Oral History Interview with Paul Kurschner

Alex Krasheninnikow was born in Kiev, USSR in 1934. He knew that his father, a scientist, and his mother, an artist, were Jews but he had no religious education. He recalls a happy childhood with his parents in a large collective apartment shared with four Soviet families. After the German invasion in 1941, his family was hidden in the attic of Vassily and Ina Baranovski in Darnitsa, near Kiev. Gold jewelry was exchanged for food and shelter until November 1943 when their hideout was discovered and their protectors were shot. Alex and his parents were sent by freight car to Brätz concentration camp near Schwiebus. Watchtbandguards beat them with clubs and separated men from women. Food shortages, cold barracks and arduous road building are mentioned, and the daily gymnastic regime of forced running for hours is detailed. The Russian Army liberated the camp in January 1945 and the reunited Krasheninnikow family returned to Kiev. In July 1950, they moved to Munich illegally. In December 1950, they emigrated to Philadelphia, where Alex became a court interpreter. He refers to accounts in Russian publications that number the Babi Yar killings during 1941 – 1943 with various figures, from 30,000 to 100,000.

Born in Wrexen, Germany, in 1919, Fred Stamm was one of four children. Their father was a poor cattle dealer. Fred describes his limited early education in a Jewish school in Warburg and in the local Gymnasium, from 1930 until 1933, when a Nazi decree forced Jewish students out. His two sisters were transferred from Jewish to Catholic school, protected by the nuns. He illustrates the effect of pre-war Nazi influence in Wrexen. His grandmother befriended villagers with clothing and bedding after a disastrous flood, but at her funeral in 1934 her casket was stoned by village youths. Fred served as an apprentice with a cabinet maker until 1938, when he was forced into a Jewish labor unit. During the night of November 9, 1938, strangers broke into the Stamm house, ransacking the ground floor while the family, in bed upstairs, was unmolested. The next morning, Fred and his brother were advised to leave town and ride the railroads for several days. When they returned they found all the males in the town, except their ill father, were taken to a concentration camp. Most of them later returned home. Within the next few months, both brothers left Germany for the United States, sponsored by their cousin, a gynecologist in Philadelphia where Fred quickly found work repairing furniture. In 1942, Fred and his brother served in the United States Army even though they were considered German enemy aliens. He served in the Air Force as an aircraft mechanic, and refused European duty until granted American citizenship. He was sent to China with a fighter squadron to bomb Japanese-occupied territories. Fred returned to Philadelphia, married, raised two children and became a student of Jewish history at Gratz College. See also the testimony of his wife, Ilse Stamm. Interviewee: Fred Stamm Dater: June 1980

Malvina Lebovic, née Kleinberger, was born in 1920 in Kalnik (Kal'nyk), near Munkacs, Czechoslovakia. She was the oldest of nine children. Her father was a butcher, the family was very poor and life was difficult. Her father organized a school for Jewish children because of antisemitism in school. In 1934 the family moved to Karlovy (Karlsbad) hoping for a better life. In 1938, after the Anschluss of Austria they moved back to Kalnik but shortly thereafter the area was occupied by Hungary. Mrs. Lebovic describes that Jews started to be persecuted, her father and brother were taken to labor camps, Jews were frequently beaten and food was scarce. When Germany occupied Hungary, all the Jews were deported to Auschwitz in cattle cars. Mrs. Lebovic describes conditions during the journey and arrival at Auschwitz. Her mother and younger brother were immediately taken to the gas chambers, she and two sisters to barracks. Later, in a group of 2,000, they were transferred first to Stutthof and then to Baumgart for hard labor. They lived in tents and slept on straw. Only 200 of the 2,000 survived. All three sisters contracted typhus shortly before liberation by the Russians in March 1945. They returned to Kalnik, married and eventually made their way to Israel. After her daughter contracted polio they came to the United States for medical treatment and remained there. See also testimony of her husband, David Lebovic.

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.

Morris Steiman was born August 5, 1918 in Bodzanow, a small town near Warsaw. Morris attended cheder and yeshiva and was a member ofAgudah, a religious Zionist youth group. He experienced pre-war antisemitism because of his appearance as a religious Jewish boy, in his hometown and in Warsaw, where he worked as a tailor’s apprentice. In November, 1939, he fled the German occupation and went east to the Russian-occupied area of Poland. In March 1940, homesick and concerned about his parents, he returned to Poland—first Warsaw and then made his way back to his hometown— where he worked as a tailor for the Germans until March 1941. He discusses being very aware as an older teenager about what exactly was going on and actively looking for ways to escape and emigrate. He gives a detailed description of the evacuation of Jews from Bodzanow, during which he and his father was severely beaten on the head. He describes the Germans indiscriminately beating everyone they could as they chased them into the trucks. They were taken to a camp in Dzialdowo for a few days, near the German border, with little food and no toilets or water. They were thendeported to the Czestochowa Ghetto, where he was cared for by Rose Tannenbaum. Morris’ parents fled to Warsaw to be with his sister and died of natural causes soon after. Morris and Rose married and survived the war years together, doing forced labor at HasagPelzery, in metal and ammunition factories in nearby Rakow. Morris describes one Wehrmacht commander who treated them humanely and also assisted several Jews in escaping the ghetto and retrieving money left behind in the ghetto. They were liberated by the Russians in January 1945 and stayed in Czestochowa for almost a year. He secured work as a tailor. He describes returning to his hometown after the war and digging up a kiddish cup and candlesticks that his brother had buried. He and his wife moved to Lampertheim, a displaced persons camp in the American zone of Germany, until emigrating to the United States in March 1947 where he had a sister.