Oral History Interview with Joel C. Nichols

Hanna Silver, née Bornowski, was born in Berlin Germany February 14, 1910. She lived and worked in Berlin, with her mother, during the Nazi period, World War II, and the allied occupation. This interview was done in conjunction with a series of photographs from Mrs. Silver's personal collection, which she explains. These pictures show how areas of Berlin, including her apartment house, were devastated during an air raid on February 3, 1945, and also include pictures of both dead and surviving members of her family. Her mother died during an air raid and was buried in a mass grave, location unknown.

She vividly describes life in Berlin during and after World War II, deprived of the bare necessities of life. She explains in detail how she was able to live and work in Berlin during World War II without posing as an Aryan, due to her determination, some luck, and help and protection from her neighbors and other non-Jews. She relates how a German policeman helped her to get an Identification Card not stamped with a "J". She describes the effect of air raids on the general population, the total devastation in Berlin and how she and other survivors tried to cope during days and nights spent in air raid shelters, completely cut off from the outside world. She cites heinous acts committed by Germans against their own people near the end of the war. Mrs. Silver describes how she felt after the final air raid, and still managed to go on, after her mother was gone, her home was gone, and everything she owned was gone.

She relates in great detail what life was like in Berlin under joint occupation by allied forces, the behaviour of Russian troops, including an interesting vignette of why the people in her building were not molested by the Russians. Hanna was in the American sector, spoke English, worked for the Red Cross as a photographer and also had her own shop. She married an American officer she met during this time.

Mrs. Silver closes by reciting the names and fates of relatives who were killed or survived. She discusses why she was able to cope and how her experiences in Berlin affected her outlook on life and how she tried to pay back America through her volunteer work.

Note: Copies of the above mentioned photographs are included with the transcript. Verification of how her mother died can be found on pages 122 and 123, in The Berliners: Their Saga and Their City by Walter Henry Nelson. David McKay Co., Inc. N.Y. 1969. A photocopy of these pages is in the collection of Holocaust Oral History Archives, together with the following items:

An audiotape of Hanna Silver speaking to students in their classroom-1978.

An audio taped interview of Hanna Silver, done in 1983 by Ellen Rofman, for a research

paper pertaining to Righteous Christians helping Jews.

Personal photographs of postwar Berlin after the Allied bombing, taken by Hanna Silver

An audiotape of a broadcast by KYW radio station pertaining to an exhibit of

needlework created

by Hanna Silver.

Post war memoir written by Hanna Silver at an unspecified time.

Interviewee: SILVER, Hanna B. Date: April 25, 1995

Elsa Kissel, nee Blatt, was born in Mainz, Germany on December 15, 1919. Her parents were born in Poland, her father was a businessman. She talks about her education in both Yeshivot and public schools. She describes in detail how school, her family’s relationships with non-Jews as well as Jewish life in general changed after Hitler came to power. Their activities became more and more restricted. She graphically describes the destruction and brutality her family experienced during Kristallnacht, when her father was sent to Buchenwald.

Elsa explains how her brother, Herman Blatt escaped to France, her parents and her sister smuggled themselves into Belgium. She got a nursing visa for Great Britain, helped by the Society of Friends. In England, Elsa—along with other Jewish refugees—was brought to Soughton Prison in Edinburgh. Later she was interned on the Isle of Man in a camp run by British Quakers. Minna Specht, a German educator, organized a school for children and events for the adult internees in these camps. The Quakers arranged Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services for the women internees. Generally, the few non-Jewish prisoners were treated better than the Jewish ones.

Once Elsa’s release was approved, her request to go to London was granted. She describes in great detail her life in England—working for two British families and later as a nurse in London during the Blitz—once she got her auxiliary war service permit. During this time, as a young refugee girl on her own, Elsa shows great resourcefulness and strength of character.

Elsa explains how various family members managed to get to the United States. While still in Portugal, her father enabled Orthodox Jewish refugees to celebrate a seder.

Elsa traveled to the United States on a Canadian troopship to Halifax, then to New York where she was reunited with her family. Unlike her father, Elsa never spoke to her children about her experiences. Each of her three adult sons reacted differently when Germany invited Elsa to visit with her family.