Oral History Interview with Isadore Hollander

Fred Bachner, born September 28, 1925 in Berlin, was one of two sons of an orthodox family of Polish nationality. He attended Jewish public school. His father was a men’s clothing manufacturer and his mother worked in the shop. Fred describes his pre-war life, belonging to several Zionist organizations (Maccabi, Hashomer Hatzair,and Bar Kochba). He describes his father’s business decline and his loss of gentile playmates after 1933. An attempt to flee Germany to the United States failed because they could not get their visas before the war started.

In 1939 Polish Jews were deported to Poland. Fred’s family was separated for a time because they only deported his father and brother. In June 1939, Fred and his mother left Berlin for their native town, Chrzanow (near Krakow), and rejoined the family. After the German invasion, theyfled on foot but eventually had to return. Fred’s father was sent to work in a factory manufacturing German army coats. Fred worked for a German soda and beer distributor, which saved his life when he was able to evade an action by running off to the woods before the German army sealed off the town. His father was sent to a work camp, his mother to Auschwitz where she perished.

Fred describes some kindnesses by certain German guards. While delivering beer to Germans in a labor camp, he saw his brother. The labor camp commandant allowed Fred to help his brother and others and allowed him to bring medicine into the camp. Fred established a burial detail from the camp and helped organize the remaining Jewsin town who were able to feed and help the inmates when they came for burial detail. Fred later escaped the camp liquidation, ran into woods and joined the partisans but was caught and sent to Faulbrück labor camp (a subcamp of Gross-Rosen). Fred describes terrible conditions.He contracted typhoid. From 1940 until 1943 he worked for Krupp in forced labor.

Fred was deported to Auschwitz in 1943. He describes knowing where they were headed, being processed for work, receiving a tattoo. He describes the scarcity of food and the forced labor building a railroad, rooting out woods to build a highway, and carrying cement bags. He describes many brushes with death. Fred briefly describes a death march in January 1945, through deep snow to Gross-Rosen. After two days they were loaded into open cattle cars and for 10 days were without food or water, until they arrived at Dachau. Most prisoners died enroute. In Dachau, Fred found his brother (already established at Dachau) and describes how his brother was able to help him gain his strength back through acquiring extra pieces of bread. In April, the prisonerswere loaded into railroad cars. When attacked by Allied planes, Fred and his brother jumped off and ran into the woods. They met French prisoners of war who helped them and, avoiding the retreating German army, they finally were liberated by the American Army. Fred attributes his survival to his endurance and faith in God and faith that they would eventually be freed.

Sidney H. Willig was born in New York City on July 2, 1919 into an Orthodox Jewish family. He attended public school and trained as a soccer player and boxer. He refers to antisemitism in America in the 1920s and 1930s: employment, his rejection from the Navy, and incidents in the Air Force.

As a navigator in the Air Force during World War II, he was shot down over the Netherlands. He describes in detail aid provided to him as an American officer by Dutch families and the Dutch underground. He also shares details about a Dutch Jew who was being hidden by a Dutch family whom he met, from November 1944 to April 1945. He reflects on his decision to continue to wear his dog tags, which displayed the Ten Commandments, until his liberation. He ponders the vast network of Nazi influence, because on his return to New York, the Vichy consular officer in Washington, D.C. requested from him the names of those who had helped him in Holland. Upon his return to New York he continued his college studies at St. John’s and then studied law on the advice of his valued teacher John Dandro. He reflects on the reasons Jews have survived over the centuries.

Moshe Moskowitz was born in 1922 in Lespitz-Baya, Romania to a merchant family that was traditional but not deeply religious. He studied in a Jewish school, then in a vocational school. He planned to go to Palestine, joined a Zionist youth group and worked in an agricultural community. After the German occupation, Jews were transferred from the villages to the large cities, and many were sent to forced labor camps. His Zionist youth group became active in the resistance. Moshe took on Aryan identity, as did others who had contact with Zionist emissaries in Constantinople and Switzerland. Emissaries from England and the U.S. often attended the resistance meetings. The diplomatic courier who carried letters from the resistance betrayed them, and those who were arrested were sent to camps in Transnistria.

Moshe and his group smuggled children out of camps, gave them false identities, and set up cultural activities until they could be processed to go to Palestine on illegal immigration on ships. In 1944, British-trained parachutists from Palestine landed in Romania and Moshe’s Zionist group was among those who gave them identity papers, living quarters and maps to help them reach Bucharest. They also helped German, American and English prisoners-of- war in Brasov with money, clothing and medicine. After liberation, they rushed to the American and British zones to take Jewish prisoners out of the range of German bombings. Moshe was in charge of the funds through the Landsmanshuteyfor such operations. Groups who were involved in saving children maintained connections in Israel. Moshe emigrated to Israel post-war.

Rebecca writes to her friend Maria, discussing the recent wave of antisemitism in Europe and efforts to help Jews escape persecution. She also writes about the literature she is reading.

D.S. son of a Jewish banker and a Protestant mother, was born in Berlin, Germany in 1928. He stayed in Berlin until 1948. He discusses his family’s history, his education and how their life as Jews changed and became increasingly restricted after 1935. Non-Jewish relatives broke off contact until after the war ended.

He briefly describes Kristallnacht. His father’s business and property were confiscated. D.S. and his father were arrested and detained at Rosenstrasse for one week and saw the Rosenstrasse Action by non-Jewish spouses of the prisoners. His family was forced to move into rooms shared with two other families. After the Jewish schools were closed, D.S. worked for the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland for several months until the entire staff was deported in vans. He was spared because of his non-Jewish mother and believes that this is why his father survived. He became Bar Mitzvah in 1941. D.S. and his father were assigned to a labor camp in Berlin in 1942. D.S. resisted the Germans through sabotage while in the labor unit and as a member of a small resistance group composed of young men from mixed marriages. He describes life during the Battle of Berlin and postwar under Russian occupation.

D.S. completed his education in a German high school. He could no longer endure life in Germany and came to the United States in 1948, helped by HIAS. His parents remained in Germany, but his mother joined him after his father’s death.

D.S. cites personal encounters to prove Germans knew what happened to Jews in the camps as well as a few incidents of help from non-Jews. He talks about his feelings about Germans and his determination to fight antisemitism.

Elsa Kissel, nee Blatt, was born in Mainz, Germany on December 15, 1919. Her parents were born in Poland, her father was a businessman. She talks about her education in both Yeshivot and public schools. She describes in detail how school, her family’s relationships with non-Jews as well as Jewish life in general changed after Hitler came to power. Their activities became more and more restricted. She graphically describes the destruction and brutality her family experienced during Kristallnacht, when her father was sent to Buchenwald.

Elsa explains how her brother, Herman Blatt escaped to France, her parents and her sister smuggled themselves into Belgium. She got a nursing visa for Great Britain, helped by the Society of Friends. In England, Elsa—along with other Jewish refugees—was brought to Soughton Prison in Edinburgh. Later she was interned on the Isle of Man in a camp run by British Quakers. Minna Specht, a German educator, organized a school for children and events for the adult internees in these camps. The Quakers arranged Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services for the women internees. Generally, the few non-Jewish prisoners were treated better than the Jewish ones.

Once Elsa’s release was approved, her request to go to London was granted. She describes in great detail her life in England—working for two British families and later as a nurse in London during the Blitz—once she got her auxiliary war service permit. During this time, as a young refugee girl on her own, Elsa shows great resourcefulness and strength of character.

Elsa explains how various family members managed to get to the United States. While still in Portugal, her father enabled Orthodox Jewish refugees to celebrate a seder.

Elsa traveled to the United States on a Canadian troopship to Halifax, then to New York where she was reunited with her family. Unlike her father, Elsa never spoke to her children about her experiences. Each of her three adult sons reacted differently when Germany invited Elsa to visit with her family.