Category: Survivor Stories

“In 1951, at age 17, I entered a Miami Herald student essay contest with a two-page account of my family’s war experiences in Hungary. I won and received a standing ovation in the school auditorium. However, no one – not the newspaper, my teachers, or fellow students – asked if my essay was true or sought more information about what happened to us. To this day, I do not understand that lack of reaction.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

“Seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and following the recent outbreaks of violence against Jews in France, the U.S., and elsewhere, I doubt very much that the lessons of the Holocaust have been learned and understood.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

A Jewish cemetery desecrated in 2020

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

“A couple of months after the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police murdered my parents and one of my sisters, the rest of my family was forced into the ghetto. My surviving sister and I were saved by a Gentile who hid us in a wardrobe for over a year.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

A hiding place for Jewish children

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

“Marching from the synagogue to the railroad station, we were tripped up by big stones laid by punks. Soldiers said we were being sent to Kenya, Bolivia, or Madagascar, but when we saw the cattle cars, we knew they were lying. It was the last transport to Auschwitz.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Fellow citizens turned against their Jewish neighbors

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

“Children escaped through holes in the ghetto walls and were hidden by Polish families. If the Germans found out, they’d sometimes shoot the family’s own children and leave the Jewish children with them for a few weeks as a lesson.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Courageous Polish families hid Jewish children at their own peril

Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

“At some point, my heart grew hard. Not because I lacked feelings for my fellow prisoners. I always had those. But my heart was no longer alive. Sheer terror had turned it into ice.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Sheer terror overrode all other feelings

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

“Camp life becomes normal. It’s easy to give up and say God wants it. Once you feel sorry for yourself, you’re a goner, a ‘Muselmann’ as we called the physically and mentally broken. But I was young; I wanted to live.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Young women determined to survive the camp

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

“The SS officer said they needed prisoners who knew how to feed pigs. Everybody wanted to get away from the hard labor in the camp and work on the farm. I said I was born on a pig farm (a lie), but the guard pushed me back. As the men chosen marched away, machine guns mowed them down. The officer came back and laughingly said, ‘Who else knows how to feed pigs?’” Read about two Holocaust survivors in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Prisoners labor at Nazi work camp

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

“Nazi leaders began to persecute Jews as soon as Hitler took power in 1933. I was a college professor when they issued the Nuremberg Race Laws prohibiting Jews from teaching in or attending public schools. I gave private lessons, usually for no fee, until I was sent to Buchenwald. After we were liberated, I was offered a position at an American university. My colleagues sent a briefcase as a welcoming gift.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Nuremberg Race Laws banned Jewish teachers and students

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

“We were marched from the ghetto to Plaszow. Children were not allowed, but some people smuggled them in big ruck sacks. When the Gestapo saw them, they said they’d set up a nursery in the camp. Two weeks later, an open lorry with the children drove off and was never seen again. And that’s how those parents lost their children, with a trick that they’d be looked after.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Children and the elderly weren’t allowed to survive at camp

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter