HOLOCAUST EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES
Preserving History
Selfhelp is dedicated to remembering the Holocaust and raising awareness of the survivor population still in need today. Through creative educational initiatives, we’re ensuring that the memory of the Holocaust will not be forgotten by generations to come. Help us educate future generations about the Holocaust.
SHARING SURVIVORS' STORIES ONLINE
Henry, Holocaust Survivor & Selfhelp Client
Henry, originally named Heinz, was born in 1927 and spent his first eleven years growing up in Augsburg, Germany, just an hour outside of Munich. At the turn of the 19th century, Henry’s family moved from the country to the city of Augsburg. There, the family became proud citizens of the city, as well as patriotic Germans. When World War I first broke out, Henry’s father enrolled in the military and fought for Germany until the very end of the war. During this time, Henry’s father (and his two brothers) had earned the Military Merit Cross and the Iron Cross. During the war, Henry’s father was very deep in the damp trenches and had incurred the lasting damages to his health. A rheumatic fever, which he had received very little care for, gave rise to a valvular heart defect that would bother him for the rest of his life. Even though Henry’s father and the rest of his family were all confronted with antisemitism during the First World War, they were still able to live their lives and had friends who were Jewish and non-Jewish.
Liane, Holocaust Survivor & Selfhelp Client
Liane was born in Czernowitz (now in Ukraine) in the summer of 1934.
In March of 1944, Russian troops were about to enter Czernowitz and Liane’s parents and other Jewish families decided that to avoid deportation to Siberia, they should flee to Romania. Liane and her parents took the last train before the Russian occupation to Bucharest, leaving their three houses back in Czernowitz. They fled with one suitcase and her father’s medical diploma.
To read Liane’s memoir, please click on the Flipbook below.
Tibor, Holocaust Survivor & Selfhelp Client
Tibor was born in Budapest, Hungary in the summer of 1934. Tibor’s father, Mor, came from an Orthodox family and had three other brothers. Tibor’s mother was not very religious on her own. Tibor’s mother, Ilona, was born and raised in the countryside of Hungary, and travelled back and forth to Vienna. Before Tibor’s parents got married, Mor had been considered Polish living in Hungary. Before he proposed, Ilona made one contingency… that Mor and his brother’s would become Hungarian citizens. By doing this, it had saved his parents and ultimately, Tibor’s life.
Margareta, Holocaust Survivor & Selfhelp Client
Margareta was born in Gerta Mica, Romania in 1938. According to the 1930 Romanian Census, approximately four precent of the people identified themselves as being Jewish. She lived with her mother, father, and older sister. When Margreta was growing up, her and her family, including her grandparents who lived nearby, were forced to wear Yellow Stars. Margareta didn’t understand why until she got older. Her father and uncle were taken to Budapest and put in jail. Margareta’s father, Samuel, wrote to her mother, Ilona, telling her that the Nazi forces had taken him from Hungary to Germany. After Margareta’s father wrote to her mother, Nazi forces began to collect the Jewish people in smaller towns and bring them to Satu Mare, where they were holding people in temples.
Anna, Holocaust Survivor & Selfhelp Client
Sonia, Holocaust Survivor & Selfhelp Client
Born in Poland, Sonia was forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto until the middle of 1943, when she was taken to Madjanek and shortly after to Auschwitz. In January, 1945, she was sent to Ravensbrück in Austria for a short period until she was sent to Malchow until February, 1945. She was on a death march and liberated in April of 1945 by American soldiers in Mittenwald, Germany. Sonia met her husband in Mittenwald, where they had their son and opened the first Jewish business after the war. They settled in Buffalo, New York, where Sonia had a successful catering business. Sonia is also very proud of her volunteer involvement with Hadassah, Amit and State of Israel Bonds.
Anne, Holocaust Survivor & Selfhelp Client
Anne was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1925. Her father’s business was confiscated by the Nazis. Anne attended Philanthropin, a school for Jewish children, because she was no longer permitted to attend the local German school. Her close friends were forbidden to associate with her. In 1938, Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) was a 24 hour horror for her and her family. First, the Nazis came and took her father to Buchenwald. Then, they stood in front of her house with torches, threatening to burn it down. About two hours later, a Jewish friend of her parents arrived seeking shelter. The next morning, the brother- in-law of the boarder was gone. He had fled into a nearby forest and out of despair, died by suicide. That same night, Anne’s mother’s cousin and son came to their home after her husband was taken to Dachau. These memories are a recurring nightmare for Anne.
Anne’s mother took her father’s Iron Cross medal, which he had earned as a decorated German World War I veteran, to the authorities in Frankfurt am Main. They released him from Buchenwald after three weeks, but said that he must leave Germany within four months or they would re-arrest him. Her father left for England in April of 1939. He planned to seek affidavits for her mother and brother, but was unsuccessful and they both perished in Auschwitz. Anne fled Germany on the last Kindertransport train in August of 1939 to seek refuge in England. In January 1940, Anne and her father reunited in England and left for the United States.
After her arrival in the United States, Anne lived in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey for three years with her aunt and uncle, while her father lived in New York City. At that time, the United States was still at war with Germany. Anne and her uncle were suspected of being spies for the German government and the FBI went through their home. They were summoned to the police station and were questioned for espionage.
Years after World War II ended, Anne married Sy and they had a son, Alan, who became a lawyer after attending Princeton and Columbia Law School. Alan and his wife, Marion, live in White Plains, New York; Anne has two grandchildren, who live in California. Her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren have been a part of the happiest moments in Anne’s life and she reflects fondly on these memories.
Robert, Holocaust Survivor & Selfhelp Client
Robert was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1938. In 1942, his father was conscripted into the Hungarian army and in 1943 his family apartment was seized. In 1944 he, his mother and grandmother were rounded up with all the other Jews in Budapest and brought to the town square. Robert narrowly escaped being separated from his mother and grandmother, and the three of them were relocated to the ghetto where they stayed, under terrible conditions, until they were liberated by the Russians in 1945. After the war, Robert lived with his mother and grandmother. They often spent time with his four aunts who were the only other members of their family to survive. His father never returned. In 1956, at the age of 18, Robert and some friends were able to escape Communist Hungary and cross the border into Austria. On December 24, 1956 he finally boarded a ship which would bring him to the United States. He settled in New York City and met his life-long partner, Jimmy. They lived together for 55 years until Jimmy passed away in 2017.
Henry, Holocaust Survivor & Selfhelp Client
Henry was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1924, where he lived with his mother, father, and older sister. On Kristallnacht, his father was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Buchenwald concentration camp for four weeks. Henry’s father was later released because he’d been a German soldier in WWI and considered a war hero. However, Nazis seized his father’s business and gave it to his prior employee, who was a Nazi.
For some time, Henry’s family remained in Leipzig as forced laborers, making furs for the German troops in Russia. In January 1943, they were deported to Theresienstadt, a hybrid camp-ghetto. Nazis told Henry this was an honor from Hitler, bestowed because of his father’s WWI service.
In Theresienstadt, Henry was forced to collect clothing from the deceased. When the Red Cross visited in 1944, Nazis order Henry to prepare the camp-ghetto for inspection. From there, his family was transported to Auschwitz, a concentration and extermination camp, and separated. As Henry later found out, his father, mother, and sister were executed in Auschwitz’s gas chambers.
From there, Henry was transported to Friedland, a sub-camp of Gross-Rosen, where he worked in a factory making propellers until Russians troops liberated him in 1945. He returned to Theresienstadt and then to Leipzig looking for his family. During his search, he learned that they’d been killed in Auschwitz.
Eager to build a new life, Henry and his wife were smuggled into US-occupied Germany and later, in 1949, immigrated to the USA. Henry pursued a career in the New York City fashion industry, starting as a messenger and working his way up the command chain.
COOKING WITH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
Episode 1: Meet Ruth Zimbler
Ruth Zimbler is a 95-year old Austrian Kindertransport survivor. Ruth was only ten years old when Kristallnacht occurred in 1938. During Kristallnacht, she and her younger brother, Walter, witnessed the destruction of the largest synagogue in Vienna from their apartment. Later, her family was locked out of their apartment and her father was sent to Dachau. Concerned about the safety of his children, Ruth’s father secured places for them on the first Kindertransport, a series of rescue efforts that brought thousands of refugee Jewish children out of German-occupied Europe.
Episode 2: Meet Jill Chase
At just six months old, Jill Chase was forced into hiding with Catholic nuns as a safety measure by her family. Jill recounts the horrors of being “thrown out of her home and forced to live in hiding.” Jill stayed in a convent with this group of Catholic nuns for three years. In 1944, a Jewish chaplain from England retrieved Jill to bring her back to her family and home.
HEARTS: HOLOCAUST EDUCATIONAL ARTS
Episode 1: Meet Fred Terna
HEARTS is a virtual exhibition featuring artwork created by Holocaust survivors. Through their art, survivors contemplate their Holocaust memories and process the emotions they carry. By viewing these works, we’re brought closer to the history of the Holocaust.
View the HEARTS virtual exhibition
* To view the virtual gallery, please use Google Chrome or Firefox. Internet Explorer is not supported.
HELP EDUCATE FUTURE GENERATIONS
Selfhelp is dedicated to remembering the Holocaust and raising awareness of the survivor population still in need today. Through creative educational initiatives, we’re ensuring that the memory of the Holocaust will not be forgotten by generations to come. Help us educate future generations about the Holocaust.
