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Tarmo Holma is a veteran of the 11th Armored Division. During the invasion of German-held Austria, in May 1945 the 11th Armored (the "Thunderbolt" division) overran two of the largest Nazi concentration camps in the country: Mauthausen and Gusen.
Moses was 16 years old when the Nazis came to power in January 1933. He attended the Mir Yeshiva, a Jewish religious school based in Mir, Poland. German forces invaded Poland in September 1939. The Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland less than three weeks later. Mir was in Soviet-occupied Poland. Moses and the entire Mir Yeshiva moved to Vilna, Lithuania, so they could continue their studies without Soviet interference. When the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in 1940, leaders of the yeshiva decided they…
Pete grew up in Essen, a major industrial city on Germany's Ruhr River. His father worked as a cattle hide dealer for an international trading company in nearby Muehlheim. His mother was a designer for a fashionable women's dress shop. Pete, his younger twin brothers, and parents lived together in an apartment. 1933–39: Pete had barely passed his first birthday when the Nazis came to power. His father realized the danger that now faced Jews in Germany, and the family left for Prague, Czechoslovakia, in…
Saul was born to a Jewish family in the small northern Transylvanian town of Moisei, famous for its 18th-century monastery, to which many Christians came on pilgrimage. Saul's family was religious. His father transported lumber to several mills in the area. 1933-39: Saul and his brothers attended a Jewish school held at their neighbor's home. A rabbi led them in prayers and they learned quotations from holy texts. After his schooling he needed to learn a trade, so he decided to become a tailor. Jews were…
The fourth of five children, Esther was born to Jewish parents living 35 miles east of Warsaw in the small predominantly Jewish town of Kaluszyn. Esther's mother and grandmother ran a newspaper kiosk in the town, and her father worked as a clerk at the town hall. 1933-39: Next year would have been Esther's last year at school, but she won't be able to graduate. War has broken out between Poland and Germany, so the schools have closed. A big battle took place here in Kaluszyn. The town was heavily shelled…
Julo was born to a Jewish family in the city of Stettin in northeastern Germany. From an early age Julo showed an interest in art; at 6 he had collected more than 3,000 pictures. His family hoped he would become a businessman, but his interest in painting absorbed all his energy. In 1926 he graduated from art school and by 1931 he secured his first commission in Duesseldorf. 1933-39: Until the Nazis came to power in 1933, Julo was a highly regarded artist. The Nazis' strict interpretation of art, however,…
Selma was the youngest of the Wijnberg's four children, and the only daughter. When she was 7, her family left Groningen to start a business in the town of Zwolle [in the Netherlands]. There her parents ran a small hotel popular with Jewish businessmen traveling in the area. Every Friday there was a cattle market, and many of the cattle dealers came to the Wijnberg's hotel for coffee and business. 1933-39: At home Selma and her family were observant of Jewish tradition because her mother was religious.…
Chava's mother died when she was 2, and Chava went to live with her grandfather, who was a rabbi in the village of Matsiov. Her grandfather's second wife welcomed Chava. After first studying at a Polish public school, Chava attended a Jewish day school. When Chava was a teenager her adopted grandmother died, and Chava took over managing her grandfather's household until he remarried. 1933-39: Chava's grandfather's third wife was an unsympathetic woman. After she came to their home, Chava wanted to be…
Henoch's religious Jewish parents married in 1937. His father, Moishe Kornfeld, and his mother, Liba Saleschutz, had settled in Kolbuszowa, where Henoch's mother was raised. There, Liba's father bought the newlyweds a home and started his new son-in-law in the wholesale textile business. 1938-39: Henoch was born in late 1938, and was raised among many aunts, uncles and cousins. Around Henoch's first birthday, Germany invaded Poland and soon reached Kolbuszowa. Polish soldiers on horses tried to fight…
Joseph was born in Bitterfeld, Germany, to Roma ("Gypsy") parents. For reasons unknown, he was raised in an orphanage for the first one-and-a-half years of his life. At the time of Joseph's birth, some 26,000 "Gypsies"—members of either the Sinti or Roma tribes—lived in Germany. Though most were German citizens, they were often discriminated against by other Germans and subjected to harassment. 1933-39: At age one-and-a-half, Joseph was taken into foster care by a family living in Halle, a city some…
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