Alabama Holocaust Survivors

As our survivor community continues to dwindle, the BHEC is working feverishly to preserve the words and fragments of this vanished world. We hope to transform these “victims” into eye-witnesses of history and symbols of the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

Please be patient, as this information is still being input and updated.

If you have any information about these Holocaust survivors or know of others not listed here, please contact the BHEC.

Aaron, MartinSapinta, Romania Martin was born in the Czechoslovakian village of Tereshva in 1927, but home was across the Tisa River in Sapinta, Romania, a town with about 100 Jewish families. In 1940, Romania was forced to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary, and conditions for the Jews deteriorated rapidly: public school was forbidden, businesses confiscated, travel restricted, and, ultimately, forced labor. Martin was fifteen in 1944 when the Jews were taken by wagon to Tyachev. This was a ghetto in every sense of the word. After several weeks, Martin’s family was put on a train for two days and nights, arriving at Auschwitz II (Birkenau). This was the last time Martin and his older brother, Moshe, would ever see his parents, two sisters, and two younger brothers again. The boys were settled into deplorable barracks, when guards came looking for prisoners with skills. Anxious to get out, Martin and Moshe called themselves mechanics, and after a week, were transferred to a labor camp in Bunzlau, Germany. It was here that Martin was given the number 46006 as his identity. The boys worked mixing cement to build foundations for factory walls. Had he remained at Bunzlau, Martin would have been freed by the Soviets in a few days. Instead, Martin was marched for five or six weeks through Germany to Gurlitz, Leipsig, then Nordhausen. Of the 100 men who began the journey, fewer than twenty-five survived. Moshe stayed at Bunzlau and was liberated from there, eventually immigrating to Israel, but died shortly thereafter, succumbing to the ravages of his concentration camp hardships. Skeletally thin and so weak that he could hardly stand, Martin was put on a train to Bergen-Belsen. Several days later, on April 15, 1945, the British liberated the camp. Martin is certain that he would not have survived another day. He was taken by medical truck to Celle for recuperation and then brought back to Bergen-Belsen, which had been organized into a Displaced Persons (DP) Camp. An aunt and uncle in New York saw a notice in the Jewish paper about Martin’s search for relatives; they sponsored his immigration. On March 3, 1948, Martin arrived in New York City. He was drafted by the U. S. Army during the Korean conflict and after discharge, settled in Birmingham, married Sylvia Gerber, and had one son. Sylvia died suddenly in 1967. In 1974, Martin met and married Shirley Beck Zalla, also widowed with one son. Together they became a family. Martin worked at Berman Brothers Iron and Metal Company for thirty-five years. Addendum: Martin Aaron passed away on October 20, 2018. Martin Aaron Hirsh Maier Aron Hirsh Maier Aron Martin Aaron Leah Cig Aron & Mendl Baer Aron Baila, Moshe Shmuel, Rachel Ecca, Pinchas, David Baruch Sylvia Gerber (died). Shirley Beck Zalla, married in Birmingham, June 9, 1974. Marvin Barry Aaron (Jennifer), David Harold Aaron April 21, 1927 (Note: All of his papers show 1929 due to modification of his birthday in DP Camp Herzog) Săpînţa [Rom], Szaploncza [Hun], Spinka ספינקא [Yid], Sapunka [Slov], Szaplonca, Săpânta Jewish Jewish Tyachev Alternate names: Tiacheva, Tesco (Yiddish), Tachovo, Tetsh (German), Tech (Hungarian), Tacovo (Czech), Tachovo, Tiaczovo (Polish), Tiachevo (Russian) and Tiachev (Ukraine) Auschwitz II – Birkenau (May 1944), Bunzlau (sub-camp of Gross-Rosen), Nordhausen, Bergen-Belsen British / April 15, 1945 Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen (British Zone) / 1945-46 Camp Herzog, Hessisch-Lichtenau, near Kassel, Germany (American Zone) / 1947 March 3, 1948 / New York, New York / SS Marine Flasher Birmingham October 20, 2018 Birmingham Click here to download map PDF USC Shoah Foundation Interview, April 27, 1997
Aizenman, HenryPrzytyk, Poland Henry Aizenman. One man with two birthdays: the first, to celebrate his arrival in the world in Warsaw, Poland, in 1931. The second, to celebrate his “rebirth”: the chance to begin life anew after his liberation by American troops in 1945 from Wöbbelin Concentration Camp near Ludwigslust, Germany. Like other Polish Jews in the early 1930’s, Henry was no stranger to antisemitism in the small town of Przytyk where he was raised. His educated and Zionistic parents had hoped to immigrate to Palestine to help establish a Jewish homeland there, but because British policies mandated that they would have to leave their savings behind, they opted instead to remain in Europe, a decision that would cost them their lives. The family became victims of the Nazi’s policy of using concentration camp inmates to keep the German war machine humming along. Henry’s mother died in a munitions factory fire in Pionki, where, following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Jews were rounded up and sent off to perform hard labor. Henry’s father, having survived Auschwitz because of his skills as a mechanic, later died at another work camp at Braunschweig. Prisoners at the camp told Henry that his father, having fallen ill, had been sent to the infirmary, where he had been murdered by the doctor, who injected him with a bubble of air. Until then, young Henry had managed to endure the terror and starvation of incarceration because of his father’s presence: whether crammed together with other prisoners in the cattle cars that conveyed them from camp to camp … journeys lasting at times for over a week … or using as barter the sliver of pound cake mercifully thrown to Henry by an old woman as he walked to work his twelve-hour night shift, father and son had had each other. Now orphaned, and following his liberation, Henry sailed to America. He moved to Birmingham in 1958, where he and his wife raised three children. Somehow Henry managed to put the memories of the atrocities he had witnessed into what he called “little boxes,” keeping them tightly locked until some trigger pried one open. But he maintained that despite the horrors he experienced, he still believed in the basic goodness of humanity. Addendum: Henry Aizenman passed away on March 15, 2008. Henry Aizenman Chaim Ajzenman (Henryk) Henry Aizenman Boruch and Hana Ajzenman none David B. Aizenman, M.D. (Teri) Shari Aizenman (Clive Brown) Mark J. Aizenman (Sally) March 10, 1931 Jewish Jewish Jedlinsk Ghetto (Poland) Auschwitz II (Poland), Braunschweig (Germany), Fürstengrube (Poland), Pionki (Poland), Ravensbrück (Germany), Wöbbelin (Germany) United States / May 2, 1945 Ludwigslust, Germany yes At Auschwitz II, Henry was tattooed with the number B-21. Henry's emigration was part of Eleanor Roosevelt's program to relocate Jewish war orphans after World War II. 1948 / New York City 1957 Birmingham March 15, 2008 / Buried in Birmingham, AL Birmingham Click here to download map PDF
Bass, JackBernkastel, Germany Born in 1923, Jack was subjected to antisemitic name-calling in school even before Hitler came to power. His mother hoped he would become a doctor like his father, but Jack’s schooling would become a series of interruptions. Following his father’s death in 1932, Jack, his sister, and his mother moved to Trier, then Cologne, and finally to Berlin, each time moving to a larger city in an effort to remain anonymous, each time forced to attend Jewish schools. Jack’s mother remarried, and recognizing the bleak future, Jack’s step-father left for the U.S. in 1938 to arrange the family’s emigration. During Kristallnacht in Berlin, Jack was almost killed in the streets. His step-father did not return to Germany. Two months before the war started, Jack’s sister left for England, taking a job in a children’s hospital. With school no longer an option for Jack, forced labor became his education. Jack and his mother made leather knapsacks for the German troops, paid only half the wage of non-Jewish Germans. In mid-1942, Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda, promised to make Berlin “Judenrein” (free of Jews) by Hitler’s April birthday. Jack and his mother were arrested in late 1942. Separated during deportation, he was sent by railroad cattle car to Auschwitz; his mother was sent to her death. Because he was young and strong, Jack was selected for slave labor in five different camps: Auschwitz III (Buna or Monowitz), Auschwitz I, Dachau, Gross-Rosen, and Mühldorf. Each move was hastened by the approaching Russian forces. Jack worked building factories and sorting human hair to be used in the manufacture of mattresses. On May 8, 1945, Jack was liberated from Mühldorf by American troops. Now twenty-two, he weighed only sixty pounds. After liberation, Jack searched for his family with no success and immigrated to New York in 1947. His family in Atlanta and a cousin working for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York were instrumental in his immigration. Jack has said that he could not have lived in the South during that period because the Jim Crow Laws were constant reminders of the persecution he had endured. With the ability to speak German and some French, English, and Yiddish, Jack wasted no time finding work. Jack met and married his wife, Phyllis, in New Jersey. In 1994, they moved to Adamsville to be near family and escape the cold northern winters. Addendum: Jack Bass passed away on May 3, 2010. David P. Boder interviews Jürgen Bassfreund (Jack Bass) Jürgen Bassfreund Adamsville and Birmingham May 3, 2010 Click here to download map PDF
Beressi, JosefSalonika, Greece Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Josef Beressi Josef Beressi Never Married October 10, 1924 Jewish Jewish Tattoo No. 136970 on left arm December 27,1950 on USNS General W. C. Langfitt/ New Orleans, Louisiana Birmingham
Berger, Frieda KahnNiederzissen, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Frieda Kahn Berger Frieda Kahn Frieda Kahn Berger Hermann Berger, born Burgbrohl, Germany, November 6, 1904. Married December 26, 1937 in Burgbrohl, Germany. Hannah Leone, born February 19, 1942, Selma. March 19, 1902 March 4, 1948, New York City on the SS Washington. Selma
Berger, HermannBurgbrohl, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Wife, Frieda Kahn Berger, born March 19, 1902, Niderzissen, Germany. Married December 26, 1937 in Burgbrohl, Germany. Hannah Leone, born February 19, 1942, Selma. November 6, 1904 March 4, 1938, New York City on the SS Washington. Selma
Bilitzerkovsky, Artem AbramovichDonetsk, Ukraine Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Bronya Alex Bilitzerkovsky Mrina Bilitzerkovsky Vladimir Bilizerkovsky 1932 Birmingham
Blatt, HerbertBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Rose June 6, 1921 Birmingham
Blum, Roger NathanBrumath (Alsace), France Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Wife, Evelyn Sellers. Married 1947 September 23, 1920 June 11, 1939 / New York City / Camplain Birmingham
Bromberg, Sonja AdelbergBurg (Burg Bei Magdeburg), Germany Born on March 8, 1930, to Freda and Samuel Adelberg, Sonja had one sister, Helen, and an older brother who died as an infant. Sonja’s memories of Nazi Germany are the lasting, emotional impressions of a young child. The cruel and evil expression of Adolf Hitler looking out into the crowd during a parade she watched at the age of seven. Bombs dropping, people screaming, and the terror of Nazis grabbing people out of their homes. To this day, Holocaust films evoke a deep, guttural pain for Sonja. At the age of six, Sonja’s mother passed away. Her father hired a housekeeper to care for her and her eleven-year-old sister. When he caught the housekeeper stealing, Sonja’s father decided to take his daughters to stay with the nuns where he felt the girls would be safer, given the perils of Nazi Germany. Sonja remembers the kindness and love shown to all the children by the nuns. He later placed the girls in an orthodox Jewish orphanage. “For my father to put us in the orphanage was love; he gave us away so we could be safe,” she says. With applications completed for the girls’ visas, it was now a waiting game. Sonja and Helen finally obtained their visas through the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). The girls traveled with ten other Jewish children on a voyage by sea that Sonja describes as an adventure. She was given a banana for the first time and “ate the whole thing, peeling and all.” After the fourteen-day journey, the girls arrived at Ellis Island on January 17, 1940, and were greeted by their paternal grandmother and several aunts. Sonya recalls what a delicious cook her grandmother was. Her favorite dishes were chicken and sponge cake. When Sonja was sixteen, she was reunited with her father. He had left Germany earlier than his daughters on the ill-fated S.S. St. Louis bound for Cuba but was sent back to Belgium where he met and married a German woman. When the Nazis invaded Belgium, they escaped to France and were hidden by French patriots. He developed a heart condition due to poor nutrition and Sonja recalls that he was very sickly when she saw him in America. Sonja married Hyman Bromberg and settled in Montgomery, Alabama. They were married for forty-seven years. Their only son died in 2004 at the age of forty-two. Click here to download map PDF
Buchbinder, JiriLidice or Ležáky, Czechoslovakia Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. 1925 Majdanek Had six-numbered tattoo on left arm. 1950s / New York City Birmingham
Caro, AlfredSamter (Posen), Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Alfred Caro Frida & Sally Caro 2 brothers & 3 sisters(Jennie, Norah, Cecilia) Helen Nathan Arkus Caro, born July 22, 1913, Emmerich, Germany. Married September 4, 1954, New York, NY. (Helen is the sister of Greta Nathan Kemp. Helen had a son from a previous marriage, Allan) Alice Paulette Caro, born August 10, 1955, Anniston July 27, 1911 Jewish Jewish Sachsenhausen Nov. 8, 1952/ New York, New York / by airplane Anniston
Caro, Helen Nathan ArkusEmmerich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Helen Nathan Caro Herta Nathan Helen Nathan Arkus Caro Felix & Regina (Friebaum) Nathan Heinz (Henry) Nathan, Margareta Sybilla (Greta) Nathan Nat Arkus, married September 1945, Anniston, AL. Died 1951. Alfred Caro, married 1954, Anniston, AL. Allen Arkus & Alice Paulette Caro Burkett July 22, 1913 Jewish Jewish 1936/New York, New York 1936 Anniston Anniston
Cohen, Jenny FriedČeská Lípa, Czechoslovakia Jenny Cohen was born in Česká Lípa, Czechoslovakia on August 16, 1912. At the age of four, her father died. Her mother took a job as a housekeeper in a neighboring town in order to support her daughter, while Jenny went to live with her grandmother in Lovosice. In 1938, Hitler took over the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, including Lovosice. All of the Jews, including Jenny, lost their jobs. Jewish businesses were confiscated. Their Christian friends would not associate with them. Afraid to leave the house during the day, they went outside at night to breathe the fresh air. Jenny, who had blond hair and blue eyes, moved to Hamburg, Germany hoping to “disappear” in the city and find work. She had several grueling jobs and in 1940 married Ludwig Cohen. Their son, Victor, was born later that year, and the young family began the arduous task of applying for visas to the U.S. Even with family sponsors in the U.S., the Cohen’s lacked the funds to obtain visas. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) stepped in and procured the necessary visas and paid their fares. The Cohens escaped Germany, leaving behind their family and everything they owned. They traveled by train to Barcelona, Spain, only to discover that their visas had expired one day before their ship’s scheduled departure. Heartbroken, they were not permitted to leave. In Barcelona, the JDC found them a place to stay, but as illegal immigrants, they were not eligible for ration cards. They subsisted on one meal a day. After countless efforts to renew their American visas, the Cohens were finally allowed to leave Spain on August 6, 1941. They boarded the Spanish freighter Navemar – a ship built to carry twenty-eight people that was converted to take on 1,000. The voyage was terrible and the food wretched. Many passengers died on the ship. Jenny struggled to keep baby Victor alive. “We could only stand this voyage because it meant our salvation.” Jenny and Ludwig settled in Kingston, New York, and Jenny gave birth to daughter Marian six months later. Their son, Victor, married a Birmingham girl and when Ludwig retired in 1978, they, too, moved to Birmingham. Jenny and Ludwig Cohen lost twenty-six family members in the Holocaust. Addendum: Jenny Cohen passed away on January 5, 2015. Jenny Fried Cohen Jenny Fried Ludwig Cohen Victor D. Cohen (Mickie) Marion Cohen Auerbach August 16, 1912 Česká Skalice, Austria-Hungary Orthodox Judaism Conservative Judaism September 12, 1941 / New York, NY / SS Navemar January 5, 2015 Birmingham, AL Click here to download map PDF
Cohen, LudwigBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Jenny Fried Cohen, born August 16, 1912, Česká Lipa, Czechoslovakia. Married January 1, 1940, Hamburg, Germany. Victor D. Cohen (Mickie), November 1940, Hamburg, Germany. October 6, 1907
Danziger, Elvira RechaBerlin, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Erich Danziger, born July 19, 1901, Berlin. Married September 20, 1938, Berlin. January 31, 1913 April 23, 1939 / New York City / SS President Roosevelt Birmingham
Danziger, ErichBerlin, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Elvira Recha Danziger, born January 31, 1913, Berlin. Married September 20, 1938, Berlin. July 19, 1901 April 23, 1939 / New York City / SS President Roosevelt Birmingham
Davidson, Pauline MerensteinLublin, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org
Dembo, Regina RothVienna, Austria Regina Roth Dembo’s story begins with a series of losses and separations from a comfortable life and from people she loved. How does a young girl of twelve cope with her father’s disappearance at the hands of the Nazis, with her forced immigration to America while caring for two younger sisters, and with a fear that proved to be true: that she would never again see her mother and brother? Regina began her life in Vienna, Austria. As Austrian natives, she and her siblings qualified for the Austrian quota of immigrants permitted to come to the United States. Their parents, born in Poland, were unable to procure the necessary papers to leave. Trying to access the required paperwork was tedious; the lines were interminable. Regina’s father was arrested and forced to leave Austria. He returned to Poland, but ultimately disappeared. The Germans confiscated his business, his car, and their apartment with all of their belongings. They found their life changing rapidly from one of comfort to one of struggle for survival. “Life changed. Doctors and lawyers were scrubbing the streets. The Nazis had a good time making the Jews miserable,” she recalls. Just a week before the war broke out in 1939, the three girls left Austria for the United States. Years later, Regina wondered how her mother could bear to send them away – three young girls ages twelve, ten, and eight. They assumed that their mother and brother would follow them shortly – no one realized how horrendous it would become for the Jews – there had been so many pogroms, and they had survived all of those atrocities. They never imagined that their mother and four-year-old brother would be sent to a camp and gassed. Their trip to America reflected their transition from childhood to adulthood. Not a soul helped them during their journey. They arrived in New York City not speaking a word of English. After living with an uncle for several months, they were placed in an orphanage. “We learned English in a great big hurry, then,” she says. Three year later, they were placed in three different foster homes. Regina expressed a desire to go to college and her foster parents encouraged her to do so. In 1951, Regina married Michael Dembo. They eventually settled in Huntsville, Alabama, where they had two children. Regina had finally come home. Click here to download map PDF
Diament, Helene SzawzynBialystok, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Sigmund Diament, born November 30, 1917, Sieradz, Poland Married June 5, 1946, Marktredwitz, Germany. November 15, 1921 April 5, 1949 / New Orleans / USAT General Harry Taylor Montgomery
Diament, SigmundSieradz, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Helene Diament, born November 15, 1921, Bialystok, Poland. Married June 5, 1946, Marktredwitz, Germany. November 30, 1917 April 5, 1949 / New Orleans / USAT General Harry Taylor Montgomery
Einstein, Erna Frederike KempenichEmmerich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Erna Frederike Kempenich Einstein Erna Frederike Kempenich Erna Einstein Max & Margarete Kempenich Erich Kempenich, Heinz (Henrique) Kempenich, Rudolph (Rudy) Kempenich Dr. Alfred Leopold Einstein, married December 24, 1925. Klaus (later Claude) Max Einstein, born in Mannheim, Germany, 1902 Jewish Jewish June 3, 1941/ New York/ Cleveland, Ohio 1970′s- summers & 1980′s full-time Anniston 1980′s until death in 1990
Eisenberg, Susan K.Miskolc, Hungary Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Susan K. Eisenberg Zsuzsanna Martha Petrov two October 16, 1924 Reform Judaism Non-practicing Dachau (Kaufering), October 1944 April 1945 Wolfratshausen, Germany Marched nearly 100 miles with a group of Hungarian Jews from Budapest to Hegyeshalom, Hungary. Marched from Dachau to Wolfrathausen just before liberation. 1948/New York, NY Montgomery September 16, 2008
Eldodt, JosephBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Joseph (Joe) Eldot Max Eldodt. Lenore (Lola) Eldodt Joan Eldodt (Berger) Linda? Eldodt 1908 ? Selma
Eldodt, LenoreBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Lenore (Lola) Eldodt Joseph Eldodt, born approx. 1908 Joan Eldodt (Berger) Linda? Eldodt Left Germany on the Kindertransport to England. Selma
Fisch, MarkusLwów, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Maria Fisch Elsbieta (Elizabeth, Suzie) Fisch, born April 16, 1932, Lemberg, Poland. Erwin Fisch, born November 12, 1934, Lemberg, Poland. September 16, 1902 Lviv, Lemberg July 17, 1950 on the USNS General H. Taylor Birmingham
Fisch, MiriamLwów, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Miriam Fisch Markus Fisch Elsbieta (Elizabeth/Suzy) Fisch, born April 16, 1932, Lemberg, Poland. Erwin Fisch, born November 12, 1934, Lemberg, Poland. June 10, 1906 Lviv, Lemberg July 17, 1950 on the USNS General H. Taylor Birmingham
Fisher, Alma Maria Anna WeissMunich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Anthony (Tony) Fisher, born June 27, 1901, Nasice, Yugoslavia. Married December 25, 1948, Blue Ridge, Georgia. May 12, 1907 Auschwitz, 1942-1945. Had tattoo that was removed at Mt. Sinai Hospital in NY after coming to America. June 18, 1946 / New York City / SS Marine Flasher Mobile
Fisher, AnthonyNasice, Yugoslavia Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Anthony (Tony) Fisher Ante Fischer Alma Maria Anna Weiss, born May 12, 1907, Munich, Germany. Married December 25, 1948, Blue Ridge, Georgia. June 27, 1901 November 30, 1943 / Buffalo, NY / M.C.R.R. Mobile
Forman, Helen HermanKatowice, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Alice Sarah Sankiewicz Herman & Paul Herman Michele Forman Birmingham
Franks, AliceGoettingen, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org February 17, 1907 October 7, 1952 / New York City / SS Queen Mary Montgomery
Freibaum, MetaGiershagen, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Meta Freibaum Meta Freibaum Never Married Salomon Freibaum & Rosalie Hagedorn Freibaum Regina “Ina” Freibaum Nathan, Lee Freibaum, Paula Friebaum & Gustav Freibaum Never married June 19, 1890 Jewish Jewish December 11, 1937/New York, New York / SS Washington 1937 Anniston Anniston 1937- 1968
Freibaum, SalomonGiershagen, Germnay Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Salomon Freibaum Saloman Freibaum Rosalie Hagedorn Freibaum Meta Freibaum, Lee Freibaum, Gustav Freibaum, Ina Freibaum & Paula Freibaum 1849 Jewish Jewish December 11, 1937 / New York, NY / SS Washington 1937 Anniston 1937 -death
Friedberger, BenjaminKonigsberg, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Benjamin (Ben) Friedberger Henia Kotler Friedberger, born November 15, 1922, Konigsberg, Germany. Married October 10, 1941, Kovno, Lithuania. Gita (Gloria) Friedberger, born July 19, 1946, Austria. Lillian Friedberger, born March 1, 1949, Mobile, AL. May 5, 1919 November 14, 1947 / New York City / SS Marine Perch 1947, Mobile Mobile
Friedberger, Henia KotlerKonigsberg, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Benjamin Friedberger, born May 5, 1919, Konigsberg, Germany. Married October 10, 1941, Kovno, Lithuania. Gita (Gloria) Friedberger, born July 19, 1946, Austria. Lillian Friedberger, born March 1, 1949, Mobile, AL. November 15, 1922 November 14, 1947 / New York City / SS Marine Perch 1949, Mobile Mobile
Friedman, Frieda SingerBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Mobile
Friedman, SalomonBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Mobile
Fuld, Margot Eva Klappholz LimmerBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org December 12, 1910
Gerson, Tobi KamornikBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Birmingham
Golubova, ZinaBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Birmingham
Green, Erica SchreierVienna, Austria Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Deborah and Moses Lieb Schreier Max ? (son of first marriage to ?) Debra Green (Goldstein) April 8, 1929 Birmingham
Guttman, HelgoBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Huntsville
Hagedorn Jr., GusMagdeburg, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Gus Hagedorn, Jr. Helmunt Hagedorn Wally and Gus Hagedorn May 2, 1937 January 6, 1938 / New York City / SS Washington Gadsden
Hagedorn Sr., GusGiershagen, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Gus Hagedorn, Sr. Gustav Hagedorn Wally Lucie Marder Hagedorn, born March 29, 1903, Magdeburg, Germany, married April 21, 1934, Hoheguis, Germany. Hulmunt (Gus Jr.) Hagedorn, born May 2, 1938, Magdeburg, Germany. October 13, 1900 Jewish Jewish April 29, 1937/ New York, New York on SS Washington Gadsden
Hagedorn, JosephBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Opelika
Hagedorn, Wally Lucie MarderMagdeburg, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Gus Hagedorn, born October 13, 1900, Giershagen, Germany. Married April 21, 19334, Hoheguis, Germany Helmunt Hagedorn (Gus Jr.), born May 2, 1937, Magdeburg, Germany. March 29, 1903 January 6, 1938 / New York City / SS Washington Gadsden
Herschthal, ArthurSzepesopalu, Czechoslovakia Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Arthur Herschthal Rachel Rose None July 7, 1947 / New York, NY / SS Mauretania Birmingham
Herschthal, Rachel GrossKarlsruhe, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Rachel Rose Herschthal Rosel Gross Rosel Rachel Herschthal Arthur Herschthal None 1913 July 7, 1947 / New York, NY / SS Mauretania 1947 Birmingham Birmingham
Herzel, MaxAntwerp, Belgium Max Herzel was born in 1930, the son of Oscar, a diamond cutter, and Nachama, a seamstress. Ten-year-old Max’s journey through one of history’s darkest periods began when Belgium was invaded by the Germans on May 10, 1940. After traveling seven days and nights in a crowded boxcar, Max, his parents, and older brother, Harry, found refuge in Southern France. Soon after, France was invaded by Germany, and the Herzels were moved to the internment camp of Agde in southern France. When Adge burned down, they were transported to Rivesaltes, a pipeline to the concentration camps. Determined to arrange for his family’s escape, Oscar used bribery to flee to Marseilles. Oscar and Harry were ultimately caught by the French police and were sent to a work camp. Upon their release, Harry joined the French Underground and Oscar went into hiding. Max’s mother, overwhelmed by the trauma, attempted suicide. She was placed in a psychiatric hospital where she remained for the duration of the war. All alone, young Max was sent to a series of four orphanages. When these became too dangerous, an underground Jewish agency, OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) place him on a remote farm in Sironne in the French Alps. Posing as a Catholic orphan, he worked for his food and lodging. After the Allies regained France in 1944, all the hidden children were gathered by the OSE in an effort to reunite them with their families. Max’s father had escaped to Italy, but was captured and taken to Auschwitz and later Buchenwald where he died at the age of forty-four, just six weeks short of liberation. Also lost were Oscar’s family of seven siblings and their children, as well as thirteen of Max’s mother’s family. Max and his brother immigrated to the United State in 1948 and settled in New York. His mother arrived five years later. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force, married Cecille Herman in 1955, and had two children. Job opportunities brought Max to Birmingham where he was an executive with the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Birmingham and a past Lions Clubs District Governor. Max is an active member of the Alabama Holocaust Commission and the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center. Oscar Herzel (Stanislow, Poland) and Nechama Salomon Herzel (Slonim, Poland). Married in Antwerp, 1925. Henri (Harry) Herzel, born 1926. Cecile Herzel Elliott Herzel Caryl Herzel May 3, 1930 Modern Orthodox Judaism Conservative Judaism Max was in numerous children's home, under his real name and an assumed name. October 1944 Sironne, France December 23, 1948 / New York, NY / SS Washington 1972 Birmingham Click here to download map PDF
Herzel, Nachama SchlosbergBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Birmingham
Hirsch, AisicMogielnica, Poland Aisic Hirsch experienced more terror and loss than any innocent child should ever have to endure. In 1939, at the age of nine, Aisic witnessed German troops invade his small Polish town of Mogielnica. They set fire to both synagogues and, assisted by Poles, publicly shamed, shot, and hung the two Hassidic rabbis. Thousands stood by and watched. In 1941, after more than year in a local ghetto, Aisic, his mother, five-year-old brother, and grandmother were herded into the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in Poland. There, amidst “absolute misery,” where “rats and sickness were everywhere,” he watched helplessly while his brother and grandmother died of typhus, and his mother slid into madness. Although he did not want to leave his mother, she pushed him out of the ghetto under the auspices of “Save the Children,” a Jewish organization that paid off German and Polish guards. Upon his release, the little boy was on his own. After several nights of walking, eleven-year-old Aisic was taken in by family friends who hid him briefly in their barn. Fearing German retaliation, he was told he had to leave. Aisic moved on to the village of Goszczyn, arriving on a Sunday morning. Where else does one go on Sunday mornings, but to the local church? Thanks to his blond hair and blue eyes, Aisic blended in with the congregation. It was here that he found the noblest of humanity. When Aisic knelt for confession, all he could do was cry. The young priest, suspecting the child was a Jew, touched his head through the confessional window and said, “This world will not go on forever. It will end. One day you will find all your loved ones again.” The clergyman gave Aisic a “real” Polish name and birth certificate and taught him Catholic prayers that would one day save his life. He helped Aisic find work on a Polish farm of a half-German woman whose two sons worked for the Gestapo. Before he got the job, he had to prove he could correctly recite his Catholic prayers. He was saved again. Aisic remained on the farm for three years until his liberation by the Russians in May 1945. “That priest was my guardian angel. He saved my life. It is because of him that I am here today,” he says. Aisic immigrated to Israel and in 1948 fought in the War of Independence. He met and married Riva Schuster in 1950. In 1962, the family of four moved to New York, and in 1992, they moved to Birmingham to be nearer their two children and four grandchildren. Addendum: Aisic Hirsch passed away on March 7, 2014. Riva Schuster Hirsch Birmingham March 7, 2014 Birmingham, AL Click here to download map PDF
Hirsch, Riva SchusterNovaseletz, Romania It was 1941 when the Germans occupied seven-year-old Riva Schuster’s village. Forewarned by a gentile friend of approaching danger, Riva’s parents fled with their children through the forest toward their grandparents’ home in Chotin. They never made it. They were captured, marched to Sukarein, and forced into cattle cars headed for a camp in Moghilev, on the border between the Soviet Republic of Ukraine and the Romanian province of Bessarabia. Thrown from the train, separated from her parents and two brothers, Riva was ferried across the Dniester River to a camp in Luchinetz. She arrived hungry; stricken with malaria, typhus, and lice; her feet frozen and bleeding. At the camp, she saw her mother again and witnessed her being beaten with a rifle while trying to keep the Germans from taking her husband away. One night partisans rescued some of the girls. Riva was instructed to “play dead,” and was placed in a wagon of hay and taken to a Catholic convent in Tulchin. For two years, she remained alone in a six-foot, square bunker with rats and mice her only company, eating bread and pork provided by the nuns every few days. Her only comfort was a blanket that was used for “everything.” In 1945, at the age of twelve, Riva was liberated. She was suffering from malaria and typhus and had lost all her teeth. The nuns carried her weak body to the road and left her there. Picked up by some other survivors on the road, she was taken to Chernovitz, where she was handed over to the Red Cross. One miraculous day, her father appeared, although she could hardly recognize him. He had been captured and placed in a work camp, from which he had run away, only to be captured again. In time, they managed to find her mother and two brothers. In 1946, Riva’s boat to Palestine was captured by the English. The passengers were sent to a refugee camp in Cypress, where Riva remained for two more years. Riva finally arrived in Israel in 1948 and was reunited with her family. She was now fifteen. In Israel, Riva met her husband, Aisic Hirsch, also a survivor. They married in 1950 and had two children. In 1962, Riva and Aisic moved to New York. In 1992, they moved to Birmingham to be closer to their two children and four grandchildren. Riva Hirsch Rivka Schuster Riva Hirsch Feige Goldie Lebes Schuster and Josel (Josef)Aaron Schuster Mordecai (Marc) Schuster Itzhak Schuster Aisic Hirsch Harold (Chaim) Hirsch (wife: Felice) Sheryl (Shulamit) Hirsch (husband: Jay Perlstein) August 9, 1933 Novoselytsia, Novosedlice, Novoselytsya, Noua Sulitsa, Novoselitsa Today in Ukraine. Jewish Jewish Chotin (Khotyn), Secureni (Sukarein), Moghilev-Podolski, Luchinetz (Luchinets, Luchynets, Lucinet) 1943-1945: Tul'chin (Tulchin, Tulchine) in a convent Russians, 1945 Convent in Tul'chin From Hertsa, Ukraine, Riva traveled to Burgas, Bulgaria where she boarded a ship - either the Pan York or Pan Crescent on December 27, 1947, headed to Palestine. The ship were diverted to Cypress, arriving December 31, 1947. On Cypress she was held in a camp until May 1948 when she was allowed to come to Israel. Met her husband Aisic in Israel and married in 1950. They had 2 children in Israel. 1967 Birmingham Click here to download map PDF
Israel, Walter MeyerHannover, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Walter Meyer Israel Else & Paul Israel Margie Israel & Herbert Alfred Israel Jantje Middendorp, married July 5, 1951 in New Orleans. Paul Israel & Else Israel Goodman June 15, 1917 Conservative Judaism Jewish January 19, 1949/Houston, Texas/New Orleans, Louisiana on SS Albasserdik 1951 Anniston Anniston
Israelsohn, Rosalia HagedornBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Hedwig Israelsohn (Stern) Opelika
Katz, ElaineBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org George Katz Caroline Katz Pearlstein (Jonathan) Theodore "Teddy" Samuel Katz Jonathan Saul Katz (Shelby) Northport
Kemp, Margareta Sybilla NathanEmmerich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Greta Sybilla Nathan Kemp Margareta (Greta) Sybilla Nathan Greta Kemp Felix & Ina Nathan Henry Nathan & Helen Nathan Rudolph Kempenich (Kemp), married October 10, 1935, Emmerich, Germany. Alfred (Fred) Max Kempenich, born February 10, 1939, Anniston, AL Donald (Don) Lee Kemp Jeanne Kemp & a baby that died as an infant June 1, 1912 Jewish Jewish December 11, 1937/ New York, NY / SS Washington 1937 Anniston Anniston 1937- death
Kemp, Rudy AlfredEmmerich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Rudy Alfred Kemp Rudolph Alfred Kempenich Max & Margarete Kempenich Erich Kempenich, Heinz (Heinrich) Kempenich, & Erna Kempenich Margareta (Greta) Sybilla Nathan, born June 1, 1912, Emmerich, Germany, married October 10, 1935, Emmerich, Germany. Rudy and Greta met at the family department store where Greta worked (Nathan and Gompertz). Rudy and Greta were the last couple to be married in the synagogue in Emmerich, two years before they fled across that bridge over the Rhine. Standing on a pedestal in front of them on their wedding day was the four-foot tall brass Emmerich menorah. Alfred (Fred) Max Kemp, born February 10, 1939, Anniston. Married Madalyn Tonkel and had 1 son: Jonathan Eric Kemp, and 2 daughters: Michelle Kemp Nordell (David) who lives in Kfar Ya'avetz, Israel and Candice Kemp Mudd (Eric) of Roswell, GA. Donald (Don) Lee Kemp born November 17, 1942, Anniston. Jeanne Kemp May 4, 1911 Jewish Jewish Rudy's father Max, along with a business partner, owned the largest department store in Emmerich. In the US, Rudy would go on to found Tapecraft Corporation, which manufactured narrow tape zippers, clothing, labels,and book bindings. 27 members of Rudy's family died in concentration camps. Of the 100 Jews in Emmerich, only 32 escaped. December 11, 1937/ New York, NY / SS Washington 1937 Anniston Anniston 1937 – death 1999
Kimerling, Rosa AltmannVienna, Austria Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Gaston Kimerling (brother of Max Kimerling) Paia Kimerling Left Vienna in 1940. Birmingham
Koch, Harry H.Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Harry H. Koch Heinrich H. Koch Irma Kern Koch Married 1942 Howard Koch
Koch, Irma KernHeilbronn (am Nekar), Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Irma Kern Koch Irma Kern Berta and Albert Kern Regina Kern (Signmund Rosenfeld) Elise Kern, perished in Holocaust Gertrude Kern, perished in Holocaust Harry (Hienrich) H. Koch, married 1942 Howard Koch February 11, 1918 1939 Birmingham January 3, 2011
Kohn, Ernest Ferdinand MarkusFrankfurt on Main, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Ernest Ferdinand Kohn Irene Simon Kohn & Leo Kohn Herbert Kohn September 24, 1923 Jewish Jewish Buchenwald Kristallnacht 1940/ New York City on the Cunard 1940 Demopolis, Anniston 1940 -
Lane, Wilhelm FredericBerlin, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org William Frederic Lane Wilhelm Frederic Lowenberg August 22, 1906 December 14, 1938 / New York City / Volendam Birmingham
Liberman, Lola BorzykowskaBedzin, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Herschel and Tova Borzykowski Sarah Liberman Breina Liberman Herschel Liberman Tova Liberman Solomon Liberman Eva Liberman Wilensky, born Munich, 1946 David Liberman March 10, 1918 1950 / New Orleans Birmingham
Loeb, Esther LitwinBydgoszcz, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Joseph Litwin and wife. Edwina Loeb Samuel Julius Loeb, born October 12, 1912, Lattnache, Louisiana. Married May 2, 1955, Springhill, TN Jesse Michael Loeb, born October 20, 1959, Mississippi. 1924 Mobile
Loeb, Karola KoppelMünchen-Gladbach, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Mendel and Cicilia Koppel 6 siblings Joseph Loeb, from Zeibrucken, Germany. Married October 25, 1941 Joan Loeb, born January 28, 1943 Jean Loeb, born January 28, 1943 July 20, 1915 July, 1938 / SS Manhattan Mobile
Lubliner, MendelWarsaw, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org December 17, 1904 Tattoo left arm. October 14, 1949 / Boston, MA / SS General Hersey Mobile
Lyublinskaya, Khaya DralukBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Birmingham
Maisel, BertaRokitho, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Leiba and Szyfra Pieszczanska Sister Brother March 20, 1912 Mobile
Maisel, DavidHantsavich, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Bertha Maisel September 15, 1906 Mobile
Mautner, Hella RoubicekPraha (Prague), Czechoslovakia Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Dr. Leo Mautner, born March 3, 1891, Brno, Czechoslovakia. Married December 9, 1923, Praha (Prague), Czechoslovakia. Willy Mautner, born February 24, 1927, Vienna, Austria. Nelly Mautner, born February 21, 1931, Vienna, Austria. September 6, 1986 March 9, 1939 / New York City / SS Veendam Birmingham
Mautner, LeoBrno, Czechoslovakia Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Hella Roubicek Mautner, born September 6, 1896, Praha (Prague), Czechoslovakia. Married Decebmer 9. 1923, Praha (Prague), Czechoslovakia. Willy Mautner, born February 24, 1927, Vienna, Austria. Nelly Mautner, born February 21, 1931, Vienna, Austria. March 3, 1891 March 9, 1939 / New York City / SS Veendam Birmingham
Mautner, NellyVienna, Austria Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Hella and Leo Mautner Willy Mautner, born February 24, 1927, Vienna, Austria. February 21, 1931 March 9, 1939 / New York City / SS Veendam Birmingham
Mautner, WillyVienna, Austria Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Hella and Leo Mautner Nelly Mautner, born February 21, 1931, Vienna, Austria. February 24, 1927 March 9, 1939 / New York City / SS Veendam Birmingham
May, RobertCamberg, Germany Robert was born in 1926, the youngest of three boys. For several generations, the family owned a dry goods store. A small synagogue served 12-15 Jewish families, and his father served as unofficial cantor. When Hitler came to power in 1933, antisemitism exploded. Der Stürmer, the antisemitic Nazi tabloid, was prominently displayed about town. The neighborhood grocer would no longer sell to the family. Classmates joined the Hitler Youth, and fear became part of daily life. By 1936, school had become intolerable, requiring Robert to leave. He moved with his Aunt Emma to Frankfurt and attended a Jewish Day School, the Philanthropin. Robert recalls Kristallnacht in Frankfurt, November 1938. He and his aunt were warned by a neighbor to get out of their apartment. While wandering the streets, the apartment was ransacked, and Robert’s school and synagogue were burned. A month later, Robert traveled to Brighton, England, to attend a Jewish boarding school, Aryeh House. This was facilitated by the British Kindertransport, which allowed children under seventeen to enter Britain as long as they could obtain private funds to support themselves. Funding for Robert came from his Uncle Siegmund, who had previously escaped Germany to Holland. Robert recalls his relief when the train crossed the German border. In Brighton, Robert learned English and studied for his Bar Mitzvah, a milestone marked with no family. Two days before the war started, Robert’s parents left Germany with only two suitcases. They traveled to London and made plans to come to the U.S. In August 1940, amidst U-boat attacks, Robert and his parents left England for Havana, Cuba, then New Orleans. Robert remembers standing by the ship’s lifeboats with life jackets and reciting the Sh’ma (Jewish prayer) … everyone believing they would die! Upon landing in Havana, passengers were placed in prison camps in an extortion attempt. Ultimately released, they arrived in New Orleans on September 9, 1940. In the U.S., Robert continued his schooling, becoming a medical doctor and serving in the U.S. Air Force. He married his wife, Anita, in 1953, moved to Birmingham, and practiced obstetrics and gynecology for close to fifty years. They were blessed with three children and eight grandchildren. Aunt Emma and Uncle Siegmund perished at Auschwitz. Robert (Bob) May Robert Markus May Flora Turkheimer May and Hermann May Paul David May, born March 27, 1914, Camberg, Germany Martin Moses May, born June 29, 1919, Camberg, Germany. Anita Wynne May, born July 17, 1933, Bainbridge, Georgia. Married September 6, 1953, Bainbridge, Georgia. Harvey Lee May, born July 22, 1954, Birmingham, AL. Ann May Mollengarden, born August 20, 1957, Birmingham, AL. Julie May Broday, born April 28, 1959, Birmingham, AL. February 17, 1926 Jewish Jewish Moved to Frankfurt, Germany in 1936 to attend a Jewish day school, the Philanthropin. January 1939 moved to Brighton, England to attend a Jewish boarding school, Aryeh House. September 9, 1940/ New Orleans, LA / SS Santa Marta 1953 Birmingham 1953-present Click here to download map PDF
Mendel, Helga StraussMunich, Germany Helga’s personal biography can be found in the Photos/Documents section. Helga Strauss Mendel Helga Strauss Helga Mendel Fanny Steifeneder Strauss (Landau, Germany) and William Strauss (Heinsheim, Germany) none Manuel Mendel (divorced) Gayle Mendel Gordon (Jack Gordon) Judy Mendel Garfinkel (David Garfinkel) William (Bill) Mendel August 30, 1928 Jewish Jewish November 16, 1938 / SS Manhattan / from Hamburg to New York City Sometime 1949-52 Birmingham June 13, 2010, Buried in Birmingham, AL Overland Park, Kansas
Minkinow, StanLodz, Poland Born on October 6, 1932, Stan was the only child of a Jewish mother and a Greek Orthodox father who converted to Judaism. Living a very comfortable, non-religious life, Stan watched from the sidelines as Jews, including his wealthy maternal grandfather, Hein, were transported to the Lodz Ghetto. Stan’s family was temporarily spared by claiming Russian heritage. Two years later, on January 13, 1942, they were taken as well, able to bring only the coats on their backs. As a convert, Stan’s father could have remained on the outside, but chose to stay with his family. Stan remembers being received by the Chairman of the Jewish Council, Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, moving into his grandfather’s small room, and having to wear the Star of David for the first time. Rumor had it that if you had money, you could buy anything in the Warsaw Ghetto, so this was the preferred place to be. The Minkinows bribed their way out of the Lodz Ghetto for $300 in gold. Stan recalls the SS using dogs and whips to hurry the prisoners onto the trucks that would transport them to Warsaw. His father shielded him and his mother by climbing on top of them. The family made a daring escape from the Warsaw Ghetto. Without even a suitcase, they approached the gate guarded by three policemen: one Jewish, one Polish, and the third, German. Stan’s father showed the German his passport, while his mother showed the Pole a booklet with cash inside. The family fled to the village of Radość, outside Warsaw, renting an apartment using their maid’s last name and living as Poles. After the Russians liberated Poland, Stan’s father was arrested for his involvement with the Polish government in exile. After a year, in yet another escape, Stan’s mother bribed a Polish guard to take her husband to Berlin. Stan recalls hearing gun shots as he and his mother were smuggled across the border sometime later. For a short time after the war, the family lived in a DP camp in Berlin. Stan learned that is grandfather, Hein, had died at Auschwitz. In 1948, working and attending school in Bad Reichenhall near Munich, Stan saw a U.S. Army recruiting film. Unable to speak English, but ready for a new challenge, he enlisted in the U.S. military, earning his American citizenship under the Lodge Act. He met his wife, Doris Elaine, at a U.S.O. dance, and in 1955 they were married and later had three children. Stan completed a distinguished twenty-seven year Army career and retired to Huntsville, Alabama, where he opened Alexander’s Jewelry. Huntsville Click here to download map PDF
Nagrodzki, Helen FryszerNifka, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Helen Nagrodzki Chaja Sarah Fryszer Chaja Helen Nagrodzki Szymon Nagrodzki Married July 20, 1946, Feldafing, Germany Cerla (Shirley) Mechla Nagrodzki, born September 16, 1947, Feldafing, Germany Louise Nagrodzki (Abroms) Paul Nagrodzki September 15, 1923 Birmingham
Nagrodzki, SzymonDrobin, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Majer and Cirel Nagrodzki Binem Nagrodzki (sister) Chajim Nagrodzki (brother) Duwid Nagrodzki (brother) Fiscel Nagrodzki (brother) Sarah Nagrodzki (sister) Szeja Nagrodzki (brother) Toba Nagrodzki (brother) Towie Nagrodzki (brother) Helen (Chaja) Nagrodzki, born Nifka, Poland, September 15, 1923. Married July 20, 1946, Feldafing, Germany. Cerla (Shirley) Mechla Nagrodzki, born September 16, 1947, Feldafing, Germany Louise Nagrodzki (Abroms) Paul Nagrodzki April 12, 1917 Radom (Kielce, Poland) Auschwitz (Poland) Dachau (Germany) Skarzysko-Kamienna (Poland) November 15, 1949 / New Orleans / USAT General M.B. Stewart Birmingham
Nathan, Ernest BernardNeustadt an der Weinstraße, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org September 21,1924 Huntsville February 2, 2009 Huntsville
Nathan, FelixEmmerich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Felix Nathan Ewald Felix Nathan Konrad and Sybilla Nathan Karl Nathan Regina Freibaum, married September 12, 1911 in Giershagen, Germany Margarete Sybilla (Greta) Kempenich, born June 1, 1912. Herta (Helen) Nathan Caro, born July 22, 1913. Heinz (Henry) Nathan, born December 16, 1920. July 30, 1886 Jewish Jewish April 16, 1937 / New York, NY / SS Manhattan 1937 Anniston 1937 – Death
Nathan, Henriette PollackAachen, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Henriette (Henny) Pollack Nathan Henriette Pollack Henriettte (Henny) Nathan 2 sisters 1877 Jewish Jewish Theresienstadt 1947/ via Switzerland 1947 Anniston Anniston 1947- death 1957
Nathan, HenryEmmerich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Henry Nathan Heinz Nathan Felix Nathan & Regina Freibaum Nathan Helen (Herta) Nathan Caro & Margarete Sybilla (Greta) Nathan Kempenich (Kemp) Sophie Nathan Nathan, married in Anniston, November 3,1946 George Nathan & Mark Nathan December 16, 1920 May 28, 1936 / New York, NY / SS Washington 1959 Anniston, Birmingham (1959) Birmingham
Nathan, Hilda Brücke Ceigler HarrisMunich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Hilda B. Ceigler Harris Nathan Hilda Ruth Brücke Elsa Neumeyer and Max Bruck (killed at Auschwitz) 1 brother (one killed at Auschwitz) 1st Husband (married 1948): Eugene Ceigler (died 1956) from Nashville 2nd Husband (married 1961): Howard D. Harris (died 1984) 3rd Husband (married 1992): Ernest Nathan (born September 21, 1924, Neustadt, Germany; died 2009) Michael Ceigler (Anne Shlay); Carolyn Ceigler Clift (Robert) Robert Harris (Suzanne), Paul Harris (Cindy), David B. Harris Andy Nathan (Buffy) October 9, 1925 Jewish Jewish Father and brother were taken to Dachau after Kristallnacht. 1941 Huntsville October 27, 2018 Johns Creek, Georgia 1961-2017
Nathan, Ilse ScheuerSinzenich, Germany Ilse was nine and Ruth was six when Hitler came to power in 1933. Over the next twelve years, the sisters would lose their family and their youth. Born in Germany, the Scheuer sisters spent their formative years in relative peace and comfort until November 1938, when the events of Kristallnacht resulted in their father escaping to Bilthoven, Holland, to avoid arrest. He joined their brother, Ernst, who was already in school and living there. In late August 1939, Ilse, Ruth, and their mother joined their father in Holland, planning to obtain visas for passage to England and then America. Before they had the chance to leave, the war began, and the borders were closed. They were trapped. Germany invaded Holland in May 1940, and Mr. Scheuer was sent to Westerbork, a refugee/transit camp. Two years later, the family voluntarily reported to Westerbork rather than be deported. They were all given jobs at the camp. Every Tuesday morning, 1,000 people were sent out by train to the unknown, but with jobs, the family was safe. In January 1944, Ernst was arrested for not removing his cap in the presence of a German officer. He was slated for transport; the family decided to stay together. Mr. Scheuer’s Iron Cross from World War I allowed them to be taken to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia. One month later, the Scheuer’s were transported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp. Selected for work, the girls and their mother were forced to undress and turn in all personal belongings. They were given striped clothing, a bowl, and consecutive tattoos. During a later SS selection, the girls were separated from their mother, never seeing her again. It was in Birkenau that they last saw their father, after he managed to slip them the address of a cousin in America and to poignantly bless them. Ernst was also sent to work, but later died at a camp in Germany, days before liberation. The girls worked carrying bricks from one end of the compound to the other for hours at a time. Ilse sewed gun covers and uniforms as well. Working close to the crematory ovens, they saw the mountains of shoes. For the first time, they realized that their fellow prisoners were being killed and cremated. In July 1944, Ilse and Ruth were sent to the concentration camp of Stutthof in Poland, where they were forced to sleep outside. By midsummer, they were transported on to Praust, Poland, to clear runways for German planes. During the freezing winter, the girls were given a blanket which was used resourcefully to sew slacks for warmth. In February 1945, with Russian troops advancing, 800 girls were taken on a four-week death march toward the Baltic Sea, where presumably they were to be drowned. Only fifty survived that march, the others died en route. With the Russian Army approaching, the girls were abandoned by their captors. Weak, ill, and with nowhere to go, they were left on the side of the road to die. They walked through some fields to the first farmhouse they found, but to their dismay, SS troops answered the door and took them in. The next morning, abandoned in the house to die, the sisters contemplated suicide. “We didn’t want to suffer any more.” They were kept alive by the hope that family members may have survived. The girls connected with a liberating soldier on the street and were taken to Russian headquarters. They were transported to a hospital in Putzig, Poland, where Ruth could recover from typhus, typhoid, and an infection resulting from an earlier beating by an SS woman. Both girls began to heal and gain weight. They were transferred to a Russian hospital in Krakow, but ran away, becoming stowaways on a coal train heading for Prague. They found the Dutch Army in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, and were directed to Bamberg, Germany, to get proper documentation to return to their home in Holland. The number on their arm served as their train ticket. Upon returning to Utrecht in Holland, the girls were able to locate their mother’s brother and younger sister, who had both survived by hiding. It was here that the girls re-established their lives. Remembering their father’s wish to have them move to America, the sisters contacted family members in Omaha and Brooklyn. In July 1946, they arrived in Mobile, Alabama, traveling on to Omaha. A few weeks later, they accepted a cousin’s invitation to move to Brooklyn, New York. They settled there, working in a glove factory and learning English at night school and by watching movies. Both girls met and married German-born Jews in 1949. Ilse married Walter Nathan and they had two children and five grandchildren. Ruth married Walter Siegler and they had three children and seven grandchildren. In 1960, Ruth and Walter moved to Birmingham to be closer to Ilse, who had moved there with her husband in 1949. Both women were subsequently widowed. Ilse and Ruth were so close in the camps, that to avoid confusion, friends would call them each Ilse-Ruth. Sisters and best friends, they remain close to this day. Ilse Scheuer Nathan Ilse Scheuer Ilse Scheuer Nathan Jakob Scheuer (Sinzenich, Germany) and Helen Daniel Scheuer (Flamersheim, Germany) Ernst Scheuer, born February 23, 1923, died April 16, 1945 in Schwartzheide, a subcamp of Sachsenhausen. Ruth Scheuer Siegler (Walter), born April 22, 1927 Walter Max Nathan (Neustadt, Germany), married January 2, 1949 in Birmingham, AL. Diana Lynn Nathan Goldstein (David Goldstein), born July 20, 1950, Birmingham, AL. Sharon Marlese Nathan Ayres (Robert Ayres), born October 10, 1952, Atlanta, GA. February 20, 1924 Orthodox Judaism Conservative Judaism Westerbork (The Netherlands), Theresienstadt (Czechoslovakia), Auschwitz II (Poland), Stutthof (Poland), Praust (Poland) Mid-March 1945 Somewhere in Poland February 1945, from Praust, as Russians were approaching. Maastricht, The Netherlands Moved to Bilthoven, The Netherlands in August 1939. Voluntarily entered Westerbork, where her father was working. Remained with her sister, Ruth, throughout the Holocaust. July 11, 1946 / Mobile, AL / SS City of Alma Birmingham (Click here to download map PDF)
Nathan, Ina FreibaumGiershagen, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Ina Freibaum Nathan Regina (Ina) Freibaum Regina Nathan, married September 12, 1911 in Giershagen, Germany Salomon Freibaum & Rosalie Hagedorn Freibaum Lee, Meta, Greta, Gustav & Paula Ewald Felix Nathan Margarete Sybilla (Greta) Kempenich, born June 1, 1912. Herta (Helen) Nathan Caro, born July 22, 1913. Heinz (Henry) Nathan, born December 16, 1920. March 6, 1892 Jewish Jewish April 15, 1937 / New York, NY / SS Manhattan 1937 Anniston Anniston 1937 – death
Nathan, KarlEmmerich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Karl Nathan Karl Nathan Konrad & Sybilla Nathan Felix Nathan Henriette Pollack Nathan 1878 Jewish Jewish Theresienstadt 1947/ via Switzerland 1947 Anniston Memphis, TN
Nathan, Sophie NathanEmmerich, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Sophie Nathan Nathan Sophie Nathan Nathan Georg & Thea Nathan Emmi Nathan Loewenstern Henry Nathan, married in Anniston, November 3, 1946 George & Mark Nathan November 7, 1921 Riga, Latvia (via Dusseldorf) Libau, Latvia Fulsbutell Prison in Hamburg Kiel, Germany The Danish Red Cross through Count Bernadotte of Sweden/ May 1, 1945 Kiel, Germany - liberated by the Danish Red Cross - taken to Malmo, Sweden April, 1946/ New York, NY 1946 Anniston & Birmingham Atlanta Anniston 1946- 1959 Birmingham 1959- 1999
Nathan, Thea BendixBurgsteinfurt, Westphalia, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Thea Bendix Nathan Thekla Bendix Thea Nathan 5 siblings Georg Nathan (Emmerich, Germany), married October 20, 1920 in Burgsteinfurt, Germany. Died in the Riga Ghetto in May 1942. Sophie Nathan (Nathan), born November 7, 1921, Emmerich, Germany. Emmi Nathan (Loewenstern), born February 19, 1925, Emmerich, Germany. July 28, 1892 Jewish Jewish Riga, Latvia Danish Red Cross- Count Bernadotte of Sweden/ May 1, 1945 Fulsbutell Prison, Near Hamburg, Germany Kristallnacht April 8, 1946/ New York / SS Drottningholm Anniston Philadelphia
Nathan, WalterBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Ilse Scheuer Nathan Birmingham
Nesselroth, Dora RozencwajgSkarzysko-Kamienna, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Dora Nesselroth Dwora Rozencwajg Dwora Dora Nesselroth Miriam and Itzrak Rozencwajg Brother: Abus Josef Ross Sisters: Miriam Rozencwajg, Lydia Cwynar, Helen Rozencwajg Max Nesselroth Rosalie Nesselroth Agrow (Bart) Ruth Nesselroth Urytski (Misha) April 22, 1922 Skarzysko-Kamienna, Poland Tschenstochau, Poland Soviet armed forces Tschenstochau, Poland Birmingham
Nesselroth, MaxWodowice, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Max Nesselroth Maks Nesselroth Dora Rozencwajg Nesselroth March 19, 1918 Near Krakow. Birmingham
Pappenheim, FritzCologne, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Fritz Pappenheim Fritz Pappenheim May 18, 1902 Taught at Talladega College. 1941 Talladega
Perel, Dora JacobsonJacobshan, Latvia Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Ida Workel Jacobson and Yehuda Jacobson 1. ? Mina Jacobson? Rose Jacobson Moses Jacobson David Jacobson David Perel Fred Perel Ida Perel December 29, 1894 Birmingham
Pollack, CharlesHorn, Austria Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Rose Bernstein Pollack (Lithuania) and ? Ernestine Pollack. Charles, Jr. 1930 1939 Selma
Pollack, ErnestineHorn, Austria Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Rose Bernstein Pollack (Lithuania) and ? Charles V. Pollack Selma
Pollack, Rose BernsteinBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Charles V. Pollack Ernestine Pollack Selma
Rasmussen, Lore MayLampertheim-am-Rhein, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Donald Rasmussen Married 1940 1920 1938 Talladega
Safyanova, GenyaBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Birmingham
Sanders, EdithKaiserslautern, Germany Full biography is currently unavailable. Please see 1990 interview under Photos/Documents. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Edith Goetz Sanders Edith Goetz None Ernest Sanders (previously Ernest Zandolovski, also a survivor). Married 1944. Dorothy Sanders (born 1946, Honduras) Roy Sanders (born 1953, US) April 16, 1923 Conservative Judaism Reform Judaism Edith and her family traveled to Italy in 1937 following the Nazi party's rise to power in Germany. In 1938, the family was forced to leave Milan, and in 1939, they immigrated to Honduras. 1948 / New Orleans, LA 1980 Montgomery
Sanders, ErnestBreslau, Poland Full biography is currently unavailable. Please see 1990 interview under Photos/Documents. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Ernest Sanders Ernest Zandolovski None Edith Goetz Sanders. Married in 1944. Dorothy Sanders (born 1946, Honduras) Roy Sanders (born 1953, US) December 27, 1913 Modern day: Wrocław Breslau was part of Austrian Silesia. Today part of modern day Poland. Reform Judaism Reform Judaism Ernest and his father were arrested on November 9, 1938 during the Kristallnacht pogrom. Ernest and his parents fled to Honduras, and were required to stay in Guatemala for a two-week period. 1948 / New Orleans, LA 1980 Montgomery
Sandson, HannahBrno, Czechoslovakia Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Birmingham
Schattner, NettieBrody, Austria (Galicia) Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Nettie Schattner Nesche Seven Siblings. 1911 Experienced World War I and II ( in Vienna)
Schniper, ChaimRovno, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Chana Bruztberg Schniper, married March 5, 1944 in Cherson, Russia. Jakob (Jack) Schniper, born March 18, 1945, Cherson, Russia. Abram Schniper, born April 19, 1947, Ulm, Germany. January 15, 1906 January 29, 1950 / New Orleans, LA / USAT General M.L. Hersey Birmingham
Schniper, Chana BruztbergRovno, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Chaim Schniper, married March 5, 1944 in Cherson, Russia. October 19, 1920 January 29, 1950 / New Orleans, LA / USAT General J.L. Hersey Birmingham
Schniper, JackCherson, Ukraine Jack was born in a Ukrainian work camp on March 18, 1945. His mere existence is a miracle. Although he never knew the uncertainty and hardships his parents experienced, he lives with that legacy every day. The story begins in Rowno, Poland where Jack’s father, Chaim, was born in 1906. The Nazis invaded in 1939 and anti-Jewish legislation resulted in Chaim’s expulsion from medical school. In 1941, 15,000 Jews of Rowno were killed. During one of these purges, Chaim lost his wife and two young daughters. He was left for dead but rescued by a Catholic family. Chaim fled Poland and eventually ended up in a work camp in Cherson, Ukraine. Jack’s mother was also from Rowno, born in 1920. After the Germans invaded Rowno, Chana, her mother, and her sister with her year-old baby had to separate and go into different hiding places. Chana was hidden for a year by a Christian farmer. She lived in a pit in the ground, emerging only at night. She later learned her mother, sister, and little nephew and been captured and killed; she was the only survivor from her immediate family. Although the interim events are not known, Chana was in the Cherson work camp as well, where she met and married Chaim. Jack was born in the camp three months before the war ended. The young family was able to escape one night, ultimately ending up in Germany after the war. Jack’s brother, Abe, was born in Ulm, Germany, two years later. A third brother, Steve, was born in the U.S. in 1955. The Schnipers came to Birmingham in 1950, sponsored by the Jewish community. Chaim and Chana loved America. They learned English in night school, but still spoke Yiddish at home. Chaim packed home furnishings in a warehouse, and with help from the Jewish community, opened Schniper’s Dry Goods. In 1955, the Schnipers became U.S. citizens. Jack grew up working in the family business. He attended the University of Alabama, UAB, and Samford University and served in the Air National Guard. A retail man like his dad, Jack started his career at Blach’s Department Store while in school, and later became an independent wholesale representative. He married his wife, Leigh, in 1969; they have three sons and two grandsons. Chaim and Chana rarely discussed their past with their children. Jack says he survived only because of his parents. Their story is his story. Click here to download map PDF
Schoenberger, Ilse FuchsLuxembourg City, Luxembourg Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Rabbi Davin Schoenberger 1905 Birmingham
Schoenberger, Rabbi DavinBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Ilse Fuchs Schoenberger Elaine Schoenberger Katz March 26, 1897 Birmingham, Tuscaloosa December 5, 1989 https://bhecinfo.org/wp-content/uploads/We-The-Six-Million_Audio.mp3 “We the Six Million Murdered Speak,” a poem by Rabbi Davin Schoenberger, as read by Brian Kurlander (3:22).
Schuster, JudelSarny, Poland Born in 1919 in Sarny Poland, Judel was one of many children born to Anna and Avram Schuster. Avram, a disabled World War I veteran, supported his family meagerly with his disability pension. At the age of 13, Judel was sent to live with the Brick family as an indentured servant. Judel spent the first year drawing water from the well and cleaning the house for the family. Mr. Brick, however, made good on the promise to train Judel to be a qualified tailor in exchange for his work. Although Judel had little formal education, the Brick family, including the young children, treated him lovingly and Judel felt like he was part of their family. In the late 30’s, the Soviet Union occupied Sarny and annexed it to the western Ukraine. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. Judel was taken into the Soviet Army at the age of 20 and left Sarny for the first time in his life. He traveled eastward as the Soviets retreated and ultimately was in Stalingrad during the siege and historic battle for this city. The civilian losses were so great during the siege that the Soviets re-populated the city with people from outside the region. In 1943, Pauline Rachman was relocated to Stalingrad from a Siberian labor camp and eventually married Judel. After the war, with the help of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, they traveled westward in search of living relatives. Upon return to Sarny, they learned that Judel had a surviving brother who was in a displaced persons camp in Italy. Unfortunately, Judel was recognized as a Jew in Sarny and a local Ukrainian gang threw him off a streetcar. He suffered a broken femur and was delayed by several months in his quest to find his brother. After recovering from this injury the young couple found their way to Italy where they joined Judel’s brother, Itzhak, in a displaced camp near Anzio Beach. After 2 ½ years in the camp, Judel and Pauline were given permission to immigrate to the United States. They arrived in December of 1949 with their first of 3 children in tow. Judel worked his entire life as a tailor. He raised 3 children, and lived to see 7 grandchildren. He died in Birmingham, Alabama in 1998. Julius Schuster Judel Schuster Judel Itzhak Schuster Pescia (Pauline) Rachman Schuster Larry Schuster Esther Schuster Abraham (Abe) Schuster 1919 Jewish Jewish Near Anzio, Italy 1949 Birmingham
Schuster, PaulineUman, Ukraine Born in Uman, Ukraine in 1919, Pauline was the middle of 5 children in the well-respected Rachman household. Her father, Levy, was a local commodities broker. He bought wheat and other products from local producers and sold them to consumers. He also traded in currency. The family’s relative prosperity in Uman was easily identified by the presence of an occasionally working electric light in their house. They also owned a milk cow. By 1933, Stalin had collectivized the local farms and closed down all local Jewish institutions. Levy was briefly arrested for the crimes of capitalism and speculation. The synagogue was shuttered and Pauline proudly recalled how the Torah was entrusted to her father for safe keeping. As the Communist policies took hold, farm production diminished and severe famine set in. People died of hunger daily and Pauline recalled schoolmates dying from hunger. Pauline was a weak student and her parents thought it best to send her to Moscow to live with relatives. There would be one less mouth to feed and perhaps she would be able to work and help support the family. By 1942, Pauline learned that her older brother, David, had died in the Soviet Army and the rest of her entire family had been murdered by the Nazi Einzaztgruppen during their occupation of Uman. Pauline worked throughout the war in a number of Soviet labor camps including a lumber operation in Siberia. She seemed to have a knack for numbers and often worked as an accounting clerk. In 1943, she was relocated to Stalingrad where she met and eventually married Judel Schuster. After the war, with the help of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, they traveled westward in search of Judel’s relatives. They ultimately reunited with Judel’s brother Itzhak in a displaced persons camp in Italy. After 2 1/2 years in the DP camp they were given permission to immigrate to the United States. They arrived in the U.S. in December 1949 with their first baby, Larry, in tow. Pauline raised 3 children and lived to see 7 grandchildren. She died in 2011 in Birmingham, Alabama. Pauline Schuster Pescia Rachman Pescia Pauline Schuster Levy Rachman David Rachman Judel (Julius) Schuster Larry Schuster Esther Schuster Abraham (Abe) Schuster 1919 Jewish Jewish DP Camp near Anzio, Italy. 1949 Birmingham -1998
Shilkrot, LeonidGershunovka, Ukraine Leonid was born in the small Jewish village of Gershunovka on July 23, 1930, to a religiously observant family. His brother, Yakov, was born five years later. His father, Gregory (Hebrew: Gersh), and the village where they lived were named after his grandfather, Rabbi Gersh haCohen. His parents were farmers. On June 22, 1941, the Nazis invaded Ukraine and made rapid advances throughout the land. Leonid was eleven years old when the Germans marched through his village, ending his childhood and his education. While hiding in the fields from the Nazis, neighbors plundered their home. The Nazis later expelled the Shilkrots and the rest of the Jews of Gershunovka to the Rybnitsa Ghetto. Inside the ghetto, the family lived in a one-room apartment with several other families. The Nazis took Leonid’s father to the ghetto’s prison, where he disappeared. Leonid was forced to work loading and unloading railroad cars; his mother cleaned streets. Finding food became a daily focus. He went to the ghetto’s food kitchen for meager rations. Sometimes he found produce while unloading railroad cars, other times he simply begged. One day, while secretly gathering fruit in a grove outside of town, Leonid witnessed a group of Jews (discovered by the Nazis in nearby villages) ordered to march to an unknown destiny. While hiding, he heard gunshots, and later emerged to find the entire group murdered. As conditions for Jews deteriorated, he witnessed Romanian soldiers gathering a group of women and children to transfer them to the ghetto and recalls one solider stabbing a mother and child with his bayonet. “Everyday we were alive was a holiday,” he says. In March 1944, the Soviets liberated the ghetto. The Romanian soldiers retreated, burning down the prison containing 400 prisoners as they left. After liberation, Leonid, his mother, and his brother stayed in Rybnitsa. Leonid and his brother attended school while their mother worked as a technical assistant in the pharmacy to support them. Leonid became a student mechanic, and in 1950, enlisted in the Russian Army for the required four years. Leonid married Sofia Rotenberg in 1954, finished college, and worked as a manager in a factory for over thirty years. In 1990, he moved to Birmingham with his wife and three sons and their families. Leonid’s biggest challenge was learning English. Coming from a religious family, Leonid says, “Religion was in my heart in Russia, I could not practice it openly. After I came to U.S.A., I can finally practice religion without fear.” Sofia R. Rotenberg, born May 8, 1934, Moldova. Married May 20, 1954, Kishinev. Rafail Shilkrot (Diana), 1955, Kishinev. Gregory Shilkrot (Ludmilla), 1960, Kishinev. May 8, 1990 / Birmingham May 8, 1990 Birmingham Click here to download map PDF
Shitsel, TatyanaBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Birmingham
Siegler, Ruth ScheuerSinzenich, Germany Ilse was nine and Ruth was six when Hitler came to power in 1933. Over the next twelve years, the sisters would lose their family and their youth. Born in Germany, the Scheuer sisters spent their formative years in relative peace and comfort until November 1938, when the events of Kristallnacht resulted in their father escaping to Bilthoven, Holland, to avoid arrest.  He joined their brother, Ernst, who was already in school and living there. In late August 1939, Ilse, Ruth, and their mother joined their father in Holland, planning to obtain visas for passage to England and then America. Before they had the chance to leave, the war began, and the borders were closed. They were trapped. Germany invaded Holland in May 1940, and Mr. Scheuer was sent to Westerbork, a refugee/transit camp. Two years later, the family voluntarily reported to Westerbork rather than be deported. They were all given jobs at the camp. Every Tuesday morning, 1,000 people were sent out by train to the unknown, but with jobs, the family was safe. In January 1944, Ernst was arrested for not removing his cap in the presence of a German officer.  He was slated for transport;  the family decided to stay together. Mr. Scheuer’s Iron Cross from World War I allowed them to be taken to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia. One month later, the Scheuer’s were transported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp. Selected for work, the girls and their mother were forced to undress and turn in all personal belongings. They were given striped clothing, a bowl, and consecutive tattoos. During a later SS selection, the girls were separated from their mother, never seeing her again. It was in Birkenau that they last saw their father, after he managed to slip them the address of a cousin in America and to poignantly bless them. Ernst was also sent to work, but later died at a camp in Germany, days before liberation. The girls worked carrying bricks from one end of the compound to the other for hours at a time. Ilse sewed gun covers and uniforms as well. Working close to the crematory ovens, they saw the mountains of shoes. For the first time, they realized that their fellow prisoners were being killed and cremated. In July 1944, Ilse and Ruth were sent to the concentration camp of Stutthof in Poland, where they were forced to sleep outside. By midsummer, they were transported on to Praust, Poland, to clear runways for German planes. During the freezing winter, the girls were given a blanket which was used resourcefully to sew slacks for warmth. In February 1945, with Russian troops advancing, 800 girls were taken on a four-week death march toward the Baltic Sea, where presumably they were to be drowned. Only fifty survived that march, the others died en route. With the Russian Army approaching, the girls were abandoned by their captors. Weak, ill, and with nowhere to go, they were left on the side of the road to die. They walked through some fields to the first farmhouse they found, but to their dismay, SS troops answered the door and took them in. The next morning, abandoned in the house to die, the sisters contemplated suicide. “We didn’t want to suffer any more.” They were kept alive by the hope that family members may have survived. The girls connected with a liberating soldier on the street and were taken to Russian headquarters. They were transported to a hospital in Putzig, Poland, where Ruth could recover from typhus, typhoid, and an infection resulting from an earlier beating by an SS woman. Both girls began to heal and gain weight. They were transferred to a Russian hospital in Krakow, but ran away, becoming stowaways on a coal train heading for Prague. They found the Dutch Army in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, and were directed to Bamberg, Germany, to get proper documentation to return to their home in Holland. The number on their arm served as their train ticket. Upon returning to Utrecht in Holland, the girls were able to locate their mother’s brother and younger sister, who had both survived by hiding. It was here that the girls re-established their lives. Remembering their father’s wish to have them move to America, the sisters contacted family members in Omaha and Brooklyn. In July 1946, they arrived in Mobile, Alabama, traveling on to Omaha. A few weeks later, they accepted a cousin’s invitation to move to Brooklyn, New York. They settled there, working in a glove factory and learning English at night school and by watching movies. Both girls met and married German-born Jews in 1949. Ilse married Walter Nathan and they had two children and five grandchildren. Ruth married Walter Siegler and they had three children and seven grandchildren. In 1960, Ruth and Walter moved to Birmingham to be closer to Ilse, who had moved there with her husband in 1949. Both women were subsequently widowed. Ilse and Ruth were so close in the camps, that to avoid confusion, friends would call them each Ilse-Ruth. Sisters and best friends, they remain close to this day. Ruth Scheuer Siegler Ruth Scheuer Ruth Scheuer Siegler Jakob Scheuer (Sinzenich, Germany) and Helen Daniel Scheuer (Flamersheim, Germany) Ernst Scheuer, born February 23, 1923, died April 16, 1945 in Schwartzheide, a subcamp of Sachsenhausen. Ilse Scheuer Nathan (Walter Max Nathan), born February 20, 1924. Walter Siegler from Geroldstein, Germany. Married February 20, 1949 in St. Joseph, MO. Steven Jay Siegler, born September 20, 1952, St. Joseph, MO. Annette Elaine Siegler, born August 14, 1954, St. Joseph, MO. Daniel (Danny) Ernst Siegler, born December 5, 1960, Birmingham, AL. April 22, 1927 Orthodox Judaism Conservative Judaism Westerbork (The Netherlands), Theresienstadt (Czechoslovakia), Auschwitz II (Poland), Stutthof (Poland), Praust (Poland) Mid-March 1945 Somewhere in Poland February 1945, from Praust, as Russians were approaching. Maastricht, The Netherlands Moved to Bilthoven, The Netherlands in August 1939. Voluntarily entered Westerbork, where her father was working. Remained with her sister, Ilse, throughout the Holocaust. July 11, 1946 / Mobile, AL / SS City of Alma 1960 Birmingham (Click here to download map PDF)
Siegler, WalterBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Ruth Scheuer Siegler Birmingham
Skurko, Esther NoymarkBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Esther Noymark Skurko Ester Noymark Esther Noymark Skurko Leon Skurko Leon Skurko Birmingham
Skurko, LeonLukov, Poland A proud Polish citizen, Leon Skurko fought to save his family and his country. Born in 1919 in Lukov, Poland, Leon was the third of six children in a traditional orthodox family. He trained to be a tailor like his father. No longer able to find work in Lukov due to rampant antisemitism, he moved to nearby Warsaw in 1937. His father died of illness shortly thereafter. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The mayor of Warsaw made a radio plea for all eligible males to cross the Vistula River and form a line of defense. Anxious to protect their homeland, Leon and his brother, Mordecai, left home. A few weeks later, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east. The brothers retreated further east into the Soviet Union to avoid the fray. After some time, Leon went back to Lukov to check on his family. Upon his return, he found that his mother had died of illness. Doing the only thing he could, Leon took his eleven-year-old sister and his seven-year-old brother to Brest-Litovsk, Russia, and placed them in a children’s home. Tragically, they died a short time later when the home was bombed. Like many of his Polish compatriots who fled to the Soviet zone, Leon was deported to a labor camp in Siberia after refusing Soviet citizenship. He worked for three years cutting trees for a future airstrip. Prisoners were forced to work long days in sub-zero temperatures with meager rations. Many froze to death. Leon’s dream of fighting for his homeland was fulfilled when the Polish government-in-exile negotiated the release of the prisoners. He was able to return to Poland, this time fighting for the Polish army. Seventeen days before the end of the war, Leon was shot in the knee by a German sniper. Eighteen months in the hospital and six operations later, Leon was on his own. Leon found his way to Pocking, Germany, a D.P. Camp in the American zone near Passau in 1947. He opened a restaurant in the camp and married Esther, a survivor from Germany. Their first two children were born in the camp. With sponsorship from the Birmingham Jewish community, Leon was able to realize his dream of coming to America in 1951. In Birmingham, he returned to the trade of his youth, becoming a successful tailor. The birth of two more children completed his family. Addendum: Leon Skurko passed away on May 12, 2008. Esther Noymark Skurko 01/01/29 Birmingham Click here to download map PDF
Spira, Helene NeubauerVienna, Austria Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Josef Spira, Vienna Henry Spira Victor Spira
Spira, HenryVienna, Austria Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Dr. Henry Spira Heinrich Spira Helene Neubauer and Josef Spira Victor Spira Iris Ruben Spira Evelyn Spira (Rosemore) Judith (Judy) Spira (Goodman) Victoria Spira (Bock) Jessica Spira (Kahn) Lauren Spira 1939
Spira, ViktorVienna, Austria Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Helene Neubauer Spira and Josef Spira Henry (Heinrich) Spira
Steinmetz, MaxTârgu Lăpuș, Romania Between 1942 and 1945, from the time he was seventeen until he was twenty, Max Steinmetz was held in German captivity in at least five ghettos or camps. His first ghetto imprisonment was an abandoned brick factory. Jews from his home town in Transylvania had been rounded up from their homes with only what their arms could carry. He remained there approximately six months. In 1943, Max and his family were herded into cattle cars for the three-day, four-night journey to Auschwitz. The sun blazed down on the train, the prisoners crushed into a space so confining that one had to choose whether to sit or stand, as changing position was impossible. Everyone had a half loaf of bread and each car had a single bucket of water. Upon arrival at the dreaded camp, 25% of the passengers had already died. On the train platform, Max came face-to-face with the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death.” While Max and his brother, Henry, were selected for labor, their mother, father, and younger sister were sent to the gas chamber. Taken to Dachau, then to the sub-camps of Kaufering and Landsberg, Max and Henry were forced to build roads and airplanes for Messerschmitt, all for a daily ration of a half loaf of bread and a canteen of black coffee. It was in Landsberg, on February 4, 1945, that Henry died of starvation. Subsequently, Max was re-incarcerated in Dachau. In April 1945, ten days before liberation, the Germans marched the prisoners into the Tyrolean Alps to dig fortification trenches. At 6’1” and weighing only eighty pounds, Max was sick and hallucinating. He managed to escape, wandering to a local farmhouse where the wife of an SS officer took him in. Filthy and emaciated, Max was provided with the first bath he had had in three years, food, and a bed. Max was liberated by the American forces on May 2, 1945. He says that his fight to stay alive was motivated by his desire to see the Germans lose the war and to have one good meal. He was hospitalized for several months and then checked into a Displaced Persons Camp, where he applied for a visa to the U.S. It was approved in 1948, six years after the onset of his nightmare. Max worked his way across the Atlantic in the ship’s kitchen and after arriving in New York, found a job paying twenty-four cents per hour. After brief stays in Denver and Albuquerque, he moved to Birmingham in 1955, making his living as a clothing executive. Max married his wife, Betty, in 1962, and they were blessed with three children and six grandchildren. Birmingham Click here to download map PDF VIDEO: “Meeting Max: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story”, APT Luke, a high school student, has become interested in learning about the Holocaust after watching historical black and white footage. He partners with Alabama Public Television to film an interview with Max Steinmetz, a Holocaust survivor, with hopes of going beyond the history books. This three-part series includes Max’s story about being a prisoner and a slave laborer, and finally being liberated.
Stencel, EliakimRypin, Poland Full biography is currently unavailable. Please see 1991 interview under Photos/Documents. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Eliakim Stencel Eliakim Stencel Five brothers, two sisters Hinda Bram Stencel. Married May 14, 1937, Rypin, Poland. Marechek (Mark) Stencel, died at age three in Uzbekistan. Gina Stencel, born February 12, 1944, Zirabulka (or Lirabatak), Russia. Jacob (Jack) Stencel, born October 21, 1947, Salzburg, Austria. October 20, 1906 Orthodox Judaism Reform Judaism Eliakim's father was shot by German soldiers in 1939 when they first invaded Poland. The family fled to Russia, where they lived for seven years. November 29, 1950 / New Orleans, LA / USNS General Harry Taylor 1954 Montgomery
Stencel, HindaRypin, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Hinda Bram Stencel Hinda Bram Eliakim Stencel. Married May 14, 1937, Rypin, Poland. Marechek (Mark) Stencel, died at age three in Uzbekistan. Gina Stencel, born February 12, 1944, Zirabulka (or Lirabatak), Russia. Jacob (Jack) Stencel, born October 21, 1947, Salzburg, Austria. October 15, 1908 November 29, 1950 / New Orleans, LA / USNS General Harry Taylor 1954 Montgomery
Stern, ArnoldOstercappeln, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Opelika
Stern, Hedwig IsraelsohnWestheim, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Rosalie Hagedorn Israelsohn Opelika
Stern, HenryWestheim, Westphalia, Germany On his way to Opelika, Heinz Stern became Henry. He was only five years old in 1937 when he and his family of six immigrated to America on what was to be the last sanctioned ship departure of Jews from Germany until the end of the war. The rest of the family disappeared without a trace, and young Henry had no way of knowing that the next sixty years of his life would be devoted to searching for clues to discover whether any other family members had survived the atrocities of the war waged against the Jewish people. The journey to Opelika began in 1935 when Henry’s Great Uncle Julius and Aunt Amelia Hagedorn visited them in their hometown of Westheim. Their American relatives were alarmed by the increasing persecution of the Jews. They convinced Henry’s family to come to America, to Opelika, Alabama, where they lived. However, because there were restrictions on what Jews could take out of the country, Henry’s father spent two years disposing of property and valuables – converting them to cash to finance the trip. Henry recalls how warmly they were greeted by the townspeople of Opelika. Upon their arrival, the Mayor presented the family with a proclamation welcoming them to the city. Particularly touching was local school teacher, Louise Tollison, who reached out to the children by studying German prior to their arrival in order to communicate with them. Opelika opened its arms to embrace the Sterns – valuing them in a way that was in sharp contrast to their brutal treatment at the hands of Nazi Germany. Henry attended school in Opelika and returned there after attending Auburn University and serving a term in the Navy. He settled down, marrying Roslyn Brock and rearing two children. He worked as a retailer and developer and ultimately was employed by the Opelika Chamber of Commerce until his retirement. Even as he enjoyed his family and his community, Henry spent countless hours desperately searching for any family members who might still be alive. Finally, in 2004, his search yielded a wonderful discovery – his cousin Fred Hertz was living in Durham, N.C. “Can you imagine feeling so alone on earth your whole life and then six decades later finding the only other branch of your family tree to survive a brutal war and genocide?” Addendum: Henry Stern passed away on July 17, 2014. Heinz Julius Stern Opelika Click here to download map PDF
Sussman, Fred MaierLandau, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Friedrich Maier Sussman July 22, 1889 Mobile
Sussman, Stella KlebeGiessen, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Stella Alice Klebe Leopoldine Rothschild Klebe and Karl Klebe June 4, 1897 Mobile
Tennenbaum, Agnes LöwingerMiskolc, Hungary Born in 1922 in a small town north of Budapest, Agnes says, “I grew up in a happy home. I had so much love, so much attention.” Her father, Arnold Löwinger, was born in New York to Hungarian parents, but his parents returned to Hungary when he was a child. Arnold came to own the largest department store in Miskolc. Her mother, Malvina, came from a distinguished Italian Jewish family. Agnes had an older sister, Magdalena, and an older brother, Sandor. At the age of seventeen, Agnes married Andrew Weinberger, an assistant district attorney. Shortly thereafter, both her husband and father were drafted by the Hungarian Army. Upon their return, Andrew, who had contracted tuberculosis, was sent to a sanitarium. Agnes never saw him again. The Germans occupied Hungary in 1943. Magdalena had been traveling by train to another city when the Jewish passengers were removed, taken to the Danube River, and shot. A decade later, Agnes learned that Magdalena had jumped into the river before being shot, had swum to the opposite bank and found refuge with the Swedish Embassy. Agnes and the rest of the family were sent to a ghetto created in Miskolc, and later to a brick factory outside of town. “In the middle of the night, the Nazis brought in the Chief Rabbi of the village. I heard the screaming. They beat him to death.” The family became separated upon deportation. Arnold and Sandor were sent to Auschwitz first, never to be seen again. Agnes, her mother, aunt and Cousin Edith were sent days later on a grueling, two-day train trip to Auschwitz. During the selection, only her mother was sent to the left, which Agnes later learned meant she was killed in the gas chambers. Her aunt was sent to work in the forest where she was forced to dig her own grave and shot. Agnes and Edith were sent to Allendorf, a labor camp in Germany where they made munitions in an underground factory. The conditions were brutal; one guard tried to rape her. In March 1945, Agnes and Edith were liberated by American troops. Agnes made her way to Munich where she married Berek Schwarzberg, also a survivor. They had a son, Henry, in 1947 and moved to America in 1949. Agnes later divorced and married another survivor, David Tennenbaum, who died in 1985. Agnes moved to Mobile in 2006 to live with her son and his family. Agnes is very proud of her Jewish heritage. She vows to pass on the memory of those who did not survive through her poetry, writing, and public speaking. Addendum: Agnes Tennenbaum passed away on May 30, 2016. Agnes Lowinger Tennenbaum Esther Lowinger Malvina and Arnold Lowinger Magdalena Lowinger, half-sister Sandor Lowinger, half-brother Endre Weinberger, ex-husband 1 Berek Schwarzberg, ex-husband 2 David Tennenbaum, husband 3 Henry Schwarzberg Conservative Judaism Not affiliated Miskolc, Hungary Allendorf, Germany Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Poland Germany Yes Yes Mobile Click here to download map PDF
Treyger, Anya Zel’tserKruti, Ukraine Anya was four years old when German soldiers occupied her village of Kruti. Jews were no longer safe there. Her family, like others, was forced to live in a barn for several weeks without food or water. Fortunately able to escape, the family sought refuge in the forest. Knocking on farmhouse doors, they were frequently turned away as Russian families feared they, too, would be killed by the Germans if they offered protection to the Jews. In 1941, Anya and her family were captured by the Germans and placed in the Jewish ghetto in Rybnitsa where they remained until 1944. They lived in a small house with two other families, their family of eight crowded into two rooms. Anya’s father left the ghetto daily, forced to work for the German army. He received no wages for this work and performed additional odd jobs to earn a little money for food. The residents of the Rybnitsa Ghetto lived in constant fear. German soldiers conducted nightly raids, using dogs to hunt and find people. Neighbors would disappear or simply be executed. During these raids, Anya’s family would hide in the attic. Suffering from whooping cough one cold winter, Anya was forced to press her face into a pillow to be certain that her cough would not alert the Nazis of their presence. In another raid, Anya’s uncle was killed. And yet another time, the Germans captured a group of boys, including Anya’s two older brothers, taking them to the concentration camp of Varvarovka. Anya’s brothers returned some months later, exhausted, emaciated, and barely alive. They were mere shadows of their former selves and barely recognizable. After the war, Anya’s family stayed in Rybnitsa. Times were very hard and they lived in poverty. Anya’s father was employed by the Rybnitsa Municipal Trade Board. Her two oldest brothers were conscripted into the Russian Army. One was killed on the front lines, the other returned as an invalid. Anya, her sister, and her brother resumed their education. Anya met and married her husband, Yefim, in Rybnitsa. They had two daughters. Anya came to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1999 and proudly became an American citizen on November 17, 2005. Anya is grateful for all of the freedoms her new country affords her, especially the freedom to be a Jew. Anya Treyger Anya Itskovna Zel'tser Anya Itskovna Treyger-Zel'tser Birmingham Click here to download map PDF
Vaysbroyt, Bella DralukBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Birmingham
Wiesel, Annaliese WolffMannheim, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Annaliese Wiesel Anneliese Wolff Bert H. Wiesel born April 26, 1912, Tuscaloosa, AL. Married January 9, 1941, Philadelphia. October 13, 1920 September 8, 1935 / New York City / SS Columbus
Wilf, Elizabeth (Suzy) FischLwów, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Elizabeth Wilf (Suzy) Elzbieta Fisch Elizabeth Wilf Miriam and Markus Fisch Josef (Joseph) Wilf; Married June 28, 1949, Ausburg, Germany Zygmunt "Zigi" Wilf, born April 22, 1950, Ausburg, Germany Mark Wilf April 16, 1932 Lviv, Lemberg Ainring, Germany July 6, 1950, New York City Birmingham
Wilf, JosephJaroslaw, Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Joseph Wilf Josef Wilf Joseph Wilf Oscar and Ella Wilf Harry Wilf Bella Wilf (died in Warsaw Ghetto) Elzbieta (Elizabeth/Suzy) Fisch Wilf, married June 28, 1949, Augsburg, Germany Zygmunt "Zigi" Wilf, born April 22, 1950, Ausburg, Germany Mark Wilf October 1, 1925 Siberian labor camp July 6, 1950, New York City Birmingham August 3, 2016 Hillside, NJ
Zarembo, HarryWilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Eta ? Kela Lastowska With Eta: Sima, born 1937 Meir, born 1938 Mordechai, born 1939 May 3, 1908 Mobile
Zarembo, Kela LastowskaWilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), Poland Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Kela Lastowska Chana and Shmuel Lastowski May 10, 1917 August 31, 1942 Mobile
Zehava CohenBerlin, Germany Biography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org Zahava Cohen Gerda Schneider Zahava Zahava Cohen Yehudit Leo Schneider Yitzchak (Irving) Cohen Judy Cohen & Jonah Cohen April 23, 1929 Jewish Jewish Immigrated to Palestine in 1937 Birmingham
Zinger, SemenBiography is currently unavailable. If you have any information to complete this profile, please contact us at 205.795.4176 or info@bhecinfo.org. Boris Zinger (Evdiniya) Birmingham