Lisa Baer was born in 1926, in Frankfurt, Germany. During Kristallnacht on November 9-10, 1938, Nazis invaded her home. Lisa’s mother, Esther, pleaded with them not to harm her elderly parents upstairs. The Nazis damaged and stole items from the house, including Lisa’s late father’s Iron Cross from World War I. After Kristallnacht, Esther worked tirelessly to arrange their escape from Nazi Germany. After numerous consulate visits, Lisa’s family left via Lisbon and reached the United States in December 1940. In Washington Heights, Lisa went to school, became a dressmaker, and taught arts and crafts in Jewish day schools.
Bronia Brandman was born in 1931, in Jaworzno, Poland, as one of six children. She was eight when World War II began. In March 1942, her oldest brother was sent to Blechhammer labor camp. By August, her parents and another brother were deported to Auschwitz and never heard from again. Bronia and her three sisters fled to Sosnowiec but were soon moved to a ghetto. In August 1943, they were deported to Auschwitz. Bronia narrowly escaped the gas chambers by switching lines to be with her sister, Mila, who later died from typhus. Bronia remained in Auschwitz until January 1945, then endured a forced death march to Germany. Despite being ill, Bronia survived and was liberated from Neustadt-Gleve camp by American and Russian forces in May 1945.
Alice Ginsburg was born in 1930 in Munkacs, Czechoslovakia, to an Orthodox Jewish family. Her father, Theodore, owned a grocery store, and her mother, Celia, did sewing to support the family. When the Nazis invaded in 1944, Alice and her family were forced into a ghetto and then deported to Auschwitz. Alice never saw her mother or many family members again. She stayed in Auschwitz from May to October 1944 before being sent to Langenbielau for forced labor. As the war ended, Alice was sent on a death march but was liberated by the Russian Army in May 1945. She reunited with her father and brother in Budapest, lived in the Leipheim Displaced Persons camp in West Germany for two years, and arrived in the United States in February 1947.
Celia Kener was born in 1935 in Lvov, Poland. When the Germans invaded in 1941, her life changed drastically. Her father was drafted into the Russian army, and the rest of the family was moved to a ghetto. Celia’s mother was sent to a labor camp but visited the family on weekends. She arranged for Celia to stay with a childless Catholic couple, believing she might not survive. Celia was later reunited with her mother. The family was freed by the Russians. Her father escaped the Russian army and survived in an Uzbekistan Displaced Persons camp. Celia and her parents arrived in the United States in 1949.
Toby Levy was born in 1933 in Chodorow, Poland, near Lvov (now Lviv, Ukraine). She grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family with her father Moshe, mother Cyla, and older sister Betty. When the Germans invaded in 1941, the Jews of Chodorow were forced into ghettos. Toby’s family went into hiding in 1942 with the help of a Polish woman who had been a customer in Moshe’s fabric store. For two years, Toby and eight family members hid in a barn until June 1944, when they were freed by the Soviet Army. After several years in a Displaced Persons camp, the family came to the United States in 1949.
Gerald “Jerry” Lindenstraus was born in 1929 in Gumbinnen, East Prussia, Germany. As a child, he witnessed Kristallnacht in Konigsberg. In July 1939, Jerry and his father fled to Shanghai on the last German luxury ship, joining around 18,000 Jewish refugees. In Shanghai, then under Japanese occupation, they were placed in a ghetto. Jerry lived in Shanghai until 1947, when he reunited with his mother in Bogota, Colombia, before moving to the United States.
Mark Schonwetter was born in 1933, in Brzostek, Poland. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, he and his family was forced out of their home. After the Gestapo took his father, Mark’s mother fled with him and his sister to a nearby ghetto. They narrowly escaped the ghetto’s destruction and spent three years hiding in the Polish countryside. By the end of the war, Mark was one of the few surviving Jews from Brzostek. He emigrated to the United States in 1961.
Maritza Shelley was born in 1928, in Budapest, Hungary. After Hungary was invaded in 1944, she and her sister were forced into labor. Maritza was allowed to visit her mother in Budapest, but they were soon rounded up and sent on a death march. During the march, they reunited with her sister and escaped to Mauthausen concentration camp by pretending to be non-Jewish refugees. They hitchhiked to Budapest with German officers and survived the rest of the war hiding in the city with false papers. Maritza left Hungary in 1947 and moved to New York.
Norbert Strauss was born in 1927, in Bad Homburg, Germany, near Frankfurt. On November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht, Norbert witnessed the burning of synagogues in Frankfurt. He salvaged two small stones from the rubble, which he carried with him. After Kristallnacht, Norbert, his brother Herman, and their mother, Bertha, stayed in Frankfurt while their father, Josef, was sent to Buchenwald. Josef was released after four weeks due to his WWI veteran status and other conditions. He boarded the MS St. Louis for Cuba, but when the ship was turned away, he was sent to a Dutch holding camp and eventually obtained a U.S. visa. Meanwhile, Bertha and her children escaped to Lisbon with Lufthansa Airlines and arrived in New York on January 28, 1941, assisted by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Ruth Zimbler was born in 1928, in Vienna, Austria. After the Anschluss (German annexation of Austria), Ruth and her brother, Walter, witnessed the destruction of Vienna’s largest synagogue from their apartment on November 10, 1938, during Kristallnacht. To ensure their safety, Ruth’s parents, Hella and Markus, sent them on the first Kindertransport out of Vienna in December 1938. Their father, who worked for the Jewish Community of Vienna, helped arrange the journey to Den Haag in the Netherlands. Ruth and her family eventually reached New York City in late 1939.