Henry Helmut Herz was born Helmut Herz in 1921 in Obertiefenbach, Germany. His family owned a dry goods store. The only other Jewish family in their town was Henry’s cousins. The family was Orthodox and religious. Henry had a Bar Mitzvah. He graduated from grammar...
Walter was born in Vienna, Austria in 1918. His family observed Jewish holidays and Walter went to religious school twice a week. Walter went to secular school where he faced anti-Semitism and was taunted by the non-Jewish children. Eventually, he attended printing school to study...
Ryfka Schacherl was born July 1, 1922 in Dresden, Germany as Ryfka Zweigel. She was the youngest of four girls. Her parents were Orthodox Jews and kept a kosher home. Ryfka was the only Jew in her class. She recalls saying “Heil Hitler” in school....
[caption id="attachment_653" align="alignright" width="286"] Lorie Mayer pictured with her grandfather, Berl[/caption] Date of Birth: March 13, 1927 Lorie was an only child who grew up in the town of Eberswalde, Germany where her parents owned a clothing store. When Hitler came to power in Germany, Lorie noticed...
Lilly was born in Beuthen, Germany in 1926. Even though she managed to escape the concentration camps, her life was marked by the events that she witnessed as a child and the hardships that her family had to endure during the times of the war....
Jakob Fritz Holzberg was born in 1912 in Chorostkow, Poland. Today he goes by the name Fritz. Fritz grew up in a Jewish family, and his family moved to Vienna, Austria when he was twelve years old. In March of 1938, Germany invaded Austria. The...
Fred Flatau was born in Berlin in 1931 to an affluent Jewish family. His family was very assimilated and not religious. His father was an entertainment lawyer who fought for Germany in World War I. During Kristallnacht in November of 1938, the Nazis took Fred's father to...
Eric Pachner was born in 1928 in Vienna, Austria. His, mother Elsa, and father, Robert both lacked a high school education, but they had a comfortable, middle class life. His family was not very religious, and they only attended their Synagogue on high holidays. Eric received...
Beatrix was born in Berlin, Germany in 1921. Her family belonged to a reform temple and she attended Sunday school. When she began high school, anti-Semitism was growing. Her father was arrested in either 1937 or ‘38 but returned home shortly after. During Kristallnacht, Beatrix...
Ann Jacobson was born in Berlin, Germany. She had two older siblings and one younger brother. Ann’s father was an executive for a German oil corporation until 1933, when the Nazi government began to exclude businesses with Jewish employees. After her father lost his job,...