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...
Vincenta Bukowski was born in 1913 in Wrzesnia, Poland. She was raised Catholic, and her faith in God and Jesus Christ helped her survive through the traumatic and horrific years she spent in a concentration camp. The Germans occupied Wrzesnia in 1941 when Vincenta was 28...
Steen was born in Odense, Denmark to Magna and Axel Metz. He was not brought up in the Jewish faith as Odense did not have a Jewish community, temple, or school. Instead he participated in the Lutheran religion which was Denmark's official religion. For Steen, the war...
Sidney Kaye was born in 1931 in Manchester, England as Sidney Cleebaner. His family was Jewish Orthodox and of Eastern European descent. The family attended synagogue in Manchester. Sidney did not recall anti-Semitism before the war. However, he remembered the war’s affect on him and...
“My parents, Nuchem Goldrosen and Rosa Bleich, married in Krakau, Poland and went to live in Berlin. Nuchem was a journalist and foreign correspondent. My only sibling, Hadassah, was born in Berlin in 1933. Soon afterwards, they left Germany for the Hague, Netherlands, where I...
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_662" align="alignright" width="288"] Rosette Gerbossi pictured with her family (top right)[/caption] Date of Birth: August 15, 1932 Rosette was born in Paris, France in 1932. Her father owned a fur coat factory, allowing her and the rest of her family a comfortable lifestyle. "Life was very...
My parents and brother left Germany in October 1933 for Denmark after my father received an eighteen month permit to work for a subsidiary of his company. In 1935 they moved to Belgium and finally settled in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Holland) in 1936. I was born...
[caption id="attachment_4305" align="alignright" width="216"] Renee Fritz as a young child[/caption] Renee Fritz was born in 1937 in Vienna as Renee Schwalb. She was two years old when the war broke out. Renee’s mother was a clever and determined woman. She sent Renee on a Kindertransport to...