Trip Lee - Lazarus Ft. Thisl

Miriam Spiegel discusses her birth on May 8, 1931, and early life in Janów Lubelski, Poland; the bombing of her home; being identified by a Polish boy as a Jew; being attacked and having her teeth punched out by German soldiers; her father's moving of the family into the forest; the killing of two cousins during a trip into a village for food; her memories of the conditions in her family's forest hut; a fire that burned the hut and killed her grandmother and aunt; their leaving the forest near the village of Bulka Rateuska; their travel to a forest near Sułowiec, Poland; their meeting with partisans in the forest and the attacks on Jews by partisans in the forest; the death of her mother and the separation of the family as a result of a shooting attack on the forest and a wound she received as a result of this attack; an attack she suffered at the hands of young Polish men while she hid in a barn; her begging for food at the home of a Polish family and the kindness of the family in feeding her and hiding her in a barn for five years; the liberation of Sułowiec, Poland, by the Russians, ca. 1944; her baptism and agreement to be adopted by the family that hid her; her reunion with her family; her stay in Kránik, Poland; her move to a children's home near Lublin, Poland; her sister's move to Bergen-Belsen, Germany; her family's move to Bergen-Belsen to join her sister there; her move to a children's home in Hamburg, Germany; her immigration to Palestine in 1947; her marriage in Israel in 1950; the birth of her children; her immigration to the United States in 1959; and the effect of the Holocaust on her faith

Trip Lee - Lazarus ft. Thisl

Clara Kramer (born in 1927) discusses her childhood in Zholkva, Poland (now ZHovkva, Ukraine); her memories of a "vibrant" Jewish life in Zholkva before German invasion in 1939; antisemitism in the 1930s; her recollections of the slow changes to Jewish status in the town after 1939; the April 1942 Aktion in Zholkva; the curfew in Zholkva and transports to Belzec concentration camp, starting in the summer of 1942; her time helping people who jumped off transport trains; her time hiding for 22 months after the November 22, 1942 Aktion with her family and others in the home of a Polish family, the Becks; her memories of Mr. and Mrs. Beck and their daughter; her trip to the Zholkva ghetto with her mother and Mr. Beck and his daughter; the Judenrat (Jewish council) in the Zholkva ghetto; the March 1943 Aktion; a fire in the Becks' neighborhood on Palm Sunday, April 20, 1943; her sister's death on April 20, 1943; liberation by the Russians; her time in a displaced persons camp in Germany; descriptions of her diary that she wrote in throughout the Holocaust; and her post-Holocaust American-Jewish activism. Also contains a photograph of Clara Kramer at age 15.

Charles Levine, born June 15, 1915 in Augustów, Poland, discusses his childhood; the immigration of his brother to the United States in 1923; being drafted into the Polish Army in 1939 and his wagon trip to the Soviet Union while in the army; his return to Augustów after his military service; his memories of Augustów under Soviet rule; the German invasion of Augustów on June 22, 1941; his time in the Augustów ghetto; his memories of Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski; being deported to Bogusze concentration camp on November 2, 1942 and his memories of the atrocities that took place in Bogusze; the transport of 6,000 Jews to Treblinka concentration camp and their murder there; being sent to Birkenau concentration camp in January 1943; building the crematoria; the killing of 24,000 Jews in the crematoria in Birkenau; the gassing of his sister and parents in Birkenau; receiving a tattooed number 85719 while he was in Birkenau; the extraction of gold from the teeth of dead prisoners; being sent to Gross-Rosen concentration camp in January 1945; a Romani camp in Gross-Rosen; the hanging of an escapee in front of the inmates in Gross-Rosen; being transported to Buchenwald concentration camp in February 1945; doing forced labor in Weimar, Germany; digging graves for German soldiers; being liberated by American soldiers April 13, 1945, and his memories of General Dwight Eisenhower's visit to Buchenwald shortly after liberation; traveling through Europe after liberation; the shooting of one of his friends by a member of the Armia Krajowa; his time in a displaced persons camp in Italy; his marriage in 1947 and his immigration to the United States in 1949; his life in New Jersey; and his personal reflections on the Holocaust. Photographs of Charles Levine in Italy in 1945 and in 1992 accompany the interview.

Margie Appel, born August 13, 1928, discusses her childhood in Klečenov, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia); her experiences in public school; her father's service in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I; the Hungarian occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938; her brothers being sent to forced labor; photographs of one of her brothers; her youngest brother's deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland; the gassing of her father at Auschwitz; her reunion with her brothers after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; her family's removal from their home; their placement in the ghetto in Munkács, Hungary (now Mukacheve, Ukraine); the atrocities that took place in the Munkács ghetto; the torturing of her brother for breaking curfew; the beatings of her five brothers in the ghetto; the train ride to Auschwitz; the disappearance of her mother; the "selection" of her and her sister for forced labor by Dr. Josef Mengele; the beating she received from the Kapos; her "close calls" with the gas chambers; her and her sister's transfer to Gelsenkirchen concentration camp in Germany to work on barges; the beating of Hungarian girls; their transfer to Essen concentration camp in Germany, to work in the Krupp factories; the bombing of the factory and the camp; her fasting on Yom Kippur; the mental state of her sister; the problems that she had with her sister and her desire for relief from the burden she caused; the train ride to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; the liberation of the camp by British troops; the atmosphere after liberation; the aid that they received from the Red Cross; her arrival at Celle, Germany, near Bergen-Belsen; the visit of Eleanor Roosevelt to the camp; the discovery of her brother's fate; the meeting of her future husband in Most, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic); her marriage on Aug. 27, 1946; her time spent in the Gabersee displaced persons camp in Germany; her pregnancy and birth to twins and the death of one of the twins; her arrival in the United States in 1949; the help she received from the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society; her life in Lakewood, N.J.; the death of her husband in 1970; her marriage to her second husband; her trip to Israel; and her belief that people survived the Holocaust so that Judaism could grow again. Also contains a photograph of Margie in 1945 and a photograph of her in 1989.

Jola Hoffman, born in Leipzig, Germany on June 13, 1931, discusses her childhood in Leipzig; the establishment of the Nuremberg laws in 1936; her aunt and uncle's departure from Germany prior to the start of the World War II; the Gestapo forcing her family and others to leave their homes; their train ride headed for the Polish border in 1938; the family's ability to enter Poland because they had family in Łódź; her father's experiences traveling between England and Poland prior to World War II; her father's move to Lwów, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), under the advice of the mayor of Warsaw; the invasion of Warsaw by the Germans; her and her mother's trip to Lwów to join her father; the emigration of some of her family members; the deportation of the Jews from Germany between the years of 1938 and 1939; volunteers who were given the opportunity during the Russian occupation to leave for German-occupied Poland; her father's move to the Warsaw ghetto; her and her mother's dangerous trip to join her father in the ghetto; starvation and death in the ghetto and the deportation of Jews to Treblinka concentration camp; the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto; the help that her family received from friends and a priest in the Polish underground; her mother's ability to get false identification papers; her mother being taken to the Umschlagplatz (transport center); the help that her father received from a factory official from the ghetto to save her mother; the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; being hit by a car while leaving the ghetto in 1943 and needing to be hospitalized; hearing of her grandfather's suicide; her release from the hospital; her time with her family living in a peasant cottage; the last time she saw her father before his departure in the summer of 1943 and her memories of him; her time in an apartment near Warsaw with a landlady who was working for the Polish underground; her involvement with the underground delivering news from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); working in a hospital when Warsaw was bombed; being deported to a work camp in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland); her job in a factory in the city of Breslau; her mother's job as a French translator in Breslau; the liberation of the camp in 1945; seeing "ghosts in the street" from Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland; her and her mother's experiences in Germany and Poland after the war; the punishment of Poles who helped Jews during World War II; the help that she received from Gentiles during World War II; her immigration to England as part of Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld's mission to get children out of Poland; her immigration to the United States in 1949; her education at Kean College in New Jersey; her role as an anti-Vietnam activist; visiting Poland after the war and seeing a sculpture of Janusz Korczak; and her inability to talk about the Holocaust with her children. Also contains a photograph of Jola at age six vacationing in Yugoslavia, a photograph of her in the spring of 1944 in Warsaw, Poland, and a photograph of her in April of 1993. 041b061a72