Oral History Interview with Stephen Lerman

Charlotte Sonnenberg, nee Lichtendorf, was born in Bad Neuenahr, Germany January 22, 1910 into a middle class family. The Nazi boycott in 1932 and the Nurenberg Laws affected her life and her family adversely. Charlotte met and married her husband Doctor Herbert Alexander in Leipzig. On November 10, 1938 (Kristallnacht) Charlotte and her husband were driven out of their apartment and her husband was sent to Buchenwald. He was released because Charlotte obtained tickets to go to Shanghai. They sailed to Shanghai on the SS Conte Biancamano in March 1939.

On arrival in Shanghai they were taken to a camp in Hongkew. They found work at the American Presbyterian Mission in Tenghsien in a hospital run by the mission. Charlotte describes in great detail their pleasant life in the mission, their relationship with other Jews and the patients. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese took over the hospital. All the missionaries were either deported or sent to concentration camps. Her husband was put in charge of the hospital. Civilians were trapped once the war ended, the Japanese left, and fighting erupted between the Chinese National Army and the Communists.

Charlotte relates many riveting details about their escape to Hsuchowfu and the death of her husband. She continued alone to Tsingtao and worked as a teacher at an American Catholic Middle School. She left China in 1947 – on a troop transport – to Philadelphia. Later she met and married her husband Henry Sonnenberg there. She talks about her impression of and life in the United States as well as her love of China.

Abram Shnaper was born in Vilna, Poland May 15, 1918. His detailed testimony includes pre-ghetto life under the Russians (including antisemitic attacks by Lithuanian and Polish right wing armed gangs), restrictions placed once the Germans invaded, life within the ghettoes and his deportation to several labor camps.

Mr. Shnaper had a traditional Jewish upbringing. He was educated at a Tarbut school and was a very active member of Hashomer Hatzair youth group. Mr. Shnaper and his family were moved to the Vilna Ghetto in 1941 and he describes the move, conditions and labor assignments. Mr. Shnaper’s testimony regarding life in the ghetto includes explanations of the role of Ponary Forest, a place of execution by the Germans and of underground activities by the FareyngtePartizannesOrganizatsye/United Partisans Organization (FPO). He also describes Jacob Gens, the Judenrat and Salek Desler, chief of police. Mr. Shnaper provides a firsthand account of the confrontation between Gens and Yitzhak Wittenberg and the eventual surrender and execution of Wittenberg. He also recounts episodes from his work with the resistance and Abba Kovner’s efforts to save individuals.

Mr. Shnaper eventually landed in Vaivara, a camp in Estonia and was also deported to several other camps. In April 1944, Mr. Shnaper was forced on a death march to Klooga, also in Estonia. He describes four German soldiers who helped him at various times and to whom he attributes his survival. Anticipating the end of the war, Mr. Shnaper hid and observed the German guards as they destroyed the camp, including chasing inmates into fires where they burnt to death.

Upon liberation, Mr. Shnaper returned to Vilna and reunited with Abba Kovner. Money was being sent from the American Joint Committee to bring survivors to Vilna. During this time, Mr. Shnaper worked as a bookbinder who sewed money into book bindings to be passed onto others, and organized forged passports and other papers needed to assist people in leaving Europe. Moving to Warsaw, Mr. Shnaper spent three years assisting people to emigrate to Palestine. While there he met and married his wife who was from Warsaw. He comments that in 1946, the

Polish government permitted emigration to Palestine. From 1944-48, Mr. Shnaper worked with Brihah1, an underground movement.

Mr. Shnaper and his wife Luba eventually left Poland for the American Zone in Germany and lived in the Displaced Persons camp at Bergen-Belsen. He emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States to get assistance for his daughter at Shriner's Hospital. In Philadelphia, he began organizing survivors into the Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and assisted in the erection of the first monument in the United States to the memory of the Holocaust, the Monument to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs sculpted by Nathan Rappaport, once a member of HaShomer Hatzair. Mr. Shnaper was also instrumental in establishing the Mordechai Anielewicz contest, open to students to express through the arts their commentary on the Holocaust.

See also his 1981 interview in Yiddish with Nora Levin and his wife, Luba Shnaper’s 1981 interview.

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.

Dr. Julius Eingorn served with the 79th Infantry Division, U.S. 3rd Army in a special 12 unit dispensary that liberated Ohrdruf, April 1945. There were no survivors. He describes what he saw there, including evidence of primitive cremations, and prisoners marched out of Ohrdruf and killed just before liberation. He mentions General Eisenhower’s orders that all service men had to tour the camp.

In May, 1945 his unit entered an unnamed labor camp near either Weida or Werdau, Germany. He spoke with many of the 150 surviving Jewish Hungarian girls in Yiddish. They all told him that their choice had been either to stay with their mothers and be exterminated or work in the camp. Whoever got sick was killed. He also stopped at a German hospital for Polish and Russian prisoners and discovered that out of 1500 patients only 400 survived. His unit liberated British Prisoners of War. He encountered streams of German refugees fleeing the Russian army and mentions accepting the surrender of whole German divisions. He interviewed many people around Ohrdruf who all felt no guilt and pleaded total ignorance of what happened there. Dr. Eingorn reflects on what he saw during the war and the need for constant vigilance to prevent another Holocaust.

This multi-page brochure announces and provides details for the 15th Annual Holocaust Art & Writing Contest, organized by Chapman University and its affiliated centers, including the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education. The contest invites students from middle and high schools to submit original works of art, film, or writing based on Holocaust survivor testimonies. The document outlines the contest rules, submission guidelines, prizes (including a study trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.), and the awards ceremony scheduled for March 7, 2014. It emphasizes the theme "Memories Spoken and Heard: Intersecting Perspectives of the Holocaust," exploring how oral testimony shapes understanding and memory of the Holocaust. The background section discusses the importance of survivor testimonies, referencing the story of Oskar Schindler, Leopold and Ludmila Page, Thomas Keneally's novel 'Schindler's List', and Steven Spielberg's film adaptation as examples of how memory is transmitted and interpreted. The brochure also lists various sponsors, partners, and contributors to the event, providing contact information for inquiries and submissions.

Tibor Baranski, honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by YadVashem, was born June 11, 1922 in Budapest, Hungary. He was educated in Hungarian Gymnasia and aware of rising antisemitism by 1938. He studied for the priesthood in Vesprem in 1940 and in Kassa (Kosice) in 1943. He learned of Nazi extermination plans through church channels. He returned to Budapest October 20, 1944 as the Russian army drew near.

Mr. Baranski provides a very detailed and extensive description of several rescues of Jews, from October to December, 1944, at the request of Angelo Rotta, the papal nuncio, who acted as a representative of the Vatican under orders of Pope Pius XII. He rescued Jews from a transit camp to safe houses in Budapest. He worked with representatives from neutral nations and the Red Cross to stop deportations from Hegyeshalom, using protective letters (Schutzpasse), and safe houses to shelter almost 6000 Jews. He was almost executed several times. He provides details of efforts to hide Jews by Christian groups and individuals. He credits Elizabeth Kemeny, Raoul Wallenberg, Prince Esterhazy, Father Hummel and a number of priests and nuns who helped in the rescue. He talks about his encounter with Wallenberg and why he was arrested by the Russians.

Mr. Baranski was arrested by the Russians December 30, 1944 and sent on a deathmarch from Budapest to Szekszarv. Saved by a Russian soldier, he returned to Budapest. He worked with an underground movement opposed to communist rule and was arrested by the Russians again November 1948. He describes postwar life in Hungary under communist rule.

He discusses Hungarian-German relations, Miklo Horthy’s attitude towards Jews and Nazis, German occupation of Hungary, and the role of the Vatican in great detail based on his contacts. He entered the United States in 1961 and became a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Note: Audiotaped interviews of Per Anger and Elizabeth Kemeny Fuchs (referred to by Tibor Baranski) are at the Holocaust Oral History Archive and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.