Oral History Interview with Sophie Roth

Milton Pincus was an interpreter with the U. S. Army military government unit 1-13-G-3 in Europe during World War II. At the end of April 1945, he was involved in the liberation of the concentration camp Dachau as part of a 300 man unit, and was in charge of the administration of the camp. They saw Dachau as the Nazis had left it. He describes what he saw and what was going on in the camp in great detail, including the emaciated "living dead" survivors. He mentions the killing of informants and witnessed two German guards being kicked to death by survivors. Lack of medical information on what food to offer starving inmates was a big problem. He led a tour through Dachau for German civilians from nearby Munich, who were horrified and claimed ignorance of the camp’s existence.

He remembers clearly HIS emotions upon contact with prisoners, as well as the return to their former homes and neighbors of some of the prisoners.

Captain, now Lieutenant Colonel Richard Crane served in Military Government in 63rd Division Headquarters, United States Army. He mentions that displaced persons seemed to be on the move everywhere in the spring of 1945. While he was attached to a Regimental Combat Team of the 63rd Division, he entered Landsberg concentration camp, a sub-camp of Dachau, in Germany for a day, after it had been liberated. He briefly describes the condition of the surviving inmates, his reactions, as a Jew, as well as how other soldiers reacted to what they found at Landsberg. He could not comprehend how German people he got to know in the 1930s could commit such atrocities.

Mina Lustiger, nee Bochner, was born July 30, 1929 in Bielitz, Poland. Her father was in the scrap metal business. She shares childhood memories including frightening antisemitic attacks. She describes the commotion and uncertainty after the German invasion, first sent with her siblings to her grandfather in Kęty, to avoid the Germans but then having to return home. After finally reunited with her parents in Bielsko she witnessed Jews being harassed and her family experienced the plunder of their silver by Germans. The whole family then fled toKęty because it was a smaller citywhere they hoped to avoid harassment. When her mother was jailed in Kęty for trying to send a package of food and her father was sent to a labor camp, the four girls were left alone. Mina describes the Kęty Ghetto and her subsequent deportation to the Neudorf Ghetto in 1941.They were warned1 not to be in the area during a selection and fled, posing as Aryans, to their uncle in Chrzanów. She describes the harrowing journey, travelling alone as a 12 year old, and then being joined by her sisters. Subsequently, they found out that some of the family had survived the selection and were then in Wadowice and the sisters again made a dangerous journey to join family. Mina describes the gated Wadowice Ghetto and how they had to sneak in with a labor brigade. Soon after, she and her sisters were deported to Sucha labor camp where they did hard labor regulating water near railways. She describes being sent to a distribution center at Sosnowiec and again being deported with her sisters to forced labor, this time in a spinning factory in Freiberg, Germany in 1943. She speaks about slightly better treatment there, but still long working hours and the scarcity of food. They were deported to Röhrsdorflabor camp and describes harsh working conditions, with little food and much suffering from disease. She mentions fasting on Yom Kippur.

In 1945, as Russian forces approached, they were sent on a death march to the Sudeten in Czechoslovakia, walking for several days, without food and sleeping in the snow. At Kratzau concentration camp, they joined inmates from many other countries. They finally were incarcerated at Gross Rosen, where she experienced the most brutal conditions. She describes beatings, many deaths from typhus and exhausting work in freezing weather.

On May 8, 1945, she was liberated by the Russian Army and then re-united with her family in Bielitz. In 1946, she went to England with a group of 100 other children and attended an ORT school. In 1951, she married Samuel Lustiger and they emigrated to the United States in 1952. They have a family of three children.

Mina does not indicate whether these were Jews or Gentiles who warned them.

Daniel Levey, born April 24, 1925 in Sarajevo, was one of eight children in an impoverished Sephardic family who spoke Ladino at home. His father was a tailor and served in WWI under the Ottoman Empire. Daniel shares his childhood memories of their poverty and pre-war life. They lived in a Muslimneighborhood, where Daniel was assaulted by street gangs. His family attended the Sarajevo Synagogue, in a community of 15,000 Jews, who were forced into a ghetto after the German invasion in 1941. They had to wear an armband with the letter “Z” for Židov, the Croatian word for Jew. He did forced labor briefly in a military work crew, having been assigned to a skilled labor brigade because of his electrician experience. He evaded Nazi registration and stopped wearing his star.

After he escaped from a roundup, he passed as a Muslim with an assumed name of Gerald Levvage [phonetic] and a false ID. He joined partisans fighting Germans and Russian Cossacks near Mostar, which was occupied by Italians. In 1942, he was captured and imprisoned at BokaKotorska. He describes humane treatment by the Italians. He got himself a job on kitchen duty and helped other prisoners by bringing them food. After Italy surrendered in 1943, the prison became a hospital where Daniel worked as a cook until he emigrated to Canada and then to the United States in 1948. He credits the Italians for saving him and other Jews from the brutal Croatian prison guards at Rab concentration camp. All of the Levey family, except for Daniel and one brother, who settled in Israel, perished in German camps.

Jadwiga3Zoszak, nee Greifinger, was born in 1906 in Sambor, Poland (Galicia). Before WWII, Giza lived in Katowice, Poland with her non-Jewish husband Adam Zoszak. Although Adam was a lawyer and judge, he was forced to become a day laborer after the Russians took over in 1939. Because she had once officially registered as a Jew, Giza was unable to apply for another identification card.

Giza describes the fate of her family members from the town of Boryslaw. Most perished in various concentration camps or at the hands of the Gestapo. One brother Herman was forced to play in the orchestra in Auschwitz. Giza, who spoke fluent Polish, survived by passing as Polish. Giza describesthe difficult and dangerous living conditions and how she and her young niece lived in constant fear of being discovered. During her time in a small town, StaraSól, she and her niece lived in isolation for fear of discovery of her true identity. She slept with an axe to protect herself from Ukrainians who attacked Poles.In addition to her husband’s help, she was aided by a priest and a Polish teacher from Warsaw.

Adam aided Giza and her family, and moved in and out of the local ghetto, where he secretly fed and sheltered nine Jews in a basement in Boryslawfrom May 1943 until August 1944. These Jews gave testimony after the war, and Adam was recognized by YadVashem as Righteous Among the Nations. After the war, Giza and Adam divorced.

In 1957, Giza and her niece settled in Israel. In 1960, Giza married Dr. Israel Sternberg, who had been a physician in Krakow. During the war he was a medic in Auschwitz concentration camp where he

secretly

administered penicillin to German officers to treat syphilis. While on a death march, one of these officers recognized him and saved

his life

. Giza lived in Tel Aviv and of her large family of eight siblings only three survived the war.

Arnold Vanderhorst, born in Arnhem, Holland, July 24, 1935, shares his childhood memories of surviving World War II by living in hiding. After his family bakery was sealed by the Nazis, his mother took him to a "strange" family, the Holthuis, with whom he remained throughout the war and liberation. Both his sister and grandmother were also placed with families; however, his parents perished in Auschwitz. The Holthius family had four children, the oldest a member of the Resistance. The father was politically active, having run for mayor of Arnhem. Arnold describes his life with them, being safe, having food and an education throughout the war, and explains that he was secure enough to play with neighborhood children despite the presence of German soldiers nearby. He was tutored by Hilda Presser, wife of photographer Sem Presser. She maintained contact with him when he later entered an orphanage. At one birthday party, photographs of children were taken professionally and turned into a book, which is in a museum in Holland. Arnold describes a brief encounter with his grandmother in the forest, when he and the Holthuis family evacuated the city.

After liberation, Arnold began an odyssey of experiences. In 1945, for reasons of health, he travelled to England, where he lived for six months. He returned to Holland, reuniting with his grandmother and sister. In 1947, the three emigrated to New York via Sweden to live with an uncle who had fled earlier. Arnold explains that after several incidents of Arnold’s misbehavior, his uncle and wife insisted Arnold and his grandmother return to Holland. He describes living in several different locations including two Jewish orphanages (Koningslaan and the AemmalannZeven for boys) and with two different families. He details his schooling experiences.In 1954, at 19, he left the orphanage and took up residence with the Perelkamp family. He describes life with them and attending a technical school until 1956 during which time he describes having difficulty concentrating on his studies because of his loneliness. He describes a close relationship with his social worker who encouraged him to seek the help of HIAS to return to the United States. He describes psychological reactions to his wartime experiences as a young child.

He found work at a brokerage house and eventually completed his education. He married and adopted two boys. In 2004, he returned to Holland for a reunion with friends.