Biographies of Holocaust survivors

Callwood, Sabina Sabina was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1936. Her father was taken away in 1942 by the Gestapo and her mother stayed with the children but she became ill and had to be hospitalized. The children, who had to be registered with the Gestapo, went to an orphanage. The director was Madam Rosi Rothschild. She fed and guarded the children but could not save all her charges. She was able to save Sabina and her brothers. Madam Rothschild really wanted to help these children because she knew their mother was still alive. It became apparent that the children had to leave Antwerp to escape the Gestapo. All three children were separated. Her brothers were taken to different shelters outside the city and she stayed in the orphanage. She was very ill and almost died of dysentery. When the Nazis decided to make Antwerp Judenrein, free of Jews, in 1943Madam Rothschild got permission to take her charges to Lasne, away from the city. After that the children were sheltered in a hospital for the handicapped and at the end of 1944 they were sent to another orphanage in a hamlet. They stayed there until the end of the war. Her mother survived Auschwitz and looked like a skeleton when she came to collect Sabina. Then the two of them went to collect her brothers and ultimately they were reunited with her father who had survived by escaping a French labor camp and pretending to be a Christian deaf mute. Chinkes, Eta Eta was born in 1924 in Sosnowiec, Poland. This was a city with about 30,000 Jews, only about 400 of whom survived the Holocaust. Her father was a printer and her mother worked in an orphanage. She had one brother. She was 15 when the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939. When the Nazis imposed forced labor on the Jews Eta worked in a garment factory making brassieres for women in the German army. The Nazis began deporting Jews to the death camps from her area in May 1942. In 1943 Eta was shipped to a labor camp in Gleiwitz where she worked in a factory that processed material used in synthetic rubber. She was covered with the black soot and found it hard to breathe. At the end of each day the women were allowed to take their work uniforms off and wash. She later worked in two different departments where work was more bearable: including maintaining an industrial flame and later emptying industrial waste. In January 1945 she was transported, via open boxcar, to the camp housed in the Ravensbruck prison in Germany. She was later transported to the Retzov camp where she was ultimately liberated by the Russians in 1945. Doran, Meta Meta was born in Hamburg, Germany on February 1, 1926. He father ran a successful import/export business and she was an only child. Her father had Polish citizenship and the Nazis deported her family to Poland in 1938. She ended up in the Pabiance ghetto and then the Lodz ghetto. She spent four years in that ghetto and her father died of starvation. She was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the summer of 1944. Her mother was gassed there. Meta was there for about 5 or 6 months and was then deported to Bergen-Belsen where she slept on the ground. Because she spoke German well she was forced to translate for the Nazis. From Bergen-Belsen she was sent to Salzwedel where there were munitions factories. She was lucky enough to be assigned to work in the kitchen. She was liberated by the Americans on April 14, 1945. Figueras, Tom Tom Figueras was born in Uzhorod, Czechoslovakia in October 1927. His last name at birth was Nadelstecher but he changed it after the war. His father was a dentist. One brother was a musical prodigy who played the violin in the orchestra in the Buchenwald concentration camp until he was sent to Bergen-Belsen. Tom had another brother who was a heavy smoker who traded his bread for cigarettes in the concentration camp. Nobody in his immediate family survived. The Nazis came to his town in March 1944 and within two months of their arrival Tom was in Auschwitz. He was there for only 3 days before he was transported to the Gross-Rosen cluster of camps in Germany. By November Tom's leather shoes were ruined and he was forced to wear ill-fitting wooden clogs which damaged his feet. By then the Nazis had stopped shipping prisoners to Auschwitz to be killed so he ended up in a hospital where he was able to stay for 3 months. He was then force-marched to Bergen-Belsen but most of the others with him did not survive. Anyone who could not walk was shot. He got out of Bergen-Belsen by getting himself on a transport to a town in Germany called Hildesheim. The Jewish laborers were housed in a synagogue there. His job was to pull dead bodies out of bomb shelters but he often found food in those shelters. American bombers destroyed the town so Tom was marched back to Bergen- Belsen. Conditions there had deteriorated in the weeks he had been away. He was liberated by the British on April 15, 1945. Fiol, Raymonde (Ray) Raymonde (Ray) Fiol was born in Paris in 1936. Her mother was a dressmaker and her father was in the handbag business. They were foreign born Jews in France and this made their lives especially dangerous under the Nazis. Ray was 3 when the Germans invaded but she does not remember much. She has one memory from that time: her mother wore a yellow Star of David on her clothing and a Nazi stopped her in the street and asked why Ray was not wearing a star. Children her age were not required to wear the star. As an adult she learned about what happened to her parents during WWII. First, because they were foreign born Jews, they were forced into a labor camp and made to work the land. By 1942 they were in the Drancy concentration camp. Ultimately they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they were killed in January 1944. Ray's parents arranged to have her smuggled out of the labor camp by a member of the French Resistance. This man took her to his home and, with his wife, protected her for the rest of the war. The neighbors were told Ray was this couple's niece who left Paris for safety. The whole village knew the truth and kept her secret. When she first arrived at the village, Ray had to be registered with the German authorities but nobody instructed her not to use her real, and very Jewish, last name. The German in charge had to have known she was Jewish but he did not harm her. She later learned that she resembled his daughter. Whenever she saw him she was told to be nice to him and sit on his lap. Because Yiddish was her first language and it is very similar to German, she was able to translate what the Germans said for her adoptive parents. Her region of France was liberated by the Americans in August 1944. Frank, Joseph Joseph Frank was born in Bavaria, Germany in March, 1937. His father was in the cattle business. Life changed dramatically in November 9, 1938 when there were coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany. That event is known in history as Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass. The name comes from the glass shattered when Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed. After Kristallnacht things changed irreparably for Jews in Germany: Joe's father was among the thousands of Jewish men arrested. He was sent to the concentration camp Dachau for 3 months. Many of the men arrested were released on the condition that they leave Germany quickly. Joe's mother was able to get an affidavit from her brother in London so the family went to England in March 1939. They were granted only temporary refuge in England, in part because the British worried about German spies. During their time in England the family was separated and Joe was placed in an oiphanage at the age of 2. His mother had another brother, this one in the US. He got them a visa and Joe's family left Liverpool in March 1940 to come to the States. This was during World War II, which started September 1st, 1939. Goodman, Margot Margot was born in 1928 in Germany. Her father was in the scrap business. He was wounded in WWI and was disabled. He was taken away by the Nazis and murdered in 1934. Her mother may have been involved in a resistance movement. Margot was placed in an orphanage after her father was killed. Her sister was sent away and her brother was shipped to their grandparents in Italy. Margot remained in the orphanage until Kristallnacht in 1938. She went to find her mother because the situation in Germany had become very dangerous after Kristallnacht. Her mother arranged to have her brother sent from Italy to Germany to England on a Kindertransport. She made her own arrangements to leave Germany and told Margot they would see each other in a few weeks in America. She left Margot with a passport and some money. The person entrusted with Margot's care stole these and abandoned her. Margot ended up in various hiding places from 1938 until 1941. Somehow she was put on a train to Berlin and sat next to a Nazi. He may have been part of the underground because he offered her food and did not harm her. In Berlin another Nazi approached her, realized she was alone and took her to safety. He retrieved her passport and made arrangements for her to leave Germany to go to the US. She does not remember his name but he helped saved other Jews, too. Margot arrived in New York in July 1941 while the war still raged in Europe. Jenner, Ann Ann was born on August 16, 1935 in The Hague in Holland but grew up in Voorburg. Her father was a butcher and bought livestock for the Queen. Before the war she had 2 brothers. A sister was born during the war. The Nazis came in 1940 and things changed for her family: Jewish children were not allowed in the public school so she was briefly tutored at home but that ended because the tutor was Christian and prohibited from teaching Jewish students. A Jewish school was opened in a big city but Jews could not ride on streetcars and it was an hour walk. Nonetheless, she and her brothers attended briefly until the Nazis started rounding up children from the school. The Nazis decreed the Star of David with the word Jew on it had to be sewn onto clothing. Her family was thrown out of their home in 1942. Her family was ordered to report to a camp but her mother was pregnant so they got a temporary reprieve. The Dutch resistance helped the family and members of the underground hid them: the new baby was hidden by their former housekeeper and her oldest brother went into hiding with the housekeeper's grandmother. Her other brother went to another couple. Ann went to a butcher who was friends with her father and her parents went into hiding, too. Later both her parents and one of her brothers were also forced to hide with the butcher. Her parents' hiding place had been discovered and her brother was physically abused by his rescuers. The family survived and after the war other children were born to the family. Kohn, Martin Martin was born in a small Hungarian farm village in 1929. His family had to give up farming during the Depression. His father moved to Satmar, Rumania and " established a factory that produced sportswear. Martin grew up there in a family of 7 children. They had some idea that the Jews in Poland were being mistreated after the Nazi invasion. Jewish refugees passed through the area. The Hungarians were allies of the Nazis. Hungarian fascists rounded up the Jews for deportation to concentration camps in Poland. The Jews were temporarily put into a ghetto before they were shipped to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944. He was only in Birkenau for a week before he was shipped to the Plaszow concentration camp. He was there until around September when he was shipped to Gross-Rosen and Volkenheim where he did hard physical labor. As the Soviet troops approached the prisoners were forced on a Death March to Hirshberg and then to Dernau in Germany. The Nazi guards fled days before the Soviet army came through on May 8, 1945. Kronberg, Henry Henry was born in April 1920 in Breslau, Germany but he grew up in Katowice, Poland. As a young man he was an apprentice in a material goods store. He was 19 when the Nazis invaded Poland. He left Katowice and went to Krakow and was there when the ghetto was formed. The Jews were forced into the ghetto but his sister and mother had fled to the east and escaped the ghetto. He and his father were supposed to join them but never made it out. He endured forced labor while in the ghetto. He managed to get himself assigned to work in the Gestapo headquarters doing odd jobs. Eventually he became the foreman of the painters. People were interrogated and tortured in this building. His job included scraping blood off the walls and repainting. When the ghetto was liquidated Henry and the other Jews who worked in Gestapo headquarters were housed in a prison and then in a convent that was converted to a prison. He worked for the Gestapo for about 2.5 years. In January, 1945 the Soviet army approached the area so the prison was liquidated and Henry was sent to 3 different concentration camps. He was liberated by American troops near the Bergen-Belsen camp. Kuechel, Alex Alex was born in 1924 in Berlin, Germany. He witnessed Hitler's rise to power including the boycott of Jewish businesses, the Berlin Olympics (which Jews could not attend), and Kristallnacht (the Night of the Broken Glass). His father was arrested in 1938 because he was born in Poland. He was kicked out of Germany into Poland while his family remained in Berlin. Alex was a member of a Zionist youth group and had a certificate to go to Palestine before the war began. He was asked to give up his certificate to someone who had been arrested during Kristallnacht and sent to a concentration camp. In order to be released from the camps the prisoner had to be able to leave Germany so Alex gave up his certificate for a promise for either another certificate in the future or a spot on a children's transport, Kinder transport, to England. In 1939 he and his mother were kicked out of Germany into Poland where they were reunited with Alex's father. After he left Germany the papers for the Kindertransport came through but then the war started and Alex was stuck in Poland. He was sent to a forced labor camp in 1941 and then sent to the concentration camp Blechammer in 1942. He ultimately was in 7 camps and was liberated in May 1945 by Soviet troops. These Russians ignored the prisoners as they were on their way to Berlin. Lebovic, Lydia Lydia was born in 1928 in Czechoslovakia but later moved to Hungary where she grew up. She was one of 4 children. Her family had heard stories of Nazi atrocities from refugees even before the German invasion of her region. The Nazis reached her area in March, 1944 and she was forced into a ghetto the next month. She stayed in the ghetto for 5 weeks and was then shipped in a cattle car to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arriving in Birkenau there was a selection and Lydia found herself alone. Her mother and younger sister went immediately to the gas chamber and she did not know where her other siblings were. She was in Birkenau for 6 weeks and was then transferred to a work camp in Hamburg, Germany which she describes as a good camp: they had food, clothing and shelter and the prisoners were not overly abused, though they did work hard. She was in this camp until February 1945. She was then transported to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. The conditions were horrific but she found her older sister there. She brought food for her and when the British liberated the camp and opened the gates on April 15, 1945, she was able to find her brother, too. Lebovic, Willie Willie was born in Czechoslovakia in June, 1922. During WWII he was drafted into the Hungarian army. This was in 1942. For three months he trained for engineering but then the Hungarians decided Jews would not be allowed to wear Hungarian uniforms so he was sent to do forced labor on the Russian front near the Polish border. He built bunkers, anti-tank traps and planted land mines and he did this work until November 1943. One night he was one of 16 men who escaped. Of these 16, 12 were shot and only 4 survived. It took him a few months to reach Russian partisans. When he found them he did not tell them he was Jewish for fear of anti-Semitism. Since he was blond with blue eyes, nobody knew the truth. The partisans lived in underground bunkers. He made his way to the Russian front but the Russians did not trust him so they put him in a prison camp. A Jewish officer in the Russian army got him out of the camp and Willie started working as a photographer. Though he was never officially a Russian soldier, he traveled with the troops and his job was to take pictures of dead soldiers to send back to families. In January 1945, his unit went to Czechoslovakia and Willie was discharged in May, 1945. Lesser, Ben Benjamin Lesser was born in 1928 in Krakow, Poland. As a child he spent summers in Munkacs, in what is now Hungary, with his mother's family. His father had successful chocolate, and a wine and fruit syrup factories. When the Nazis invaded Poland life changed drastically for the Jews. While most Jews were put into the Krakow ghetto, Ben's family decided to leave the city. This was the first of several escapes that saved his life. He got to temporary safety in Hungary in 1943. In 1944 the Nazis invaded Hungary and Ben was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other camps. He survived a Death March. This forced march got its name because if a prisoner could not keep up he was shot on the spot. He ended up in Buchenwald and later Dachau where he was liberated by the Americans in April, 1945. Nasser, Stephen Stephen was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1931. His family had a jewelry store and life was good with friendly neighbors. He did experience some anti-Semitism before the Nazis came in March, 1943. Things changed dramatically when they arrived: The laws changed and Jews lost their citizenship so they were no longer protected by the Hungarian government. Stephen and his brother got into fights with boys who tried to bully / intimidate them. His family was forced into a ghetto towards the end of 1943 or early '44. Stephen and his brother were only in the ghetto a few days. A Christian friend of the family took the brothers to work in his factory and they lived there, separated from family. They were deported in the spring of 1944 to an internment camp in a brick factory. His mother and some other relatives were there but soon they were transported in a cattle car to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In Birkenau he saw some of his relatives murdered before his eyes. The brothers were in Birkenau for less than a week and then sent to Muhldorf, a subcamp of Dachau in Germany. They built a bomb-proof munitions factory. Stephen was there until liberation on April 30, 1945. He was liberated from a Death Train by General Patton's 3rd Army. Nissanov, Magda Magda (Hebrew name Malka) Nissanov was born in Hungary in 1924 in a small town with only about 60,000 people. 5,000 were Jews. By 1940 Polish and Czech refugees made their way to Hungary and told stories about what the Nazis were doing including tales about the existence of the Theresienstadt / Terezin ghetto, which opened in 1941. At first her family could not believe the terrible stories. Only one person in the area had a radio so the community could not learn much about what was happening elsewhere. The Nazis came to her area in 1944 and a ghetto was formed in her neighborhood so her family had to have other families move into their small home. During her time in the ghetto she was injured when a pillar fell on her and she sustained a concussion. She has limited memory of that time as a result. The Jews in her area were deported and ultimately shipped to Auschwitz - Birkenau in a cattle car. She arrived there in May, 1944 and had to go through a selection process conducted by Dr. Mengele. She and her sister were separated from the rest of the family. They were deported to a work camp in Bavaria, Germany. Ultimately she was in several camps where she did jobs ranging from moving earth to nursing. At the end of the war she was in Dachau and liberated by the Americans in April, 1945. By that time she was very ill after contracting typhus and living under the extreme conditions in the concentration camps. Nissanov, Yudah (Judd) Yudah (Judd) Nissanov was born in Poland in 1924, the youngest of 5 children. He saw very quickly what the Nazis were capable of when they shot hundreds of Jews in the first two weeks they occupied his area of Poland in 1939. The Soviet Union took over his region and stayed until 1941. Prior to the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, Yehuda saw German tanks massing at the border. When the Nazis came back he left and started walking east. While walking he flagged down a Soviet truck. The driver did not yet know about the German invasion but he took Yudah back to his unit. The Russians adopted him and Yudah went with them. He later changed his name, said he was a Catholic and joined the Polish army to fight the Nazis. He was sent through Persia (Iran) en route to Africa. He was part of the honor guard that stood at the gate for the Shah's 22nd birthday. After Persia he went to Jordan and Palestine en route to Egypt. When he crossed into Palestine and saw signs in Hebrew, he decided to desert. Again, he just left. He hopped on a bus and went where it took him: to kibbutz Negba. He stayed there to avoid British MPs who were looking for Polish deserters in the cities. By 1943 he knew, from another Polish refugee, what was happening to the Jews in Poland under the Nazis. Rosenthal, Gary Gary Rosenthal was born in Vienna, Austria in 1933. His father was a publisher of a pharmaceutical magazine. In 1938 Nazi Germany marched into Austria: this event is known in history as the Anshluss. Life changed dramatically for the Jews after the Nazis took over. Henry was born in a small town in Germany in 1926. There were about 1300 people in the town and only 100 of them were Jews. His father died after the Nazis took power. Christian doctors were not allowed to treat Jewish patients and his father was denied medical care. When Henry was 9 he was imprisoned by the Nazis. His uncle got him out of town and into an orphanage in Frankfurt. Later his mother was able to get him onto a children's transport to France in March 1939. He was already in Paris when the Nazis invaded. He was later moved to unoccupied southern France by the OSE, a children's aid society. He was in Limoges for over a year where the children apprenticed to learn trades. The American Quakers of Philadelphia helped get Henry and some of the other children out of Europe and into the US with the help of retail giant Marshall Field and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The children went from France to Spain and Portugal and then to New York. Henry arrived in the US when he was 15 in 1941. He is one of the One Thousand Children who were brought to the US for safe haven. Henry began his service in the US Army in 1944. The Army wanted to send him to the Pacific but he wanted to go to Europe to find his sister, who had survived the war. His service brought him to the Nuremberg Trials. Semenoff, Sasha Sasha was born in 1924 in Riga, Latvia. He had a sister who also survived the Holocaust. In 1941 the Nazis came to Riga. They formed a ghetto for the Jews but Sasha fled the ghetto and went to work in a factory in an apartment building. He stayed there until he was sent to concentration camp. He was in 4 camps including Stutthoff and Guttendorf. He did a variety of work: from the kitchen to clean up on U boat construction. He was liberated by the Soviets in March of 1945 while the war still raged in Europe. The Soviet troops did not help him; they put him in jail. A Soviet doctor put him into a hospital and that saved his life. He ended up in 3 hospitals after his liberation. Tokarski, Lily Gary's parents had different opinions about what to do before the Anshluss: his father wanted to stay but his mother wanted to leave. After the Anshluss all the Jews wanted to leave. Of course nobody at that time had any idea what was about to happen to the Jews in Europe. In order to find someone to help them leave Austria, his parents wrote to people, strangers, with the name Rosenthal and Blaustein, his mother's maiden name. They got the help they needed to come to the US. In September 1938 his family boarded a train for France and then boarded the SS Washington and crossed the Atlantic arriving in the US on October 8th, 1938. World War II began on September 1st, 1939. Gary has no first hand memory of the Nazis but this early experience impacted his life... Rubens, Stan Stan was born in Holland in 1932. His parents ran a retail store and he had an older sister. The Nazis invaded on May 5, 1940. By 1941 his father took the family into hiding in Amsterdam. They were first aided and then betrayed by a woman named Mrs. Eusman. In 1942 the Nazis came to arrest them. Because his father had once lived in Germany and spoke the language well, he was able to talk to one of the Germans and get help with an escape from deportation. Stan was in a holding area with his sister and other children. She found an opening and just walked away making her escape. Stan tried to break away from a captor but was caught and returned to the holding area. At that time he was not yet 10 years old and was separated from his family. His father was able to intercede so Stan could escape through the same opening his sister used. His parents bribed someone to help them escape from a transport truck. The whole family knew where they would find a safe haven. They memorized the address of a member of the underground who would shelter them and there they were reunited. They were in this shelter for about a week and after that there were a variety of hiding places and the members of the family were sometimes dispersed. By the end of the war Stan was hiding on a farm in the countryside. His family survived. Schuster, Henry Lily was born in September 1941 in Krakow, Poland. As a baby she was hidden in Plaszow, a region made infamous in Schindler's List. Her parents were able to get her to safety with a friend, a woman named Julia Pamula. They themselves were in concentration camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau. Both her parents survived and they were reunited after the war. They lived in a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Germany from 1945 - 1947. They then moved to Montreal where the Canadian government welcomed tailors. Her father was a tailor so it was easier to get into Canada than the US. They stayed there until 1955. In September 1955 Lily and her family moved to California.