946.
Item ViewDoriane Kurz describes food rations and conditions in Bergen-Belsen
Doriane's Jewish family fled to Amsterdam in 1940, a year that also saw the German occupation of the Netherlands. Her father perished after deportation to Auschwitz. After their mother was seized, Doriane and her brother hid with gentiles. The three were reunited at Bergen-Belsen, where they were deported via Westerbork. They were liberated during the camp's 1945 evacuation. Doriane's mother died of cancer soon after Doriane helped her recover from typhus. Doriane and her brother immigrated to the United States.
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Doriane Kurz describes appell (roll call) in Bergen-Belsen
Doriane's Jewish family fled to Amsterdam in 1940, the same year Germany occupied the Netherlands. Her father died after deportation to Auschwitz. After their mother was seized, Doriane and her brother hid with gentiles. The three were reunited at Bergen-Belsen, where they were deported via Westerbork. They were liberated during the camp's 1945 evacuation, when Doriane was 9. Her mother died of cancer soon after Doriane helped her recover from typhus. Doriane and her brother immigrated to the United States.
Item ViewDoriane Kurz recalls Bergen-Belsen prisoners hauling wagons of corpses
Doriane's Jewish family fled to Amsterdam in 1940, a year that also saw the German occupation of the Netherlands. Her father perished after deportation to Auschwitz. After their mother was seized, Doriane and her brother hid with gentiles. The three were reunited at Bergen-Belsen, where they were deported via Westerbork. They were liberated during the camp's 1945 evacuation. Doriane's mother died of cancer soon after Doriane helped her recover from typhus.
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Ruth Moser Borsos describes roll call (Appell) in Bergen-Belsen
Ruth moved to the Netherlands after Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass") in 1938. She and her father had permits to sail to the United States, but Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 and they could not leave. Ruth was deported to the Westerbork camp in 1943 and to the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany in 1944. After an exchange agreement with the Allies broke down, Ruth was interned near the Swiss border until liberation by French forces in 1945.
Item ViewFela Warschau describes liberation by British forces at Bergen-Belsen
Fela was liberated at Bergen-Belsen by the British army in 1945. She went to a displaced persons (DP) camp administered by the Americans in Feldafing, near Munich. She married in the DP camp in 1946, and eventually immigrated to the United States.
Item ViewBella Jakubowicz Tovey describes a British soldier's visit while she was hospitalized in Bergen-Belsen after liberation
Bella was the oldest of four children born to a Jewish family in Sosnowiec. Her father owned a knitting factory. After the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, they took over the factory. The family's furniture was given to a German woman. Bella was forced to work in a factory in the Sosnowiec ghetto in 1941. At the end of 1942 the family was deported to the Bedzin ghetto. Bella was deported to the Graeben subcamp of Gross-Rosen in 1943 and to Bergen-Belsen in 1944. She was liberated in April 1945.
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