Oral History Interview with Sylvia Schneider

LeonoreJ. Meyer was born into an observant non-orthodox Jewish family, September 28, 1911 in western Berlin. She describes her post-WWI childhood, a nurturing family and schooling. She recalls very little antisemitism in her schooling and early years and recalls being a member of Kameraden, a German Jewish youth organization, founded by a cousin. She shares experiences of her large extended family and discusses that her family’s German roots can be traced back to the 1700s and 1800s in Danzig and Silesia. She briefly mentions the social distance between the German Jews and the Eastern European Jews. Leonore recalls that the majority of German Jews did not think the Nazi threat was so great in the early 1930s and contrasts this to other young people who anticipated the need to leave Germany. She recalls how her brother who had worked in Holland and Germany left for the United States in 1927 due to his unease with the future he foresaw in Germany. Leonore discusses increasing polarization between political groups [the communists and the Nazis] in the 30s and how Jewish groups began to break up. It was at this time that she joined a Communist youth group in 1927. In 1932, she opened and taught in a private kindergarten. She was dating a non-Jewish man and they decided to stay in Germany. In 1933, Leonore’s mother was dismissed from her position as a radio performer because she was Jewish. Leonore briefly mentions the Reichsvertretung and Leo Baeck.

By 1935, after the Nuremberg Laws, Leonoreplanned to leave Germany, but her mother still decided to stay. In 1936 Leonore went to England as a matron in a boarding school for German and Austrian refugee children. She came to the United States in April, 1938. Her mother left for the United States in July, 1938, paying very high exit taxes.Leonoreonly learned of the mass murders of European Jews through the United States Red Cross. She expresses that Jews should appreciate this country and the importance of voting.

The interviewer also goes by name Ruth Hartz.

Elias Malek was born May 5, 1941 in Moisei2, Romania, one of six children. His father was a sofer.3 Elias underwent experimentation as a twin in Auschwitz. His earliest memory is being tattooed at Auschwitz when he was three years old. In this interview he describes what has been told to him by his older twin siblings (13 years old at the time) and also his memory fragments of their escape from Auschwitz and post-war experiences. He was told by his siblings that when Auschwitz was evacuated in 1945, someone helped the four of them hide to avoid being killed. Then a German officer helped them escape from a forced march by putting them at the back of the line and telling them to hide in a ditch and escape. Elias shares his memory of searching for food after the camp was deserted. Russian soldiers found them, fed and clothed them and took them to Russia for several months. When they returned to their home town, they found no relatives.

After the war Elias and his siblings stayed in a displaced persons camp in Cluj and then in several orphanages from 1948 to 1954. At Sâncrai, they went to school and worked on a farm. In 1955, a rabbi arranged for Elias to attend a cheder and a yeshiva in Arad. In 1963, he studied at a yeshiva in Belgium until he emigrated to the United States that year. In Brooklyn, a rabbi obtained a job for him with a construction company. He has married and had children, but never told them about his wartime experience.

Maurice J. Wasser served as a 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Air Force 325th fighter group, 317th fighter squadron, from 1942 to 1945. While stationed in Italy, he flew a P-51 Mustang, protecting B-17s bombing Germany. He was shot down in February 1945 near Munich, sent to a camp in Frankfurt am Main for interrogation, then to a Prisoner of War camp near Nuremberg. The prisoners later were moved to a prison in Moosburg on a 60-mile forced march. Mr. Wasser describes conditions, and mistreatment by S.S. guards who shot men who dropped out. However, some of the older German guards helped the POW’s because they knew the war was almost over. In both camps, no Red Cross packages were received and food deprivation caused weight loss. No mail was received, no letters permitted to be sent.

In mid-May, 1945, Mooseburg was liberated by General George Patton and the American 3rd Army. Mr. Wasser mentions briefly that he and other prisoners of war were invited to stay in German homes because the Germans were afraid of the approaching Russian soldiers.

He was shipped to a repatriation camp in Reims, France, then to Newport News, Virginia in June 1945.

Henrich Hofman was born July 20, 1922 in Lipecka Polyana, Czechoslovakia. He describes pre-war life,his education, being a member of Shomer Hatzair, and the good relationship his family had with the non-Jews in the area. His father was a carpenter.He describes the Hungarian Occupation, harassment of Jews starting in 1940, including confiscation of stores. He details the horrors in Passover 1941,when his whole town was deported in cattle cars to Rachof (Rachov). He describes the trip, selection, and an intervention by the Budapest Jewish community to prevent the evacuation of Jewish citizens of that area which saved his group. Henrich describes looking out the cattle car through slits at the condemned group and seeing the Germans throwing Jews into trucks as if they were pieces of wood. His part of the transport was then taken to a concentration camp in Rachof. His friend who survived from the other part of the transport told him months later that the Germans murdered the rest of the group in the Dnieper Riverin Kamenets-Podolski.

In October 1943 he details his deportation to and forced labor in Görgenyoroszfalù (Romania, occupied by Hungary) where he helped to build an airfield. In January1944 he volunteered to work elsewhere, was taken to Rákoshegy near Budapest where he worked building German barracks from March through July 1944. He describes the much improved conditions,lots of food, ability to leave on Shabbat to go to Jews in the community before they liquidated the area. Henrich ended up working for a German officer as personal tailor, and describes some kindnesses from some Germans. A German co-worker hid him and a friend in an attic to avoid deportation. He describes how the work of his hands helped him to survive on many occasions.

He was liberated on November 15, 1944 by the Soviet frontline and worked as an interpreter for the Soviet army for 11 months. He was reunited with his sisters in Chust (Khust) in1945, went to Budapest, met and married his wife in October and moved to the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia from 1945–49. They emigrated to Israel in July 1949 and eventually to the United States in 1959.

Dora Freilich, nee Golubowitz, was born December 25, 1926 in Pruzany, Poland, near Bialystok. She describes pre-war life: schooling, relations with non-Jewish Poles, Jewish community life and youth groups. She talks in great detail about the Russian occupation 1939-41, including expropriation of her family’s business. After the German invasion, her family had to move into the Pruzany Ghetto in June 1941. She describes living conditions, cultural activities, labor units, Judenrat, and contact with Jewish partisans in the ghetto. A non-Jewish ex-employee of her father hid her baby sister but later the family asked him to return the child.

Dora describes the evacuation of the ghetto in January 1943, and her family’s transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She witnessed Mengele’s sadistic games with prisoners and was aware of medical experiments, which she describes in great detail. She details sadistic behavior by guards, including shooting her sister for sport. Conditions at Birkernau: slave labor, types of prisoners, orchestra, death process, and relations among inmates are described. She explains how older girls tried to help the younger ones and the coping strategies they used to survive.

She describes the sabotage of a crematorium in October 1944 and the public hanging of four girls held responsible. She describes the escape, capture and execution of Mala Zimetbaum.

In January 1945 she experienced the final days of the camp and described the death march to and conditions in Ravensbrück. After three months she went to Malchow. Dora and 11 girls escaped into the forest. They were liberated by Russian soldiers May 1945. She describes treatment by Russians, which ranged from kindness to brutality.

The girls returned to Pruzany after a three month journey where Dora experienced both antisemitism and help from non-Jews. They went on to Lodz. Their attempt to go to Palestine with Aliyah Bet failed. Dora and her friend, Bess, married two brothers. In 1946 they went to Feldafing, a Displaced Persons camp. She emigrated to the United States in March, 1949. Dora talks about survivor’s guilt and how the Holocaust and the loss of her family still affects both her and her daughter. Her husband, Bernard, and her friend Bess were also interviewed by the Holocaust Oral History Archive staff.