Email and essay by Frieda Rosenthal

Page 1 of 1 Subj: FW: Frieda's Memories of Life in Europe Date: 6/24/2014 6:51:48 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time From: To: Hi Ladies, This is from Frieda Rosenthal and I put together some photos to supplement her text. E O l / C i s t ! emai' 's f f e e f r o m v ' r u s e s a n d malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. Wednesday, June 25, 2014 AOL: RFiol I was born in Saarbrucken Germany in 1929 and my birth name was Friedel Kosenblum.. My lather passed away when I was 5 years old. After Kristalnacht in 1938 many Jewish families tried to flee .Germany. In 1939 my mother managed to send my brother and me to Paris where some of my relatives had already fled. The situation became quite difficult for my relatives in Paris and some of them went into hiding while others fled to Brazil. My uncle's apartment in Paris was by now quite crowded and within a short time he found us other places to live. My brother was sent to the Rothschild home and I was sent to live with a wealthy French family in a suburb of Paris. My host family eventually fled their home and sent me to the OSE home of Eaubonne, near Paris. Soon my brother also came to live at the home. Eaubonne was run as a sort of boarding school with schooling a top priority and many activities to keep all the children occupied and involved in crafts, entertainment, nature etc. The older children in Eaubonne were taught by the educators in the home while the younger children (as myself) went to the French public school. The teachers in the French school were very anti-Semitic and made no bones about it. The school was always closed on Thursdays but open on Saturdays. As we were orthodox we didn't attend the school on Saturdays but had to bring notes to school every Monday stating that our religion didn't permit us to attend school on Saturday. My teacher would read the note out loud and much laughter would follow. For whatever their reasons they dispersed the Jewish children into all different classes. As the sole Jewish child in my class I was very lonely and frightened especially as corporal punishment for any infraction was the norm there. I tried very hard not to make eye contact with the teacher for fear of being hit with her large ruler. At the end of that term we no longer went to the public school but were also taught in the home. At the home we all had gas masks which were never too far from our sides. We took them to school, to synagogue and wherever we went. Many nights we were awakened by air raid sirens - we'd grab our blankets and gas masks and head down to the cellar where cots and chairs were set up for us. There we would sing songs and tell stories until the all clear sirens sounded. I recall the cold mornings in our room where 5-6 girls slept. Our only heat in winter was the small pot bellied wood stove which was lit by the first girl up in the morning. It was up to each of us to gather our own firewood. It always took such a long time for the room to warm up. In winter we usually slept in our sweaters and booties which most of us knitted ourselves. The toilet was an outhouse and quite a distance from the main house. Using it at night was out of the question. When southern France became occupied we moved on to Montintin and then to Mas-Jambot. In August 1941 my brother and I were among the fortunate 150 OSE children chosen to emigrate to the United States. I was very unhappy leaving my mother again but she promised that she would soon follow. This unfortunately did not happen. She was betrayed by a peasant who had been hiding her and who, for a few francs that the nazi collaborators paid for Jews, turned her over to the nazis who then sent her to Auschwitz where she perished. We arrived in the U.S in September 1941 and were sent to live with my mother's sister in Brooklyn, NY. My aunt had 2 children of her own plus 3 more refugee children who had arrived here earlier. We were now 7 children in her home. We learned English very quickly as we all started school almost immediately after our arrival. Anti German/Jewish sentiment was very prevalent in the United States. America entered WWII 3 months after our arrival so were again lucky as the transportation of children <5tnnned after that time.