Oral History Interview with Moshe Moskowitz

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.

Nina Frisch, née Dannenberg, was born July 25, 1935 in Stanislawa (Stanisławów), Poland to an orthodox family. The family was moved into a ghetto when she was six years old. She remembers hiding in nearby woods in 1943, surviving on hazelnuts, periodically running from German troops, and that her mother was shot to death and buried there. Staszek Jaczkowski, a Polish man, who was honored by Yad VaShem for saving 31 Jews, hid Nina and her father in a bunker in the cellar of his house from September 1943 to July, 1944, along with many other Jews, until they were liberated by the Russians. She describes in great detail how the Jewish families hiding in this bunker survived, established daily routines, and tried to keep some degree of normalcy. Mr. Jaczkowski treated the group very humanely and tried to establish an escape route for them after it became extremely dangerous to stay in the bunker. Nina and her father came to the United States in May 1949, because they could not go to Israel. She explains how she came to terms with surviving when so many others were killed, why she is willing to talk about her experiences, and that she cannot understand how Germans could commit such atrocities and still have a normal family life. Interviewee: FRISCH, Nina Date: April 22, 1985

This document consists of two pages of handwritten notes, primarily in Hebrew, written on the official letterhead of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. The letterhead indicates the document's origin in Washington, D.C., and a creation year of 1985. A prominent English heading, "RIGA: A TALE OF TWO GHETTOS," clearly identifies the document's central theme. These notes appear to be a draft or personal research material related to the experiences within the Riga Ghetto during the Holocaust. While the intricate details of the handwritten Hebrew content are difficult to fully ascertain due to the cursive script and OCR limitations, the document unequivocally concerns historical accounts of Jewish life and suffering in the ghetto as part of World War II history. It functions as an internal working document or research aid for the organization.

This document is a promotional flyer announcing a television program titled "Dialogue with Doti." The program features Chapman University President Jim Doti in conversation with Elie Wiesel, a prolific author, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and renowned Holocaust scholar. The flyer indicates that the program will air "TONIGHT AT 8:30 PM" and directs viewers to "WWW.KCET.ORG/DIALOGUEWITHDOTI" for more information. The bottom of the flyer prominently displays the logos for Chapman University and KCET, the latter celebrating "50 YEARS INSPIRING A BETTER STATE."

Jeanette Rothschild2, née Fernbacher, born on September 13, 1898 in Grossmannsdorf, Germany, discusses her very happy early childhood and schooling at a convent in Straubing, Germany and how she and the other two Jewish girls were never treated badly for being Jewish by either teachers or students. She also describes two close friendships with non-Jewish girls. Her father was a successful cattle dealer. She discusses her extended family in nearby towns. She relates her experience during World War I and living in Berlin, Germany once she was married. Mrs. Rothschild compares the lack of antisemitism in Berlin in the 1920s with a trip back to Straubing in 1924 when she felt that her so called non-Jewish friends weren’t so friendly to her on that visit. She describes that she did start to feel antisemitism in Berlin by 1933, with the rise of the Nazi party. Mrs. Rothschild details her experience during Kristallnacht, the destruction of their store, finding out about the synagogue burning, the Nazis taking her husband to Oranienburg for a month. She describes her trip to the Gestapo to secure her husband’s release and how he was deeply changed by his experience. They decided to leave immediately and she describes the huge lines of Jews at the consul trying to leave Germany and describes not being allowed to take money with them. They were able to go to England because a cousin in England secured a permit for them, but upon arrival her husband was placed in an enemy alien camp at Lynnefield. Mrs. Rothschild describes that it was a stadium of some sort and describes how she used her experience to make frequent visits and finally procure his release when she told the guard it was her birthday. They eventually settled in the United States3.