Oral History Interview with Margaret Eisen
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Date
Contributor
Summary
Margaret Eisen, nee Bloch, was born May 20, l933 in Königheim, Germany. In this brief interview, she shares details about how her parents tried to survive before their emigration to the United States and her childhood memories of the difficulty of adjusting to life in America.
She shares a story told to her about how Nazi soldiers marched through the town in April 1933 intent on doing mortal harm to her father because the boycott sign had been taken off her father’s grain shop. A friend helped him escape the mob, but her father was haunted by that incident the rest of his life. She and her parents emigrated to the United States in the 1938, sponsored by a distant relative. Margaret details their arrival and settling in as well as her family’s sorrow at not being able to bring over many extended family members. She also shares her struggles at adapting to her new home, how she was beaten up for being German and other difficulties for the family financially and emotionally. Margaret tells what happened to the rest of her family who remained in Europe, including stories of some cousins who worked in the French underground.
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SUBJECT HEADINGS
Prisoners of war, American - Germany
World War, 1939-1945 - Participation, Jewish
Stalag (Limberg, Germany: prisoner of war camp)
Stalag (Brandenberg, Germany: prisoner of war camp)
World War, 1939-1945 - prisoner of war camp
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