Oral History Interview with Kurt Kupferberg

Sara Adler, nee Apel, was born in Radom, Poland in 1927. Her family was close-knit, religious, well-to-do and involved in community welfare. They had non-Jewish contacts through their lumber business, but Sara attended Jewish school and had primarily Jewish friends.The family fled Radom in 1939 under Ger‌man bombardment but returned and were put into the Radom Ghetto soon after. Through bribing Polish contacts, her father, her uncle and she were able to live and work in Szydlowiec (Kielce area), a munitions factory outside the ghetto. In late summer 1942, the ghetto was liquidated and the rest of her family was sent to Treblinka. Her father, her uncle and she continued working in the munitions factory until 1944.

With the Russian approach in July 1944 the Germans marched the prisoners 100 miles to Tomaszow under horrible conditions and from there shipped them to Auschwitz. She describes the cattle cars, arrival, selection, unsanitary conditions and Appells. She recounts how she was helped by a fellow inmate. She was sent to work in a string factory in Lichtewerden, Czechoslovakia in the Sudetenland. She describes some of the brutality and also kindnesses of some Germans and others. After the liberation by the Russians, Sara managed to return totally destitute to Radom. Though helped by some Polish locals upon her return, other former Polish friends refused to return the family’s belongings to her. She left with some friends for Stuttgart, Germany, and got married. She emigrated to the United States in January 1949.

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

Mr. Maas served in the 242nd Infantry Regiment of the 42nd Division, U.S. 7th Army. He was taken on a brief, partial tour of Dachau concentration camp short after it was liberated, and only glimpsed corpses and survivors.

Interviewee: MAAS, Thomas E. Date: December 3, 1990

Rebecca expresses her belief to her sister-in-law Maria that God accepts all who worship him with a pure heart. While she affirms her faith, Rebecca considers Judaism a remnant of the past that is inconvenient to practice in contemporary America.

Konrad Bieber was born in 1916 in Berlin, (Charlottenburg) Germany. His family lived in Gruenwald and Konrad went to the gymnasium there. His father was a German scholar and writer and his mother ran a gymnastics school. In 1933 the family left for Paris after warnings that the situation for Jews was worsening.

In 1939 Konrad married and joined the French army. He was captured and sent to various P.O.W. and labor camps in southern France. While his parents were in non-occupied southern France they received visas to the United States (via Marseilles and Lisbon) with the help of Varian Fry. In 1943 Konrad and his wife went into hiding with French farmers for 18 months. He describes his being helped by many French non-Jews. His wife lived in Montauban were she worked for the Joint Distribution Committee. In 1944 she witnessed a massacre by the retreating German army in Tulle, France. At that time Konrad was a sergeant in the French underground.

They were liberated on August 19, 1944 and were able to come out of hiding and live as Jews again in the town. Konrad was sent to Paris to be an interpreter. His son was born in 1945. He stayed in Marsac (near Montauban) and was a teacher there from 1945-47. In 1947 the family received visas to come to the United States, where Konrad taught scientific German at Lehman College, in New York.

Writing to her sister-in-law Maria, Rebecca expresses her sadness about her niece Becky Moses leaving to get married. She also tells her of a recent theft and an uncomfortable conversation she had about her Jewish faith.

In her letter to her friend Maria, Rebecca expresses her opinion on Maria Edgeworth's treatment of intermarriage in the novel, Harrington. She also discusses the serious illnesses of mutual acquaintances.