Oral History Interview with Lillian Steinig

Ute Sarah Seiler (Sora Seiler Vigorito) was born in October 1942 in Berlin, Germany. She underwent experimentation as a twin in Auschwitz. Her earliest memory is hiding with her twin sister, Anna, and their grandmother in a dark cellar. When found, they were sent to Auschwitz, where the girls were separated from their grandmother, a most vivid and terrible memory for Ute Sarah. Ute Sarah recalls clinging to her sister and screaming when they were put in a crib in the Children’s Block. A doctor gave them injections in their arms and spinal columns. Anna became very sick, had convulsions throughout one night and never awoke. The next day, she was taken from the crib and Ute Sarah never saw her again. The injections continued for Ute Sarah, who fell ill with tuberculosis and suffered with convulsions for many years afterward. In 1944, she was liberated by Russian soldiers and in 1945, she was reunited with her grandmother. They lived in Dessau, East Germany until 1948, when she was sent to Wanne-Eickel, West Germany to live with her father. She recalls a long, unsettling and emotionally difficult trip, being separated again from her grandmother. In 1952, she and her father emigrated to Canada. Ute Sarah learned that her mother and older sister, Heidi, had been taken away shortly after her birth. Ute Sarah married and her husband took her to the Cleveland Clinic, where she was finally cured of the convulsions and she has been able to have a normal life. She has recognized Dr. Mengele in photographs as the man who gave her the injections at Auschwitz.

Edith Millman, nee Greifinger, was born in 1924 in Bielsko (Bielitz), Poland. Father was an executive for Standard Oil Co. In 1937 the family moved to Warsaw. She was injured during the bombardment of the city in September 1939 when bombs hit the building in which they lived. She describes persecution of Jews which started immediately after the occupation and the horrendous conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto into which they were forced to move in November 1940. While there, she was able to study in small clandestine groups organized by teachers. She briefly discusses the Judenrat. She worked at the Schultz factory until the end of 1942 when she escaped from the ghetto. With forged papers received from Gentiles, she passed as an Aryan and worked as a translator for the German railroad. She stole railroad identification cards, food stamps and coal with which she helped others. She describes fear of being discovered and close escapes. Speaking German and pretending to be an ethnic German helped her to throw off blackmailers. She lost many relatives, describes the deaths of several. After liberation by the Russians in August 1944 she studied medicine in Lublin, Poland, and after the war’s end in Marburg/Lahn, Germany, she came to the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY in December 1947 on a B’nai B’rith Hillel scholarship. Her parents arrived in the USA in 1949.

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.

This letter, dated January 21, 1979, is from an anonymous sender to his friend, Eli. The sender expresses surprise and concern over a request from an IDF NCO in the Golan Heights for a lecture on the Holocaust, where the NCO preferred a focus on heroism over suffering, reflecting what the sender sees as a problematic societal view. The sender then describes his disappointment with "Arad" (likely from Yad Vashem), who, despite holding many valuable, unpublished autobiographical and literary works from ghettos and camps, prioritizes a multi-volume historical account of the Holocaust over their preservation. The sender had proposed an educational project incorporating literature, theology, art, and music, but felt Arad was more interested in personal fame. The sender also reveals his personal struggles, including physical and mental fatigue due to various jobs, hindering his ability to work on his own book, "A Jew Today." He urgently requests Eli's help in incorporating him into a project and inquires about Eli's upcoming sabbatical and visit to Israel.

This document contains Elie Wiesel's speech delivered on April 19, 1985, at the White House, on the occasion of receiving the Congressional Gold Medal. Wiesel dedicates the medal to the victims of the Holocaust and emphasizes his responsibility to both the living and the dead. He reflects on lessons learned over forty years, including the perils of silence and the sin of neutrality in the face of human dignity at stake. He recounts the suffering endured in concentration camps and laments the indifference of the 'free world' to the fate of Jewish children. Wiesel addresses the Bitburg controversy, urging the President not to visit the cemetery containing SS graves, asserting that the President's place is with the victims. He concludes by advocating for reconciliation and working towards peace and understanding in a tormented world.