Oral History Interview with Hasia Aufschauer

Edith R. Levywas born in Vienna, Austria February 21, 1930 anddescribes her family as middle class and religious. Her father was a kosher butcher. She had an older brother. She briefly recalls her pre-war childhood, schooling and her early education. She describes her childhood memories of how things changed for her family after the Anschluss--Jews were not permitted in the local park, were ejected from schools, Jewish children were not allowed to wear certain Viennese clothes anymore. She describes an incident when her parentswere beaten up by Hitler youths and how Edith’s yelling attracted the attention of people in the local tavern who came to their aid. She also recalls her childhood memories of Kristallnacht, visceral memories of Torahs burning and how the father of her brother’s classmate told the S.S. that her family was not Jewish. She recalls several instances of abuse by Hitlerjugend and her father being hauled off to the police station. She details their journey to Antwerp with smugglers who extorted the families for more money at every turn.

Edith describes a harrowing journey when the family tried to flee to southern France and their train was bombed. They were forced to return to Antwerp. In January of 1941 they were deported to Waterschei (in a coal mine region) near the German border. The Nazistold the townsfolk that they were criminals but some townspeople did not believe this and helped them. In June 1941, the Nazis suddenly decided to releasethe women and children. Her father was sent to forced labor, but her mother got him released by attesting that they would leave Antwerp. They moved to Brussels and her father followed soon after. Her younger brother was bornin March 1942. She describes that they had to wear the star and were under a curfew. A few months later, her father received papers to “work”. The mother beseeched him to go into hiding but the father felt that he could secure his family’s safety if he worked. He was sent by train to “work” in France; they never saw him again. They found out after the war he was deported to Auschwitz and perished after 2 months.

Edith details the harrowing experiences of living in hiding in Brussels, the scarcity of food andassistance from a Jewish woman who helped her mother get eggs to sell. She details an instance when they were denounced to the Germans, butone German soldier gave them 30 minutes to get away. Her non-Jewish neighborhelped them reach Elizabeth Hoolmannwho found them a place to hide for the rest of the war. Ms. Hoolmann was designated Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in 1996.Edith describes how -- aided by the Jewish underground-- they would buy used sweaters, unravel and wash the wool, buy dye and knit sweaters to sell at the marketto survive.Edith emigrated to the United States in 1956.

Fanny Schwartz was born on December 16, 1911 in Stavna, Czechoslovakia. She was brought up by a very observant father who was a shochet (ritual slaughterer) who tutored his children in their Jewish subjects. He was also a leader in the local kehillah. There were nine children in the family; only Fanny, two of her sisters and two brothers survived. Her brothers came to the United States in 1939.

Fanny was living in Berecin1 with her husband and young son before the war started. They lost their store in 1938 when the Hungarians occupied Czechoslovakia. Fanny describes the Hungarians as very antisemitic. Fanny’s husband was taken to a work camp but was able to return and the family was able to remain in Berecin for a time. By early 1940 men were taken daily to work camps, but in 1944, right after Passover, the Hungarians took the Jews from Berecin, via the Ungvar Ghetto, on transports to Auschwitz. Fanny describes in great detail the horrific conditions of the transport: Hungarian police overseers marching them to the cattle trains, hysterical mothers and children, no food or water.

She describes in detail her arrival at Auschwitz, separation of families, selections by Mengele, delousing and head shaving, atrocities and cruelty toward the prisoners. Fanny and the healthier women were sent to Birkenau, Camp C. She details surviving several selections by Mengele. From October 1944 until January 1945 Fannyand her sister were sent to a women’s work camp Schlesiersee, a sub-camp of Gross Rosen, in Poland.

Fanny discusses her religious faith and how it helped her to survive and gives examples of religious observance: trying to light holiday candles and observing Tisha B’Av. Fanny details the death march in January 1945 during which time she injured her leg. Her health deteriorated and she and her sister escaped from the march and spent four nights hiding in a box. She managed to get to a hospital for foreign refugees and was very ill, with back injuriesas well as tuberculosis. Fanny was liberated from a Red Cross hospital in Pirna, Germany by Russian soldiers on May 8, 1945.

In Germany,Fanny suffered for 10 years inmany hospitalizations. She was in a hospital in Heidenau (near Dresden) for two years. In 1947, Fanny was in the DP camp, Schlachtensee, in Berlin, and later in hospitals in Munich and Gauting for TB, where the Germans paid her medical bills. Finally, in 1955, after procuring papers, she joined her relatives in the United States.

Rachel Hochhauser, née Swerdlin, was born July 2, 1928 in Krzywice, Poland. She was the only child of a religious family. Her grandfather was Rabbi and Shochet of the shtetl. Her grandmother and parents operated a general store. She describes religious education and a comfortable life, pre WWII, and friendly relations with Polish and Russian neighbors until September 3, 1939. She details restrictive occupations under Russians and subsequent persecution by Germans and local collaborators in summer of 1941. When her father was killed she went into hiding with her mother and other relatives after warnings from non-Jews, including the police Kommandant for whom she worked.

The family hid on several farms from April, 1942 until 1944. They were protected for 20 months by a Catholic farmer’s wife, Anna Kobinska, with whom Rachel continued to correspond after the war. When forced to move for the final time, they went into a partisan-occupied area. She describes the privations of living in a swamp during the winter of 1943-44. A log bunker built for them in the woods in exchange for 20 rubles of gold sheltered ten people until spring, 1944. The Russian Blitzkrieg and deserting Germans drove the group to return to their homes in Krzywice, where her family was welcomed home by neighbors. They adopted an orphan girl found in their house and moved westward to the DP camp at Foehrenwald. Rachel describes her education there in an ORT school. She immigrated to the United States in April, 1951.

Recorded at the 1985 American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors in Philadelphia, PA.

Ida Rudley, née Rothman, was born April 22, 1922 in Vienna, Austria, into a middle class family. She encountered antisemitism even before Hitler annexed Austria. Her life changed after the Anschluss in 1938, as anti-Jewish measures took effect. She explains why it was almost impossible for Jews to leave Austria. She mentions several instances of help from non-Jews, including an encounter with a German officer who took an interest in her while she and her mother were trying to escape from Austria. They were smuggled across the border to Yugoslavia in 1941 and lived in Zagreb illegally, always on the run, sheltered by both Jews and non-Jews until they were warned that the Gestapo was looking for them. Ida and her mother turned themselves in to the Gestapo - armed with enough pills to commit suicide - and managed to talk their way out of detention. Using forged papers, they accompanied a group of German-Jewish orphans bound for Palestine to the Italian part of Yugoslavia.

After living briefly in Ljubljana, they were sent to a concentration camp in Ferramonti, Italy. Prisoners included Greek, Italian and Yugoslavian Partisans as well as Jews. The Italians ran the camp in a very humane fashion and even told Jews where to hide from the retreating German troops. Ida and her husband were married by a rabbi in the concentration camp and had a civil ceremony later, after liberation by the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in 1943. After a brief stay in a transit camp in Cinecitta, run by UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) Ida, her husband and her mother went to the United States on a military ship in 1947.

Interviewee: RUDLEY, Ida Date: April 5, 1984

Emmi Loewenstern was born on February 19, 1925 in Emmerich, Germany. She briefly describes pre-war life: schooling and relations with non-Jewish Poles. The family was well known in the town. Emmi describes the change in attitude toward Jews after the Nazis came to power. She gives a detailed description of Kristallnacht, the damage done to their home by soldiers they knew, the imprisonment of her father.

In December 1941, Emmi and her family were deported to the Riga Ghetto in Latvia. She describes the journey and arrival in detail including hearing about the mass murder of the Latvian Jews by Jewish survivors still working in the ghetto. She details the lack of food, crowded conditions, forced labor, brutality and atrocities: people being taken out on work shifts and shot if they were caught stealing food. She discusses some holiday observances in the ghetto. She also describes an incident in October 1942 when some young Latvian Jews tried to bring ammunition into the ghetto, were caught and 39 were shot to death.

In November 1943 Emmi, her sister and her mother were sent to various places for forced labor: working for the German army at the Armeebiekleidungsamt [army quartermaster] sorting clothes of deceased German soldiers and in another (unnamed) camp. She describes how the young children were separated from their parents and never heard from again. In the fall of 1944, they were deported to Stutthof and then to Libau (Latvia) where they had to work at a shoe factory. She describes how they took the handkerchiefs off their heads during the trip to and from work so the townspeople would see how they were being treated. In February 1945, they were deported to Hamburg, Germany to Fuhlsbüttel (a subcamp of Neuengamme) where they had to label bags of spices. She describes the deplorable conditions of the deathmarch from Hamburg to Kiel where they had to sort bricks.

In 1945, they were taken to Malmö, Sweden via Denmark by the Red Cross due to the Bernadotte Agreement. Emmi contacted relatives in the United States and Sweden. Emmi emigrated with her mother and sister to the United States where Emmi married in 1947 and had two daughters.

Willie Nowak was born August 1, 1908 in Berlin, to a family of libera1 Austrian Jews. His father owned a tobacco factory in Berlin. After attending a Realgymnasium in Berlin, Willie sold pharmaceuticals in Brunn, Czechoslovakia, 1935-37. On his return to Berlin, he found he had lost his German citizenship. During Kristallnacht in 1938, he witnessed the burning of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue where he had celebrated his bar mitzvah. He emigrated to Shanghai in 1938 with his fiancée and the two children of his first marriage. He describes in detail the refugee camp in the Japanese district, the support from the Joint Distribution Committee and the Russian Jewish community for a hospital, kosher soup kitchen and the services of a rabbi. Willie worked as a musician in bars and night clubs and was also in charge of Jewish guards in the refugee camp. He describes interactions between Chinese and Japanese individuals and himself. His wife, Elsa, worked in an underwear factory owned by Austrian Jews who sold to Japanese buyers. The Nowak family emigrated to the United States in January 1948 on a collective affidavit for Shanghai refugees.