Category: Survivor Stories

“Throughout October 1941, we received instructions each time a street in the ghetto would be evacuated to the work camps. To avoid deportation, we moved to other streets, but knew our turn would come soon. The night before, Mom bought two liters of milk and boiled them in a large pot. In the camps later, suffering from starvation, the memory of hot milk accompanied us with longing.” 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.

“Our transfer to Auschwitz was a terrible voyage under inhumane conditions. Among my most disturbing memories is when my mother gave the German soldiers her favors in exchange for half a glass of water.” 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.

“When the Nazis occupied Greece, a neighbor told a German soldier, ‘the daughter of our Jewish landlady is sleeping inside.’ I was arrested, still in my nightgown, and trucked to a camp. At the end of my ordeal, when I returned home, partisans offered to kill the neighbor but I said no. She had a two-and-a-half year old daughter, and I did not want the little girl to become an orphan.” 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.

“Supposedly, it was harder to escape Nazi laws in small towns where everyone knew you. It was easier to “untertauchen” (submerge or remain anonymous) in larger towns. So my father took a job teaching at a Jewish school outside Hanover. It did not save us from being transported to Buchenwald.” 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.

“Josef Mengele, the barbaric German doctor, strode into our barracks to inspect the living conditions of its 800 prisoners. He looked like a movie star in his high boots, white gloves, and impeccable uniform. ‘Good afternoon, ladies. Are you comfortable?’ he asked politely. No one said a word. The penalty for addressing this terrifying figure could be death.” 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.

“My brother and uncle were in a 300–member underground Minsk resistance that saved condemned Jewish prisoners. At night, couriers led small groups into the forest. The weakest dropped dead on the way. But of 100,000 prisoners, 10,000 made it into the woods.” 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.

“During the roundup, people hid in the basement or inside furniture, but the Nazis strafed the place with shots and several were killed. A soldier with a flashlight approached the table under which my father and brother were hiding. My father kissed my brother, prepared to die, but the flashlight’s bulb burned out just before the soldier reached them and he went away.” 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.

“I didn’t have a typical Semitic face, but my black curly hair betrayed me. Just after my (Aryan) stepfather smuggled my mother and me out of the ghetto, I was taken to a barber who shaved my head. It was called the ‘zero haircut.’ I wasn’t his first client. 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 sign at the camp’s entrance said, ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (Work Sets You Free), so I was determined to work hard for my release. An hour later we learned the reality. Freedom depended on Germany’s victory, or our death.” 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.

“When the woman who’d taken me in was sent to a labor camp, I was found at a train station by a Red Cross attendant who handed me to a Polish Christian family. They had five older children but raised me as one of their own. After the war, they wanted to adopt me, but it was forbidden and I was put in a Jewish orphanage (pictured below) where I was adopted by a Jewish family. I have since met the families who risked their lives to save me but know little of my birth parents, who hoped we’d reunite when the war ended.” 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.