Oral History Interview with Betti Frank

Bernard Harman enlisted in the United States Air Force in November 1941, trained as a radio operator and gunner, and flew to Scotland with a B-17 "Flying Fortress" crew. They joined 388th Bomb Group in England for missions over France and Germany, until October 14, 1943 when their plane was shot down. He describes his fear of dying as the plane crashed at Weilburg. Because he discarded his "H" dog tags before he was captured, he was never identified as a Jew.

After six weeks at a German military base, he was sent to Frankfurt with other prisoners of war, where guards had to shield them from hostile civilians. He was transported by train to Krems, Austria, where he spent the balance of the war in Stalag 17 B, for enlisted men only. He details the extreme cold, limited food and water, lack of medical treatment, and lengthy roll calls. A visit from the Red Cross is mentioned, and their food parcels are said to have saved POW’S from starvation, even though he claims that the Germans took many of the Red Cross parcels for themselves. The prisoners were able to listen to BBC broadcasts. Descriptions of camp life, and of various events, as well as several poems recorded in a journal Mr. Harman kept while in prison are quoted during the interview.

In April 1945, the camp was evacuated, and he was led on a 20 day march toward the American lines with several thousand other POW’s. He describes the ordeal, ending in Nancy, France on V-E day. On the road he witnessed Germans shooting Jews in forced labor groups when they could no longer keep up. While recuperating at Camp Lucky Strike near Le Havre, France, Mr. Harman met a friend who had been in a German camp for Jewish POW’s, whom he describes as a "skeleton case", brought in on a stretcher. After a month, Harman was shipped to Ft. Dix, N. J. for army discharge.

Adam Tems was born in Lódz, Poland on July 18, 1911. He describes his upbringing and education before World War II. He discusses how antisemitism affected the lives of Polish Jews. He details the rule numerus clausus which was used in Europe to restrict Jewish students from study. He managed to get dual degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering even though the University of Warsaw would not admit him because he was Jewish. He was inducted into the Polish Army, felt he was held back from leadership roles because of his religion and after refusing to sing anti-Jewish songs with his troop was punished by being sent to court and jail on 16 different occasions after having been threatened with death for not following orders. The Germans took him prisoner September 3, 1939. He escaped. In Lódz he was arrested by the GESTAPO and interned in a camp at Radogost (Radogoszcz).

After his release, he was reunited with his family in the Lódz Ghetto. He describes life in the ghetto, which was established in 1940, including food supplies, how the ghetto was organized, schools for the children. His only contact with the outside was listening to the BBC on the radio. He mentions an attempt by the Polish Socialist Party to start a resistance movement. Mr. Tems explains in great detail why Rumkowski, the head of the ghetto, was not an evil man. Mr. Tems was very involved in the administration of the ghetto and describes his many activities. He managed to protect many of the children until the ghetto was liquidated and the children were sent to Auschwitz.

Mr. Tems was deported to Auschwitz Birkenau October 27, 1944, then to Dachau, later to a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp system, where he worked in a maintenance crew. He then worked in a manufacturing compound in Vechelde, south of Braunschweig and in December 1944 was sent to [possibly] Wöbbelin1, as the Germans were trying to stay away from the approaching American soldiers. His entire family perished in Auschwitz.

Mr. Tems explains how he managed to survive, details his liberation by the 9th Airborne Division, and why he decided not to go back to Lódz. He stayed in the American compound, then in a transient camp. He lived in Belgium for five years and after he finally received his papers, emigrated to the United States on October 24, 1950.

Myra Davis, nee Miki Heller, was born July 12, 1936 in Kovno, Lithuania, the only child in an affluent Jewish family. Her parents were Franz and Fanny Heller. After the Russian invasion in 1940, her family was forced to move from their large home to much smaller quarters. In 1940, they immigrated to Japan with transit visas and visas for Curacao, which were not used. Instead, they went to Shanghai, in 1941, after a year in Kobe, Japan, where Myra attended a French Catholic school.

In the French quarter of Shanghai, they lived comfortably until the Japanese occupation forced them into the Hongkew Ghetto. Her father, despondent about their impoverishment, committed suicide. When the war ended, her mother worked for the American Army and met a Jewish colonel, David Bare (phonetic), whom she married in 1947. The family lived in Beijing, China, Linz, Austria and South Carolina, United States. Myra became a translator for the American government, married Arnold Davis and they live with their two children in Boca Raton, Florida.

Recorded at the Rickshaw Reunion - a meeting in October 1999 at the Holiday Inn in Philadelphia of refugees who found refuge in Shanghai during World War II.

Roger Bryan, formerly Rudolf Britzmann, was born in Germany, June 14, 1921. His father, a physician and a decorated German army veteran, was arrested on trumped up charges in the mid 1930s. He died in Moabit prison under suspicious circumstances. Roger briefly mentions his school years, a few antisemitic experiences, and how his family coped after his father’s death. He discusses his struggle to get out of Germany, and how he managed to emigrate to London, England with help from both Jews and non-Jews in 1939 just before World War II started.

He worked in London until he was classified as an enemy alien, incarcerated, and deported to Adelaide, Australia on the HMT Dunera. He describes terrible conditions on board, mistreatment by British during the trip, the journey to a detention camp in Hay, New South Wales, and how Australians treated the detainees. He talks about his jobs in the camp, and the many activities and programs started by the prisoners.

He joined and served in the Pioneer Corps (a non-combatant unit of the British army) to get out of the internment camp. He later served in the GHQ Second Echelon Prisoner of war section of the British army in London and in camps for German prisoners of war in Louvain, Belgium, and the former Neuengamme concentration camp. He was transferred to Nuremberg to work as an interpreter/translator during the War crime trials.

After he left the service, he lived in Glasgow, Scotland with his wife, whom he married in 1943. He started a family and a photography business. He came to the United States in 1953.

Raoul Harmelin, the only son of a doctor, born September 11, 1924 in Boryslaw, Poland, received both a secular and a Jewish education. He talks about pre-war life in Boryslaw-- whose main industry was oil refineries-- and life under German and Russian occupations. Raoul describes life under the Germans after June, 1941, including pogroms, anti-Jewish measures, attitude of the local population, and formation of forced labor battallions organized by the Judenrat. He describes a series of Aktions (roundups and mass murders of Jews) from November 1941 to 1943, and the murder of 600 Jews in Doly in great detail. Some were conducted by a German VernichtungKommando under General Katzman. Polish and Ukrainian locals, Austrians in the Schutz Polizei and Reiterzugpolizei, the Polish Kriminalpolizei , and Jews in the Ordnungsdienst all helped to round up Jews. Jews were sent to a camp at Ulica Janowska in Lwow or to forced labor in local industry, most were transported to and murdered in Belzec. Raoul escaped from a roundup where he witnessed the murder of an infant and a young girl.

His father continued to work because Jewish doctors were needed to treat the citizens of Boryslaw. One of his patients hid Raoul and his mother. A ghetto was established but was liquidated after a forced labor camp for Jews was opened in 1943. Jews who could not hide were eliminated or worked as slave laborers in the Zwangsarbeitslager in Boryslaw. Raoul and other Jews who worked in connection with the war effort had some degree of protection. He got news from London via radio and from an underground paper published by ArmiaKrajowa (Home Army). A Ukrainian acquaintance hid 13 Jews, including Raoul and his parents from March 13, 1944 to August 8, 1944, when the Russians came back.

He describes postwar life under Russian occupation, including two arrests and escape to Breslaw. He and his parents decided to leave Poland after a pogrom in Kielce. After a stay in Paris, aided by HIAS, they arrived in Sidney, Australia in November 1947. He was able to bring his new wife and her parents to Australia later. He talks about his life in and adjustment to Australia after a very difficult beginning. He closes by naming relatives on both sides of his family who were killed or survived, and reflects on the actions of non-Jews during the Holocaust. See also 2 interviews with his wife, Rita Harmelin.

Note: Collateral Material available through the Gratz College Tuttleman Library are photocopies of these German documents:

Certificate for Raoul

Harmelin

that he can walk in the street unaccompanied by an Aryan.

The same document for his father, Dr. Elkan

Harmelin

.

Work I.D. Card for Raoul

Harmelin

.

I.D. Card for Regina

Harmelin

, his mother.

Tags with letter "R" which indicated that Raoul

Harmelin

and his parents were assigned to a work detail.

This document is a program for an event titled 'A Conversation with Elie Wiesel' held at Chapman University on April 9, 2014. The program welcomes Orange High School and includes a detailed biography of Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, highlighting his experiences during the Holocaust, his literary work (especially 'Night'), and his extensive activism for peace and human rights globally. It mentions his numerous awards and his involvement with The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and Boston University. The program lists participants in the event, including Professor Jan Osborn, Principal Ernie Gonzalez, and President James L. Doti, and features several quotes attributed to Elie Wiesel. The document serves as an informational booklet for attendees of the event.