Rebecca Gratz to Maria Gist Gratz - May 23, 1830

Ida Rudley, née Rothman, was born April 22, 1922 in Vienna, Austria, into a middle class family. She encountered antisemitism even before Hitler annexed Austria. Her life changed after the Anschluss in 1938, as anti-Jewish measures took effect. She explains why it was almost impossible for Jews to leave Austria. She mentions several instances of help from non-Jews, including an encounter with a German officer who took an interest in her while she and her mother were trying to escape from Austria. They were smuggled across the border to Yugoslavia in 1941 and lived in Zagreb illegally, always on the run, sheltered by both Jews and non-Jews until they were warned that the Gestapo was looking for them. Ida and her mother turned themselves in to the Gestapo - armed with enough pills to commit suicide - and managed to talk their way out of detention. Using forged papers, they accompanied a group of German-Jewish orphans bound for Palestine to the Italian part of Yugoslavia. After living briefly in Ljubljana, they were sent to a concentration camp in Ferramonti, Italy. Prisoners included Greek, Italian and Yugoslavian Partisans as well as Jews. The Italians ran the camp in a very humane fashion and even told Jews where to hide from the retreating German troops. Ida and her husband were married by a rabbi in the concentration camp and had a civil ceremony later, after liberation by the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in 1943. After a brief stay in a transit camp in Cinecitta, run by UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) Ida, her husband and her mother went to the United States on a military ship in 1947. Interviewee: RUDLEY, Ida Date: April 5, 1984

After Ann received her commissed clothing from Philadelphia, Rebecca attempts to sort out an issue with her daughter's boots. She also updates her on the health and travel of family and friends.

Rebecca continues to worry about the well-being of her sister-in-law Maria and her journey back to Kentucky. She also shares updates on the health and travel of family and friends.

Malvina Gerlich Eisner2 was born in Svidnika, Czechoslovakia, August 24, 1924. Her father was a grocer. She was the second of nine children. All of her siblings and her parents perished. She lived with her grandparents and went to school in Bardéjov. In 1942 Malvina and three cousins hid to escape the first roundup and transport. Later she hid in the woods and then in her grandparents’ apartment after their deportation. In June 1942 Malvina and her friends were reported to the police, arrested, and taken to Auschwitz and then Birkenau where she stayed until October 1944. She describes conditions in Auschwitz-Birkenau, brutal rollcalls, and selections. She worked as part of Kommandos (work groups) removing corpses, delivering food to the sick blocks, and picking up trash. She avoided a selection purely by chance. Malvina got very sick and survived because the other girls fed her and covered for her. She briefly describes Passover observance and a Seder at Auschwitz. She mentions transports arriving from Hungary constantly. Her group was taken to a camp in Hindenburg, run by the S.S. in the fall of 1944. As the Russian army approached, the inmates were evacuated on foot and in box cars to Bergen-Belsen. She was liberated by the British army on April 15, 1945. She is proud that she and the other girls preserved their humanity. She recites the names of her siblings and close family members who were murdered. Interviewee: EISNER, Malvina Gerlich Date: April 22, 1985