Category: Oral History

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  • Hanne Hirsch Liebmann describes a Children's Aid Society (OSE) visit and life in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

    Oral History

    Hanne's family owned a photographic studio. In October 1940, she and other family members were deported to the Gurs camp in southern France. In September 1941, the Children's Aid Society (OSE) rescued Hanne and she hid in a children's home in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Her mother perished in Auschwitz. In 1943, Hanne obtained false papers and crossed into Switzerland. She married in Geneva in 1945 and had a daughter in 1946. In 1948, she arrived in the United States.

    Hanne Hirsch Liebmann describes a Children's Aid Society (OSE) visit and life in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon
  • Julian Noga describes conditions in Flossenbürg

    Oral History

    Julian's Catholic parents had settled in the United States, but his mother returned to Poland. In 1939, Julian was deported to Austria to do farm labor after he was caught for hiding a rifle. On the farm he met the landowner's daughter, Frieda, his future wife. He was arrested in 1941 because relationships between Austrians and Poles were considered illegal and in 1942 he was deported to the Flossenbürg camp in Germany. During a forced march in 1945, he was liberated by US forces. Julian and Freida…

    Tags: Flossenbürg
    Julian Noga describes conditions in Flossenbürg
  • Siegfried Halbreich describes arrival at and conditions in the Sachsenhausen camp

    Oral History

    After Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Siegfried fled with a friend. They attempted to get papers allowing them to go to France, but were turned over to the Germans. Siegfried was jailed, taken to Berlin, and then transported to the Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin in October 1939. He was among the first Polish Jews imprisoned in Sachsenhausen. Inmates were mistreated and made to carry out forced labor. After two years, Siegfried was deported to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, where he was…

    Siegfried Halbreich describes arrival at and conditions in the Sachsenhausen camp
  • Siegfried Halbreich describes conditions in the Sachsenhausen camp

    Oral History

    After Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Siegfried fled with a friend. They attempted to get papers allowing them to go to France, but were turned over to the Germans. Siegfried was jailed, taken to Berlin, and then transported to the Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin in October 1939. He was among the first Polish Jews imprisoned in Sachsenhausen. Inmates were mistreated and made to carry out forced labor. After two years, Siegfried was deported to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, where he was…

    Siegfried Halbreich describes conditions in the Sachsenhausen camp
  • Siegfried Halbreich describes treatment of prisoners in the Sachsenhausen camp

    Oral History

    After Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Siegfried fled with a friend. They attempted to get papers allowing them to go to France, but were turned over to the Germans. Siegfried was jailed, taken to Berlin, and then transported to the Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin in October 1939. He was among the first Polish Jews imprisoned in Sachsenhausen. Inmates were mistreated and made to carry out forced labor. After two years, Siegfried was deported to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, where he was…

    Siegfried Halbreich describes treatment of prisoners in the Sachsenhausen camp
  • Gerda Weissmann Klein describes her birthday celebration in the Bielsko ghetto

    Oral History

    In 1939, Gerda's brother was deported for forced labor. In June 1942, Gerda's family was deported from the Bielsko ghetto. While her parents were transported to Auschwitz, Gerda was sent to the Gross-Rosen camp system, where for the remainder of the war she performed forced labor in textile factories. Gerda was liberated after a death march, wearing the ski boots her father insisted would help her to survive. She married her American liberator.

    Tags: ghettos youth
    Gerda Weissmann Klein describes her birthday celebration in the Bielsko ghetto
  • Barbara Ledermann Rodbell describes false papers and moving people to hiding places

    Oral History

    In 1933 Barbara's family moved to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. They became friends of Anne Frank and her family. The Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940. Barbara's boyfriend, Manfred, had underground contacts and she got false papers. Her mother, sister, and father were deported to the Westerbork camp and then to Auschwitz. Barbara survived using her false papers and worked for the resistance. She helped take Jews to hiding places and also hid Jews in an apartment rented under her false name.

    Barbara Ledermann Rodbell describes false papers and moving people to hiding places
  • Charlene Schiff describes being caught while trying to smuggle food into the Horochow ghetto

    Oral History

    Both of Charlene's parents were local Jewish community leaders, and the family was active in community life. Charlene's father was a professor of philosophy at the State University of Lvov. World War II began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Charlene's town was in the part of eastern Poland occupied by the Soviet Union under the German-Soviet Pact of August 1939. Under the Soviet occupation, the family remained in its home and Charlene's father continued to teach. The Germans…

    Tags: ghettos
    Charlene Schiff describes being caught while trying to smuggle food into the Horochow ghetto
  • Frima L. describes surviving as a young child on her own

    Oral History

    While Frima's family was confined to a ghetto, Nazis used her father as an interpreter. He later perished. By pretending not to be Jews, Frima, her mother, and sister escaped a German mobile killing unit massacre. They were later discovered and jailed. Again, her mother devised an escape. Frima's mother and sister were smuggled to Romania, while Frima wandered in search of safekeeping until her mother could arrange to smuggle her out. In Romania, they were reunited and liberated.

    Tags: children
    Frima L. describes surviving as a young child on her own
  • Bart Stern describes torture of prisoners during Hanukkah and a subsequent act of resistance to celebrate Hanukkah

    Oral History

    Following the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, Bart was forced into a ghetto established in his home town. From May to July 1944, the Germans deported Jews from Hungary to the Auschwitz killing center in occupied Poland. Bart was deported by cattle car to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, he was selected to perform forced labor, drilling and digging in a coal mine. As Soviet forces advanced toward the Auschwitz camp in January 1945, the Germans forced most of the prisoners on a death march out of the…

    Bart Stern describes torture of prisoners during Hanukkah and a subsequent act of resistance to celebrate Hanukkah

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