Leah Starkman was a child in 1940 when the Nazis invaded Belgium. Her family fled to France and she was eventually separated from her parents. She was moved from house to house and hidden by many families throughout the countryside. After France was liberated, she was able to find her uncle and aunt and lived with them for a few years. She was later reunited with her father who survived living at a concentration camp. She married in 1948 and eventually moved to South Carolina after her husband was laid off.
Tags: hiding, France, Belgian, family reunification
Ben Stern was a teenager living in Lodz, Poland when the Nazis began their invasion in 1939. He had faced extreme anti-Semitism before and during the war. His entire family moved to Kielce but was eventually sent to the ghetto in Kielce. Ben was later separated from his family and sent to the forced labor camp in Kielce to make wagons for the military. Ben was moved to Aushwitz-Birkenau. He survived at the camp until 1944 when he was moved to a labor camp. before being moved to several other camps, including Dachau. He was moved from Dachau to Allach where he was liberated by American soldiers. He met his wife Jadzia in 1945 and they married in 1946. They moved to South Carolina to be with an uncle who had moved to Lexington, South Carolina before the war.
Jadzia Stern was a little girl when she first experienced anti-Semitism in Poland. She was 12 when Poland was invaded and her family was moved to a ghetto. While they were in the ghetto, her family tried to hide from the Nazis but only Jadzia was hidden in a trunk by her mother and managed to avoid discovery. She was caught by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. While she was in the camp, she was reunited with her sister Sabina. Jadzia was forced to go on a death march in 1944 and moved to many camps before being liberated in Leipzing by the Russians in 1945. She was able to travel back to her hometown and learned one of her brothers survived. Her brother had met Ben Stern in a concentration camp and introduced Ben to Jadzia. They married in 1946 and moved to South Carolina to be with Ben's Uncle Gabe.
Leo Diamanstein was born in the town of Heidelburg, Germany to Polish immigrant parents. When Hilter came into power. Leo experienced anti-Semitism. His family decided to flee to Italy but his father and brother were arrested and the rest of Leo's family were sent to a concentration camp in Italy. Leo's family was eventually freed and able to return to a more normal life but later left for a small community in the mountains. They were warned by an Italian commander that they needed to flee because the Gestapo knew where their community was. The community split up and Leo's family found an apartment to hide in. The Italian underground helped them flee to Switzerland. His family was able from move to the Unites States from Switzerland and moved to South Carolina.
Margot Freudenberg was born in 1907 in Hannover, Germany. She was 26 years old when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and she went to England to try and obtain passage for herself, her husband, and her son. Her family faced anti-Semitism. On the night of Kristallnacht, she was picked up by the SS but was allowed to leave. She and her family escaped to England where her uncle was living in 1939 and arrived a few months before the war began. Her son had been evacuated during this time to the countryside but was brought back when they were able to leave. From there they traveled to the United States. They lived in New York City before moving to South Carolina to be with Margot's sister.
When Bluma Goldberg was a teenager, Nazi soldiers marched into her town during the invasion of Poland. After escaping and hiding in the woods, she volunteered to go to a labor camp with her sister rather than risking being captured and taken to a death camp.. She was later moved to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp but was moved to a different labor camp along with her sister. The labor camp she was in was liberated in 1945. She married in 1946 and moved to Columbia South Carolina in 1949.
Felix Goldberg was born in Poland along the German-Polish border in 1917. He joined the Polish army and was serving when the invasion of Poland began. He was captured and taken to a "displacement" camp for war prisoners. In 1940, all of the Jewish soldiers were separated and eventually taken to the Warsaw ghetto. He was reunited with his brother. Felix escaped to see his parent and was reunited with them in 1941. Felix was then taken from his family and sent to a few work camps then moved to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In 1944, Felix and the other people in the camp were taken on a death march to Buchenwald. In 1945, Buchenwald was liberated by American troops and Felix left with the American troops who moved him to a refugee camp. Her met his wife, Bluma Goldberg, while in the refugee camp and together they moved to the United States.
Felix Bauer was born in Vienna, Austria in 1914. He studied at a university and worked as a graphic artist.After the Anschluss, he left his family and went across the Swiss border as a refugee and was placed in a refugee camp there in 1938. He later left to move to the Dominican Republic in 1940 He was in contact with his parents but their conditions were worsening unitl they were eventually gassed. He helped build a refugee settlement and met his wife, Martha Bauer, there. He later reconnected with his music teacher from Austria and was sponsored to become a music and art professor at Erskin College in South Carolina.
Martha Bauer was born in Germany but lived in Brussels, Belgium. She moved back to Kassel, Germany when she was a teenager and stayed there as Hitler came to power in 1933. Despite the Neuremberg laws, she was able to pass her certification exams to become a nurse. Because Martha was a nurse she was able to emigrate from Germany to England in 1939 just before the war began. She stayed in England for a year and was at the hospital when Dunkirk happened. From there she decided to move to the Dominican Republic in 1940 where she met Felix Bauer, whom she later married.
Peter Becker was born in Munich, Germany in 1929. His father died when Peter was very young. He went to a school designed to train party leaders for the Nazi party. He was a part of the Hitler Youth and trained for military service. He learned about concentration camps from a visit to his grandfather's who lived near Sachsenhausen. When the Russians took Germany, he was imprisoned for going to a Nazi school. He was released and when he was 16, he taught himself about the Holocaust. He decided to leave Germany and move to the United States and was sponsored by a family he had been writing letters with. He became a history professor at the University of South Carolina and taught German history.
Joe Engle was born in Poland a few miles from Warsaw. He experienced anti-Semitism as a child. After the Germans invaded, he and his family ended up in the Plonsk ghetto. While he was there, his family was split up. Joe was eventually sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau then moved to Buna and then a brick-laying school. He found out his siblings were also in Birkenau. He stayed at Auschwitz until 1945 until the Nazis evacuated the camp. He jumped out of the train moving the prisoners and was able to escape. He then joined the resistance until the Russian army liberated the area and he went back to Poland. He fled to West Germany. He was reunited with a sister and two of his brothers. His American cousin arranged for Joe to travel to the United States where moved to Charleston.
Trude Heller was born in Vienna, Austria in 1922. She was 15 when the Anschluss happened and shortly after she had to leave school. Their belongings and home were stolen as anti-Semitism increased in Austria. Her father was nearly arrested and taken away but was hidden by friends on Kristallnacht. Her father escaped to Belgium and Trude and her mother were able to escape as well. Her mother and Trude were able to leave for the United States in 1939 and worked on getting papers for her father, but Hitlar invaded Belgium in 1940. Her father was captured but managed to escape in France and was reunited with the rest of his family. She was reunited later with her boyfriend from Vienna, Max Heller, they married, and later moved to Greenville.
Bert Gosschalk was born in 1920 in Holland. In 1940, German troops had invaded Holland and anti-Semitism and Neuremberg laws followed. He was going to be moved to a ghetto but went into hiding with his wife.They stayed in hiding for a few months but had to leave. They found a cabin in the woods and hid there.He joined the Dutch resistance and worked with them until 1945 when he was caught by the Nazis. He and his wife were arrested. He was later reunited with her in the camp. Bert was forced to work for the small crematorium at the camp. The camp was abandoned as the Allied forces moved closer. He was recruited by the Allies to be the warden over the Dutch Nazis at the same camp. They then moved to Texas and across the United States before settling in South Carolina.
Max Heller was born in Vienna, Austria in 1919. He was familiar with anti-Semitism before Hitler came to power but it worsened after Hitler became Chancellor and marched into Austria. An American girl he had met arranged papers for him and his sister to come to the United States in 1938. His parents were separated. His aunt helped him travel to Greenville. His sister stayed in New Jersey with their other aunt. His parents were eventually able to come over to the United States and his family was reunified. His girlfriend, Trude Heller, was able to come over to the United States as well and they married in 1942.
Luba Goldberg was born in 1920 in Romania. In 1940, she and her family fled Romania and went to Russia. Her mother stayed behind and was shot by the Nazis. Once Germany attacked Russia, they were moved to a ghetto by German forces. They managed to get released from the ghetto and avoided deportation to Ukraine. The police came for Luba and was nearly deported but managed to return home and later left for Romania. She stayed in Romania and opened up a trade school for women. Luba moved to Israel but had to stay in a refugee camp for a year. She met her husband Bernard in the refugee camp and they married soon after. Luba's brother in law, Felix Goldberg, was in the United States and got Luba and Bernard passage so they moved to Columbia, South Carolina.
Dijente Kalisky was born in Holland on the eve of the war in 1938. She was four when her family went into hiding in Amsterdam but many Jews in her town were rounded up so she and her parents left to find a hiding place. Dijente was put into a children's home. Her parents were nearly given up so she had to stay in hiding. She was moved to a nice family's home until 1943 but then moved to an abusive home until 1945 where she was told her parents had died. In 1945 she was able to leave the abusive house after her aunt found her and she was reunited with her parents and her sister who had been born while she was in hiding. Her family stayed in Holland until the 1950s when she left to travel.
Pincus Kolender was born in Poland an hour away from Krakow. He faced anti-Semitism during his childhood before the war even began. In 1940, he and his family were moved to a ghetto and made to do forced labor from 1940 to 1942. Nazi soldiers came and took his family menbers away and eventually took him to Auschwitz-Birkenau with his brother. His brother attempted to escape during the death march out of Auschwitz in 1945 but went missing. Pincus continued on with the march and escaped in Czechoslovakia. He was given food and shelter by a farmer, but the Nazis were looking for him so he and the other man he escaped with dug a foxhole and hid in the woods until the Americans liberated them. He moved to Germany and lived there from 1945 to 1950. He was then able to move to Charleston where he met his wife Renee Kolender.
Renee Kolender was born in Poland in 1922. When the war broke out, her family had to move into her grandparent's apartment. Her father was going to be arrested so she and her father fled to her aunt's house and moved to the Warsaw ghetto but decided to go home and stayed there until 1941. Her father and brother were separated and Renee was taken to an ammunition factory with her mother and brother. She stayed in the camp unitl 1943 when her family was moved to Czestochowa. She and her brother were liberated from Czestochowa in 1945 after the camp was abandoned. People started killing Jewish people in their town so they decided to move to Germany. From there she got help from her uncle in the United States to move to Charleston in 1947. She married Pincus Kolender in 1953 after meeting him in Charleston.
Max Krautler was born in Krakow, Poland in 1917. After the invasion of Poland, Max started to get taken by the Nazis to do manual labor but was allowed to return home after finishing the task. His family was moved to the ghetto in Krakow and stayed there until 1942, when he was death marched to Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Max was then moved to a couple of labor camps then to Buchenwald. He stayed in Buchenwald until 1945 when he and the other prisoners were death marched away from the Allies who were pressing in on Buchenwald. He hid while on the death march and when the Americans they were liberated. He met his wife in Germany, where he went after liberation. He and his wife moved to the United States in 1956.
Gerald Jablon was born in Breslau, Germany (now Poland) in 1906. He began noticing anti-Semitism at school after the end of World War I from his teachers. He was working as a business man but after Hitler came to power, the German banks refused to do business with any company he was involved in. In 1937, he wrote to Americans trying to get passage to the United States. He was taken to Sachsenhausen for 6 weeks after Kristallnacht before he was able to leave. His wife got passage to England with help from her aunt who was living there. In 1940 they were able to move to the United States and Gerald got a job first in Charlotte and then in Spartanburg.
Paula Popowski was born in Poland in 1923. Once Hitler came to power, she experienced anti-Semitism from the other children at her school and from the government. When Nazi forces invaded Poland, her town set on fire and many civilians were killed indiscriminately. Her brother and father were locked in the synagogue for two days then released. Things changed slowly, over time until 1940 when her father's business was taken away. They stayed there in their house which was part of the ghetto in her town until 1942 when Paula and a friend decided to leave rather than get sent to Treblinka. She secured a fake identity from a Polish Catholic but was going to be given up so she left for a convent in Czestochowa where she stayed for a few years. Her parents were shot and killed during this time as was her brother. After the war, she moved through Germany then to the United States.
Lon Redman was born in 1920 in Konawa, Oklahoma. During the 1930s, his family moved to Miami due to the Dust Bowl.When he was 21, he was drafted into the Army's 31st Infantry Division. He went to OCS and then became a lieutenant for the 90th Infantry Division. His division stormed the beach at D-Day. In 1945, the 90th Division moved towards Czechoslovakia where they heard about Flossenburg. They went into the camp, took out the SS stationed at the camp, and liberated the prisoners. From there his Division was moved to Dachau, which had recently been liberated. He stayed in Europe helping run a displaced persons camp until 1947, returned to the United States in 1949, and retired to South Carolina.
Lewis Rossinger was born in Hungary in 1928. When he was younger, he experienced anti-Semitism from his schoolmates. When he turned 13, he left home and travelled to Budapest. In 1943, he found out his parents had been taken and deported. He was caught by the Hungarian gestapo. He managed to escape and returned to Budapest. His friend helped him while he was in Budapest and Lewis was able to get a job. The Russians began to surround Budapest and Lewis escaped after the Nazis requisitioned him. They were nearly mistaken for Germans by the Russians but survived and were released. He was recaptured by the Nazis and put in Munchshausen before being liberated by the Americans. Lewis made his way to Austria and reached out to an uncle in the United States who helped him emigrate over in 1946.
Hugo Schiller was born in the southern portion of Germany in 1931. He didn't experience any anti-Semitism until after Kristallnacht in 1938 when his best friend joined the Hitler Youth and told him they couldn't be friends. His father was arrested and taken to Dachau but returned after 6 weeks. The whole family was then deported in 1940 and taken to a camp where his father was separated from Hugo, his mother, and aunt. His parents sent him with a Quaker group in Switzerland to get him out of the camp and sent him to an uncle in the United States in 1945. He later found out in 1946 that his family was sent to Auschwitz and killed. Hugo became an industrial engineer, fought in the Korean War, and married while in the United States. His family moved from New York to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Rudy Herz was born in the town of Stommeln, Germany in 1925. As a child, he didn't notice any overt anti-Semitism until 1933. His family was forced to move to Cologne and on Kristallnacht his grandmother was attacked by Nazis. His family was deported and his grandmother died during the death march to Terezin/Thereienstadt where his family was relocated. Rudy was assigned to dig graves but managed to change jobs. His family was then moved to Auschwitz and they were together until he and his brother were pulled to go work at Sachsenhausen. He was then separated from his brother and sent to Liberose and he stayed in the camp until 1945 until the camp was forced to evacuate. Rudy ended up going to Mauthausen and stayed there until he was liberated by the American army. One of his brothers was alive in the United States and was able to help Rudy move to the United States.
Cela Miller was born in Poland in 1923. She witnessed the Polish army fight against the German invasion of 1939. Her family was able to lay low and stay together from 1939 to 1942 at her uncle's house. In 1942, her mother made Cela and her sister Bluma go into the woods and escape. A ranger spotted them in the woods so they moved locations and hid in their uncle's lumber mill. They decided to try and get a job at Kielce Hasag, a labor camp, so she and her sister made ammunition at a factory. Once the Russians pushed in, Cela and the other prisoners were sent to Czestochowa and then death marched to Bergen-Belsen. They were liberated by American soldiers soon after arriving. Cela and Bluma met their husbands in the displaced person camp they went to after being liberated, Cela married in 1936, and they left in 1939. She moved to Columbia, South Carolina with her husband and her sister and brother-in-law moved to Columbia a few months later.
Francine Taylor was born Frajda Ajzensztark in Poland in 1928. Her parents emigrated to France in 1930. She was nearly killed as a child on a family vacation to Poland for being Jewish. As the Nazis invaded and then occupied Paris where her family was living, her parents decided to stay in the city. In 1942, she got tuberculosis and was sent south for her health. Her mother and sister escaped to Toulouse and she was supposed to travel there and meet up with them. She was nearly captured in Dax but made it to the border between the occupied and the free portion of France. Her mother and sister had moved on so Francine followed them and was reunited with them.They left separately but were reunited in Paris in 1944. She and her sister were discovered by an old neighbor who was known for turning in people and had to hide in barrels but avoided detection. The area was then liberated by American troops and the family returned to Paris.
Horace Berry was born in Greer, South Carolina in 1920. After studying at Clemson University, he graduated in 1941 and joined the Army as a second lieutenant. His battalion was not deployed until 1945, where his battalion was sent to join up with Patton's Third Army in Austria. While his battalion was there and moving through Lambach, Austria, they found prisoners from the camp there. They gave the survivors cigarettes and chocolate but that made them sick and some of them died from eating the chocolate. He saw the prisoners and how sick and malnourished they all were as well as visited the camp. Someone made the citizens of the nearby town go up and visit the camp and they acted like they didn't know what was happening there. His battalion cleaned up the camp, took the prisoners to a hospital in Wells, Austria, and left after a week. He left Europe after the war and left the Army in 1946.
Reverend George Chassy was born in Massachusetts originally. He was a student in Bridgewater, Massachusetts and enlisted in the Air Force following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a fighter pilot who ran escorts for bombing runs out of England and into German territory. His group was one of the fighter groups to operate on D-Day. In 1944, he flew support for Patton's Third Army once they had begun pushing into Germany. His group was stationed at an airfield in Ainsbach, Germany and one day, a British colonel told them about the nearby concentration camp. He flew over the camp and saw it, returned to base, and then they were ordered to help the survivors and clean out the camp. The survivors had already been moved to hospitals for emergency treatment but he was there to see the camp and those who had died while in the camp. His group of fighter pilots were moved out a few days later.
Senator John Drummond was born in Greenwood, South Carolina in 1919. He joined the South Carolina National Guard in 1939 and was later sent to join the US Army where he became a paratrooper. He left for Europe in 1944. He was part of a bomber group that was responsible for bombing the German-occupied countryside in France. Patton's army had broken through the German lines and John had lost his close friend on a bombing raid so during a joyride over German territory, he was shot down and captured. He was taken to Dulag Luft near Frankfurt, Germany and interrogated. He was then send to Stalag Luft 1 which was liberated by the Russians. While he was being held prisoner by the Russians, before the allies were able to get him back, he marched through some of the liberated concentration camps and saw the aftermath of the Holocaust. He was eventually picked up by the Allies and was able to return home.
Claude Hipp was born in Cross Hill, South Carolina in 1923. He attended Clemson University before joining the Army his junior year where he was put into OCS. He graduated OSC in 1944, was a part of an infantry division and was moved to Europe in 1944. There they were used as an armored division and paired up with a platoon of tanks and they moved though the countryside. His division moved quickly and found the Stalag Nord-Ohrdruf camp which was a forced labor camp where prisoners made ammunition. He returned home after the war.
Allen Wise was born in Saluda, South Carolina in 1918. He was in medical school when Pearl Harbor happened and was moved quickly through his courses and residency before being drafted by the Army. He was in the Army's 102nd division and joined them in 1944. In 1945, his division was near Gardelegen, Germany and found a barn where Jews had been burned to death. His general made the townspeople bury the thousand Jews who had been burnt alive. He later met a Hungarian survivor who told them about the camps.He was discharged in 1946 and returned home.
Paul Pritcher was born in Holly Hill, South Carolina in 1922. He was drafted in 1943 into the 65th Army Division and was moved to France in 1945. He was involved in collecting intelligence about the surrounding area. His division moved through Germany and into Austria, where they saw the concentration camp in Linz, Austria which he later found out was the Mauthausen death camp. They were then moved to help liberate the POW camp in Ohrdruf. Paul left Europe and the Army in 1946.
Nathan Schaeffer was born in New York City. He was drafted into the Army in 1942. He went into Buchenwald in 1945 just a few days after it was initially liberated. He saw many of the prisoners were starving and gave them food. After helping evacuated the survivors, they moved on to Ohrdruf and Weimar before returning home.
Henry Allen was born in Horry County. He was drafted into the Army and was put into a reconnaissance unit. They were moved as part of Patton's Third Army in 1945. He first helped liberate a POW camp in Germany, then Ohrdruf, then Mauthausen. He was able to see the gas chambers and the crematorium. His unit stayed and helped with security while the survivors were moved to hospitals and refugee camps . He returned to the United States and married his wife.
Ethel Stafford was born St. Albans, New York in 1923. She trained to be a nurse and joined the Army in 1944. She was sent to Wales then was moved to Normandy and into Germany. She worked in an operating room in Gardelgen and worked with patients from the 102nd Division. She later saw the concentration camp at Gardelgen and saw both victims who had been killed at the camp and survivors.
The Council helps to facilitate speaker visits throughout the state, especially those of Holocaust survivors and the children of survivors and liberators.
To invite a speaker to your class or organization, please contact the appropriate person from the options below.
