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Pawel, a Roman Catholic, fled to Danzig, Germany, in 1914 to avoid conscription in the Russian army. Since Germany and Russia were at war, Pawel was arrested by the Germans as an enemy alien and sent to work on a farm in northern Germany. He met Anna Szachowska there, and they married in 1918. The couple moved to Warsaw where they raised 4 children. In 1930 Pawel opened a textile business. 1933-39: Despite the Depression, Pawel's business prospered and they expanded their operations. In 1938 some friends…
Hannah was one of six children born to Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish parents in the town of Zvolen in central Poland. She married Jozef Rosenblat, a Jewish shoemaker also from Zvolen. After living in Warsaw for several years, Hannah and Jozef settled in the industrial city of Radom near their hometown. There, they raised their three sons. 1933-39: When Germany threatened to attack Poland in August 1939, Hannah's youngest son, Herschel, was called up by the Polish army. On September 1, 1939, Germany…
Odon was the third of four children born to Roman Catholic parents in Warsaw, Poland's capital. His father had worked for the Polish merchant marine before starting his own textile business in 1930. When Odon was 8, the family moved to a comfortable apartment located near the Royal Castle and Vistula River. In 1932 Odon began attending grade school. 1933-39: In September 1938 Odon began secondary school. Sensing growing danger from Germany, his father advised him to study German in addition to French. On…
Mieczyslaw was the eldest of three sons born to well-to-do Roman Catholic parents in Poland's capital of Warsaw. His father was a real estate developer and his mother was a housewife. Mieczyslaw, or Mieteck as he was nicknamed, began attending public elementary school in 1930 when he was 7 years old. 1933-39: Mieczyslaw's father urged him to study either German or Russian because he thought it was likely that there would be a German or Soviet invasion. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. During…
Elya, also known as Eli, was the eldest of three sons born to Yiddish-speaking Jewish parents. When Elya was a child his family moved to the industrial city of Radom, located about 60 miles south of Warsaw. After completing school in Radom, Elya apprenticed to become a women's tailor. Eventually, he became licensed as a master tailor. 1933-39: Elya married in 1936 and had a daughter one year later. He and his wife lived on Zeromskiego Street across from Elya's younger brother, Itzik, who was also a…
Moishe was born to Yiddish-speaking Jewish parents in Radom. The industrial city was known for its armaments factories in which Jews could not work and for its leather industry in which many Jews did. When Moishe was a teenager, he finished school and apprenticed to become a women's tailor. Moishe earned a certificate enabling him to be a licensed tailor and settled down in Radom. 1933-39: By 1939, Moishe had become a master tailor specializing in women's clothes. He remembers local antisemitic…
Stevo, who was Serbian Orthodox, was a blacksmith, gunsmith and farmer in the village of Pucari. When he was 20, he went to live in the United States in Minnesota for four years. In 1912 he returned to Pucari, but when his wife and two of his sons died from influenza, he left again for America. In 1923 he returned to Pucari, where he remarried and raised four more children. 1933-39: Stevo had saved some money in the United States, and became one of the wealthiest farmers in his village. He acquired…
Miksa was the youngest of four children born to religious Jewish parents. The Deutches lived in the town of Bistrita in Transylvania, a region of Romania that belonged to Hungary until 1918. After 1910, the family lived in nearby Viseu de Sus. In 1922 Miksa moved to Budapest, Hungary, where he and his older brother, Pal, opened a business selling matches. In 1928 Miksa married Kornelia Mahrer. 1933-39: Miksa and Kornelia had three children, whom they raised with a religious education. Miksa and his…
Josef was born to Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish parents in the town of Viseu de Sus in Transylvania, a region of Romania that belonged to Hungary until 1918. In 1890 he married Emma Geisler from the nearby town of Bistrita. The couple had four children and after 1910 the family lived at #4 Hid Street in Viseu de Sus. Josef was a merchant who owned a stall in Viseu de Sus's public market. 1933-39: By 1939 two of Josef's grown sons had moved to the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Josef and his wife…
Chava Lea was born Emma Geisler to Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish parents. The Deutsch family lived in the village of Budacu de Sus in Transylvania, a region of Romania that belonged to Hungary until 1918. She grew up in the town of Bistrita. In 1890 she married Josef Deutsch, a salesman from the town of Viseu de Sus, where the couple moved in 1910. Chava and Josef raised four children. 1933-39: By 1939 two of Chava Lea's grown sons had moved to the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Chava Lea and her…
Wilma was the oldest of two daughters born to German-speaking Jewish parents. She married Gyula Mahrer, a Hungarian Jew who had fought in the Hungarian army during World War I. The couple lived in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, where they raised two daughters. The Mahrers lived near their eldest daughter, Kornelia, who had married in 1928. 1933-39: Wilma's first grandchild, Maria, was born on Wilma's 55th birthday. By 1936 Wilma had five grandchildren, three of whom lived in Budapest with her daughter…
Judith was the older of two children born to Jewish parents in the town of Kiskunfelegyhaza in southeastern Hungary. Her mother, Anna, and her mother's sister, Kornelia, were close in age and had a contest to see who would be the first to have a baby. Judith's Aunt Kornelia won the contest and cousin Maria was born in December 1931, just three weeks before Judith. 1933-39: Judith's father had a prosperous wholesale business that sold goose meat, down, feathers and quilts. In 1939, the same year that…
Laszlo was raised by Hungarian-speaking Jewish parents in the town of Kiskunfelegyhaza in southeastern Hungary. He opened a business selling goose meat, feathers, down and quilts. In 1931 he married Anna Mahrer, from Budapest, and they had a daughter in January 1932. 1933-39: Laszlo and Anna had a second child, a son. They raised their two children in a comfortable home. Kiskunfelegyhaza was located in a rural part of Hungary. In May 1939, the Hungarian government enacted a law that defined Jews as alien…
Itzik, also known as Izak, was one of three sons born to Yiddish-speaking Jewish parents. When Itzik was a young child his family moved to the city of Radom. Itzik left school when he was 11 to apprentice as a women's tailor. After he apprenticed with several tailors in Radom and Warsaw, he went back to school and earned a tailor's license. 1933-39: In 1938 Itzik married Taube Fishman, the daughter of his first employer, after a 13-year courtship much opposed by her family. They lived in Radom, where…
Shlomo was the youngest of four brothers born to a Jewish family in the northern Polish town of Malkinia. During World War I, Shlomo served as a male nurse. After the war, he worked as a grain merchant in the Malkinia area, just as his father had. In 1929 he married Pesia Ander, and a year later their first child, Ida, was born. 1933-39: In September 1939, before the invading Germans reached Malkinia, Shlomo fled with his family to the countryside. Exhausted, they returned to their house in Malkinia only…
Kosta was the oldest of five children born to Serbian Orthodox parents in a poor farming village. Podum was on the slopes of Mount Um in the Croatian part of Yugoslavia. After finishing secondary school, Kosta immigrated to the United States. But when World War I broke out in 1914, he returned to Podum. In 1920 he married Anka, a Serb woman from his village, and they raised eight children. 1933-39: Kosta would read the newspaper to his friends and neighbors who could not read. He supported his family by…
Eva was the oldest of four children born to a Jewish family in the central Polish town of Lipsko, about 30 miles southeast of Radom. The family lived at #12 Casimirska Street and Eva attended a private Jewish primary school. Eva's father owned a factory that produced shoes made from leather and cork. 1933-39: In the early 1930s Eva began secondary school in Zwolen, a town about 20 miles to the north. In 1936 her father left for Argentina to settle the estate of his deceased sister. For the two years he…
Peter was the oldest of two children born to a Jewish family in the Czechoslovakian capital of Prague, a city with a Jewish community that dated back to the eleventh century. His family lived on Karlova Street in the city's Karlin district. Peter's father owned a wholesale business that sold floor coverings. 1933-39: As a boy, Peter was active in a Zionist sports organization, Maccabi Ha-Zair. The group also helped prepare youth to immigrate to Palestine [Aliyah Bet] by training them in agricultural work.…
Machla was one of six children born to the Sandlers, a Jewish family in the Ukrainian village of Vachnovka. In 1912 Machla married Isaac Weiner, and by the late 1920s they had four sons and two daughters. Their oldest son died of scarlet fever in 1927. Hoping to find employment, Machla's husband moved the family in 1929 to the nearby city of Vinnitsa, which by then was part of the Soviet Union. 1933-39: In the early 1930s a severe famine swept the area. Machla's family survived, but times were hard. Isaac…
Jocheved, or Jadza as she was called at home, was born in the industrial city of Lodz, Poland's second-largest city. Before the war, one-third of Lodz's inhabitants were Jewish. The Kuzdas kept a traditional Jewish home and placed importance on their children's education. Jocheved had two older sisters, Sarah and Regina. 1933-39: Jocheved was 9 when the war broke out in September 1939. Instead of starting school, she stayed at home listening to the bombs exploding. Her father and sister tried to get to…
The end of World War II brought new challenges for Jews who survived the Holocaust. In these oral histories, survivors describe personal experiences after the war.
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