At age 95, Marian Wojciechowski recalls his personal story of being born a region called called Poland in 1914, just as World War I was beginning. This narrative gives special attention to his Polish background at a time when the country did not technically exist, and their language was forbidden. By the late 1930s and the dawning of World War II, Marian is a young man struggling to understand what is transpiring, but knowing that he must participate in the Polish underground resistance against the Germans His activism gets him arrested and sentenced to Auschwitz as a non-Jew and without penalty of death. He recalls the Gestapo beatings which have left him without feeling in his fingers and a loss of hearing. He shares historical perspectives of the war era, agricultural coops, goal of Germans to sell Jews to the United States and other countries, and a story about a woman who helped save 2500 Jewish children during war.

Flora Mason (1940- ) is a Las Vegas, Nevada philanthropist and community leader. She was born Florica Esformes to a Sephardic Jewish parents who emigrated from Greece to New York. This Mediterranean influence can be seen in the meals she serves for the Jewish holidays. Flora?s grandfather had a pushcart business in New York and her father became a produce broker, which led the family to Miami, Florida. She graduated from high school in Miami and also met Stuart Mason there. The young couple married in 1958. They had been married for 58 years when Stuart passed away in 2012. In this oral history, Flora recalls her life?from witnessing signage that read: no blacks, no dogs, no Jews in the South to meeting her husband while a teenager to raising her three children in Las Vegas. Along the way, she has always found time to form fast friendships and to inspire productive community organizations. v For example, Flora and Stuart founded the Las Vegas Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation in 1970. It was a disease that their daughter Deborah had suffered from. They also established the Mason Undergraduate Peer Coach Program at University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries in 2006. Flora was the first woman elected by the general membership to serve on the Temple Beth Sholom Board of Directors. She has served on the National Board of Directors of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, been involved with the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, the Anti-Defamation League among many other Jewish and non-Jewish community organizations. Flora?s college education began at the University of Miami and focused on completing both her undergraduate and graduate degrees at UNLV, where she majored in English literature. She then became a lecturer in the UNLV English department from 1985 to 1993. Flora and Stuart Mason had three children: sons William and James who joined the family?s successful three-generation commercial construction business Taylor International, and daughter Deborah. In this oral history, Flora shares the joy of being a grandparent, her love of travel, and the opportunities of meeting Israeli dignitaries over the years. She also candidly reflects on dealing with grief and the Jewish rituals surrounding death.

In this oral history interview, Adele Baratz and Florence Frost discuss their experiences as members of the Las Vegas Jewish community, particularly as it has evolved and grown over the decades.

Adele Baratz and Florence Frost discuss their experiences as members of the Las Vegas Jewish community, particularly as it has evolved and grown over the decades. As active members of the Temple Beth Sholom congregation, the two recall others that made significant contributions to the local Jewish community as well as programs that strengthened Jewish life, including Women?s League, Fifty-five Plus and the Hebrew Day School. In addition, Adele and Florence recall efforts to pressure the Clark County School District to accommodate absences for the High Holidays. Adele (Salton) Baratz was born August 11, 1926, to Russian immigrant parents. The family moved to Las Vegas when Adele was two years old, making her the longest residing Jewish resident in Las Vegas. Adele graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1944, and then attended nursing school at Baltimore?s Sinai Hospital, from which she graduated in 1947. While visiting a friend in Philadelphia, Adele met her husband, and the couple lived there for a few years. When the couple divorced, Adele returned to Las Vegas with her children, and eventually also returned to nursing. She retired from Sunrise Hospital in 1991, after 17 years. Florence (Levine) Frost was born March 24, 1929 in Brooklyn, New York. She married Robert L. Levine in 1949, and the two had three daughters. In 1960, Robert?s work as a decorator brought the couple to Las Vegas. Not long after moving, she joined Temple Beth Sholom, where she worked as an executive secretary for two years. It was at temple, as members of Women?s League, that Florence and Adele met. Florence was a two-term president of the Women's League beginning in 1970; established the Fifty-Five Plus Club for seniors; and served on the congregation's board of directors for many years. Florence?s other leadership roles in the Jewish community include: chair of the Anti-Defamation League committee of B'nai B'rith, president of the National Council of Jewish Women, and president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Brandeis National Committee (2010-2011).

Jerry Engel was born in 1930 in New Jersey and spent most of his early life in Long Beach, New York until the family moved westward to Las Angeles. Jerry is a retired Certified Public Accountant and loves to talk about the history of Las Vegas that he observed since arriving in 1953. That was the year that he moved to Las Vegas to join his older brothers, Morris and Phil, in their accounting firm. Their major client at the time was Desert Inn. Another personal connection with local history: the Engel brothers? mother, Esther Katz Engel, was among the early investors in the Moulin Rouge hotel/casino enterprise. Jerry graduated with honors from University of California, Los Angeles in 1951. His accounting career in Las Vegas is highly regarded and he continues to maintain a consulting practice. He remains active within the community and enjoys doing presentations based on his memories of Las Vegas history. Within this interview, Jerry highlights people, casinos and other observations of local history that he came into contact with over the decades. He provides insights about the role of an accountant in the gaming industry. He also discusses the influence of Jewish business leaders in and array of local gaming and non-gaming issues, including the retail world, Jim Crow era segregation, and the astonishing growth of the valley over six decades.