Oral History Interview with Ida Firestone

Benjamin Goldenberg was born June 21, 1910 in Tekova, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time of his birth, taken over by Czechoslovakia when he was a boy.2He was one of four children and his parents owned a store and land. He describes his pre-war town: schooling (public and Hebrew school), Zionist organizations, the diverse population that lived in that area and relations between Jews and non-Jews. When he was about nine years old the family moved to Selvus, the county seat. In 1934, he left Selvus hoping to reach Israel by bicycle with a group of Zionist friends (Betar movement). The lack of visas to cross the necessary countries forced them to back track toward Western Europe, landing them from Austria to Italy. Finally Benjamin settled inAntwerpin 1939 because of the prospect of finding work.

Benjamin and his wife lived in Antwerp, Belgium from 1939–1940. Benjamin relates that on May 10, 1940, when the war broke out in Belgium, the government gave an order to flee the country and go to France. Benjamin left with his pregnant wife and a large group of people to Paris and then he and his wife headed south to Bordeaux. There he was recruited into the army and sent to the Czech unit of the French Army stationed at Agde. The unit was moved through southern France and finally disbanded (1940/1941). After a series of sojourns in various cities of Provence, he settled in Lyon in January 1942. Benjamin describes their many different residences and how they avoideddeportation to internment camps in France. Benjamin and his wife lived in hiding posing as Christians thanks to help from the Joint Distribution Center in Nice and the Czech government in exilewho secured them false papers.

Benjamin narrates the many near disasters that befell him, his wife and children and the often miraculous escapes he managed thanks to his savvy and his dealings in the black market which allowed him to survive financially and helped him give succor to the other displaced Jews around him. He was also helped with some connections to the Resistance, the Maquis. Benjamin and his family stayed in Lyon and Paris after the war3, emigrated to the United States in 1947 and settled in Vineland and Philadelphia.

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Rudy Klein was born in Bonn, Germany in 1904. His father died when he was 5 and he was raised

by his mother who died in Theresienstadt in 1942. Rudy had a standard German education but very minimal Jewish education. His family were members of a Reform synagogue but observed very little.

Mr. Klein talks about his reaction to Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 and the effect it had on his job at a department store. He was fired in 1935, after the enactment of the Nuremberg laws.

Mr. Klein left for America in 1936 and he describes his beginnings in New York. He discusses the decimation of his family who had remained in Germany and tells the story of a cousin who was a brain surgeon. This cousin and his family fled to Russia but when Germany invaded Russia they were murdered by the Russians. Mr. Klein speaks briefly about his life in the United States.

Mr. Klein’s Arbeitsbuch[work permit book] was donated to the Holocaust Oral History Archive by his niece-in-marriage, Marcia Webber. A program book of a German government sponsored visit to Germany in 1987 was also donated.

Born September 27, 1925 in Munich, Germany, HenryKahn was an only child in a wealthy Jewish family. His father was the major wholesaler of coal in Germany. His great-grandfather was a nobleman, with a title from Emperor Franz Joseph.

Henry describes his childhood memories of attendingpublic school until age eight. When ostracized by the gentile students, his parents sent him to a Jewish school, which was closed after Kristallnacht. His father was sent to Dachau but was released on the same day when he showed visa and steamship tickets to leave Germany. Henry describes their hurried exit and possessions that were confiscated by the Gestapo. The family sailed to the United States from London on January 26, 1939. They were sponsored by a prominent cousin in Philadelphia, Herman Obermayer, and were aided by HIAS.

In the 1960s, Henry’s father began to correspond with Albert Speer, the Nazi architect, and visited him at the German prison in Spandau. Henry also visited Speer, who became a successful writer and donated royalties to Israel and to Jewish old-age homes.

Maurice J. Wasser served as a 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Air Force 325th fighter group, 317th fighter squadron, from 1942 to 1945. While stationed in Italy, he flew a P-51 Mustang, protecting B-17s bombing Germany. He was shot down in February 1945 near Munich, sent to a camp in Frankfurt am Main for interrogation, then to a Prisoner of War camp near Nuremberg. The prisoners later were moved to a prison in Moosburg on a 60-mile forced march. Mr. Wasser describes conditions, and mistreatment by S.S. guards who shot men who dropped out. However, some of the older German guards helped the POW’s because they knew the war was almost over. In both camps, no Red Cross packages were received and food deprivation caused weight loss. No mail was received, no letters permitted to be sent.

In mid-May, 1945, Mooseburg was liberated by General George Patton and the American 3rd Army. Mr. Wasser mentions briefly that he and other prisoners of war were invited to stay in German homes because the Germans were afraid of the approaching Russian soldiers.

He was shipped to a repatriation camp in Reims, France, then to Newport News, Virginia in June 1945.

Dr. Paul G. Eglick served in the 508th Parachute Infantry of the 82nd Airborne, U.S. Third Army as a medical officer. Around May 7, 1945 he was ordered to go to Ludwiglust, Mecklenburg, Germany, not knowing he would enter the Wöbbelein concentration camp. He vividly describes piles of victims who had starved to death, the condition of survivors, and the attempt to save them. His unit took care to treat the starving survivors properly and evacuated them, helped by several other medical units. Dr. Eglick explains how deeply entering this camp affected him and the other American soldiers. Local Germans were ordered to bury the dead. He gives his opinion about United States policy concerning the extermination camps and why the United States could have done more to stop the killing. He tells about an encounter with a couple in a mixed marriage who survived in Berlin with the help of non-Jewish neighbors.

Rabbi Helmut Frank, born April 15, 1912 in Wiesbaden,Germany, talks about his early interest in Judaism, details pre-war Jewish life including religious education, relations with Gentiles and sporadic antisemitism. He describes education at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin from 1931 to 1937. He also studied at Berlin University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Bonn in 1935. He gives his impression of Leo Baeck and his role in the Reichsvertretung. He explains why many Jews still felt they could survive in Germany.

He was ordained in 1937 and was appointed as a Rabbi in Worms. He provides a history of the synagogue. His vivid, detailed eye-witness account of Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938 includes several vignettes, the burning of his synagogue, damage to his apartment, and lack of reaction by the fire department. He was arrested, along with other Jews. They were compelled to clean the debris in the streets, then transported to Buchenwald. He describes brutality, organization of camp life, lack of medical treatment, effect of incarceration on prisoners’ physical and mental health and religious observance. He mentions Aktion Jews and Jehova’s Witnesses and that Nazis warned released prisoners never to talk about Buchenwald. He worked in a labor squad but was released after his parents got him a visa for China.

Rabbi Frank returned to Worms where he opened a House of Prayer and a school with permission from the German authorities. He describes the extent of the damage in Worms and the continued persecution of the Jewish community. He left for the United States in August, 1939. He discusses the immigration process, postwar conditions in Worms, and restoration of the Worms synagogue in 1961.