Oral History Interview with Simone Horowitz

Original File
Transcript
English
About this item

Title

Oral History Interview with Simone Horowitz

Date

October 19, 1999
December 19, 1999

Contributor

Interviewee:
Simone Horowitz
Interviewer:
Sylvia Brockmon

Summary

Simone Zuckermann Horowitz was born on June 10, 1926 to Polish-born parents who became French citizens. She describes how her family’s life changed after the Nazi occupation; and how she and her younger sister managed after her father fled to Southern France and her mother was arrested. She learned after the war ended that her father was shot in Montluc prison, July 8, 1944 because he worked for the Resistance. Simone and her sister lived in separate homes for Jewish children. Simone joined the Jewish Scouts and delivered false papers for the underground. During a roundup of children in these Jewish homes, Simone was arrested, imprisoned at Drancy, July 21, 1944, and transported to Birkenau in cattle cars.

She survived a selection by Dr. Mengele. She describes processing of the new arrivals, conditions at Birkenau, frequent Appells, meager diet, constant talk of food, and more selections by Dr. Mengele. Her determination to find her father after the war gave her strength to survive. The camp was emptied in stages. In January 1945, Simone and a group of girls were marched out of Birkenau and abandoned. She explains how they survived. Later Simone walked to Auschwitz and connected with a group of French survivors. She talks briefly about conditions in Auschwitz post-liberation. She was repatriated by the French Red Cross and arrived at Marseilles, France, May 1, 1945 after stopovers in Krakow and Odessa.

She returned to Paris September 1945, after living briefly in an orphanage and with relatives, and resumed her education. She entered the United States on a student visa in the fall of 1948, to join her American relatives. She completed her education and met her husband. She explains how her reluctance to talk about the Holocaust to her children affected their relationship.

Note: the Collateral Material files available through the Gratz College Tuttleman Library include:

An audiotape of Mrs. Horowitz’s report about The Reunion of Jewish French Children, in Franc

e on May, 1999 is available at

Gratz College H

olocaust Oral History Archive.

Included with the transcript are:

Photocopies of her father’s Death Certificate

a d

ocument about Expropriation of

Funds from the Zuckerman bank account

copy of

a photograph of a monument erected by the town of Porte-les-Valence for the 31 men shot as hostages by the Germans on July 8, 1944 (among whom is the name of Simone Horowitz's father,

Nevah

Zuckermann

).

Save to library
Format
Genre
Key places
Part of
More details
Publisher:
Gratz College
Number of Tapes:
2
Language:
English
Identifier:
HOHAGC00229
Cite this item
Oral History Interview with Simone Horowitz. 1999. InterviewInterview by Sylvia Brockmon. Audio. Oral History Interview With Simone Horowitz. Holocaust Oral History Archive. Gratz College. https://grayzel.gratz.edu/hoha/oral-history-interview-simone-horowitz.

Review all citations for accuracy.
Do you have a question or correction for this item?

More Sources Like This

Holocaust Testimony
of
Henry Skorr
Oral History Interview with Henry Skorr

Henry Skorr was born in Kalisz, Poland on October 11, 1921. He describes in detail Jewish life in Kalisz before WWII including the antisemitism that existed, his traditional upbringing and schooling, and the special relationship between parents and children. He discusses the atmosphere before and after German occupation; the arrest, detention and forced labor of Mr. Skorr and his brother; his realization that they must escape Poland.

He describes a mass execution in a Kalisz cemetery during which he and other boys were ordered to help in the burial and then his subsequent escape from the cemetery. He tells of traveling through Poland to Russian occupied territory of the Ukraine until he reached Kovel. He then decided to return to Kalisz to take family and friends through this escape route.

Mr. Skorr, now with his family, was resettled in Cherepovetz in deep Russia. He describes the train trip and his recruitment to work deep in the forest to cut down trees. Conditions, as he describes them, were terrible and he escaped back to Cherepovetz and found work as a sailor on a boat hauling lumber and barges. Throughout the testimony, Mr. Skorr comments on life in Russia and gives insights into Russian people and society and how the system worked.

He was mobilized to work on the fortification near Leningrad and describes the German breakthrough and his joining and organizing a guerrilla movement. He was wounded and evacuated to Wologda. Upon recovery he returned to Cherepovetz, where his family had stayed. There he found work in the Fire Department where he eventually rose to head the department.

Although offered an opportunity for mobilization to the Polish Army he refused because of fear of antisemitism in the ranks. He met his future wife at the end of the war and returned to Warsaw, Poland where they married. His description of life in postwar Poland tells of much antisemitism and attacks on the returning Jews from antisemitic bands. Eventually, he emigrated to Israel in 1950 and to the United States in 1958.

This interview was conducted on multiple dates in 1983: February 8 and 28, April 12, May 2, June 14 and 28, July 5 and 19.

Holocaust Testimony
of
Rosa Zygmund Burk
Oral History Interview with Rosa Zygmund Burk

Rosa Zygmund Burk,nee Tennenbaum was born on April 20, 1927 in Szydlowiec, Poland, a town of about (90%) 7,200 Jews. She was the daughter of David and Ethel Tennenbaum. Her father was a shoe factory worker and a member of the Bund. Rosa describes their life before the German invasion, her schooling and the Jewish community life. At school they spoke Polish, studied Jewish subjects separately, and at home they spoke Yiddish. She had a large extended family of which only she and two cousins survived.

Rosa describes the Germaninvasion in September1939: raiding Jewish homes, cutting offmen’s beards, the beatings and murders. She explains that the Germans and the Polish police completely burned down the towns’ synagogues. She discusses theJudenratand how they supplied money and riches to the Germans in hopes of saving the people. She details the creation of the Slovia Ghetto and explains how Jews from Krakow and Warsaw flocked to this ghetto because it was an open ghetto and how the crowded conditions created disease.

Rosa was deported on foot at the end of 1942 to the labor camp, Skarzyskoand worked in the HASAGammunition plant. She goes into great detail about the cruelty of the Germans and the work and living conditions. She also mentions some kindnesses from a Jewish Kapo. In 1944, Rosa was transferred by truck to another ammunition work camp, Czestochowa, where there were constant “selections.” Rosa describes in detail the hardships of working in these factories and how she escaped the death march to Buchenwald by hiding in a latrine. On January 16, 1945 she and five other girls walked out of camp and into the town of Czestochowaand were liberated by the Soviets a few days later when they converted the house they were living in to a hospital. They worked as nurses for the Russian wounded.

Rosa did not return to her home town because of antisemitism. She fled to the American zone in Erfurt, Germany and then to Frankfurt am Main. She was in the ZeilsheimDisplaced Persons camp run by the Joint Distribution Committee, and there she met her husband (who had been liberated from Buchenwald). After the war they moved to Frankfurt and then to the U. S. on February 2, 1950 with the support of the Joint Distribution Committee.