Holocaust Remembrance
I was born in Vienna on October 9, 1902 and had four siblings. I had three sisters and one brother. After my mother died, during child birth, my father remarried and three more boys were born into the family. I accepted the responsible for raising this large family of children and managing the household when I was just 16 years old. I was the organizer, the shopper, the educator, the laundress, cook, baker and life protector. I lost the carefree teen years and became enveloped in drudgery work for my family. Perhaps that environment made me stronger than my siblings. I had a firm personality and a high level of determination. I refused to wear the yellow star! I just had an aura of authority that swirled around me and I knew just how to work the system, to maneuver around the Nazis. My bravery, confidence and high intellect guided my efforts to avoid capture and keep my son Thomas hidden and safe. I guided my siblings from childhood into adulthood as I compensated for the tragedies of the war, the interruption of education for family members and my own desire for a higher educational experience.
With the Germans now in command my life and those of my siblings, were at risk and danger was faced every day. The Austrians hated the Jewish people and initiated many more actions to eliminated them. In this time frame, the Germans were causing great chaos. The Nazi invasions became more incessantly vicious. For their safety, I began moving my other siblings out of the now dreaded and dreadful Austria. At one time, Austria was regarded as our beautiful home country, now, our home country was dangerous and we would be lucky if we could escape. The Nazi’s destroyed life for the Jewish residents in Austria. I began plans to move the entire family from our home country. I was determined to leave Vienna as quickly as arrangements could be made.
One of my brothers lived in New York in the Bronx. First I arranged for visas through my brother. He served as a sponsor for my other siblings, arranging routes to get them out, one by one.
Moving my sister and family was easier. Her brother in law owned land in Palestine. This ownership allowed my sister’s family to travel to Palestine without the interference of and permission of the British, who controlled the movement into that country. One of their two daughters traveled to England on the Kindertrain and was placed in a foster home. The older daughter preferred to remain with her parents. That decision ended in sadness as this daughter accidentally drowned in a river near their home. Quite surprising, the Nazi’s allowed for the child to be buried in a Church cemetery with a headstone erected on the grave. Burial of a Jewish person and placing a headstone on the grave was the most unusual during the war years. The headstone displayed her name and also the Jewish star.
With my siblings safe, I found an avenue for myself, leaving Vienna in March of 1939, and escaping to Antwerp Belgium, where I met my husband. Born in July 19, 1895, in Budapest, Hungary, my husband worked as an airplane mechanic for 25 years and into the World War I years. He went to the US in 1926-1927 remaining there for only one year before returning to Vienna. We never learned why he went to the United States. Due to the anti-Jewish actions in Austria, my future husband moved to Antwerp Belgium and as you know, this is where we met. After a friendship in Antwerp, we were married in a religious wedding ceremony. In Europe, the only recognized marriage ceremony was s civil ceremony performed by a Justice of the Peace. However, we could not be married in a Civil Service, because of the Nazi occupation. This type of ceremony would expose us directly to the Nazis. To be married, we participated in a religious ceremony.
We gave birth to our son Thomas in Antwerp on August 19, 1940. Soon after Thomas's birth, my husband was arrested as an illegal immigrant and was placed with a group of men and sent directly to Drancy, France, a suburb just outside Paris. From Drancy, he was deported to a concentration camp, Auschwitz in early 1944. I was now all alone and was faced with the ever increasing difficult responsibility of keeping an active growing child hidden from the ever increasing actions of the Nazis. What would happen to this baby if I were to be arrested?
I had already been approached by friends begging me to seek an underground hiding place for my son. I was a strong woman, brave and courageous. My life had been difficult and I had experiences in facing difficult situation and resolving them. I was not concerned about my own safety, however, this last episode with the Nazis caused me to re-evaluate my son’s safety. I began seeking a safe place for Thomas where he would be well cared for and protected. My friends and I knew the Nazis would soon appear again at our apartment and they would joyously round up those families they had missed. The Nazis pursued every Jewish person, the young and the old. I arranged to travel to Brussels to seek a safe place to work and a safe place to hide Thomas.
I needed to have money for living expenses and yet I needed to remain obscure to avoid capture by the Nazis. I earned money as a Viennese cook and baker and was able to remain hidden. Because of my skills, my jobs and help from friends, I avoided capture. Soon I was provided the name of an elementary teacher who was working with the Catholic underground system that focused on hiding children. This teacher, Mary Anne worked with an underground system that included five organizations. Their success rate was impressive so I placed my son Thomas in the Sisters of Mercy Creche that actually served as an orphanage.
After I placed Thomas in the underground child care, I lived safely with friends for about six months, when disaster loomed. A neighbor began to be suspicious and I felt I was in trouble. Quickly, another friend located a pharmacist who volunteered to take me into his home. There I cooked for the family and was safely hidden until the end of the war. I was an excellent Viennese cook and baker and was much appreciated by this family.
After the war was over, I searched for Thomas. I engaged the Jewish resistance in Brussels to investigate if Thomas had survived and where I was hidden. Through the Catholic Social Service I found Thomas. That network had placed Thomas in a very positive environment and he was well cared for and happy. Because the country was in such chaos and I still had to work, I was persuaded to place Thomas in foster care. Thomas was now five years old.
My work schedule did not provide time for her to care for me. The foster family loved Thomas and he was so happy with them. An arrangement was put in place for Thomas to remain with this family and I would visit when possible. I began working at the Nor club after the war, in the kitchen department again using my cooking skills. I met my next husband Paul and of course his friend Max.
I wanted to see my siblings who had traveled to the US during the war. Plans were outlined for me and Thomas to travel to the land of plenty. I went to Antwerp, which was a point of departure, to obtain a visa. How disappointing to learn that Visas were not being offered. After much searching I finally managed to get a visa from the Japanese! At that time, the Japanese were sympathetic to the Jewish people and offered visas. However, I had to travel to Shanghai, a Chinese port captured by the Japanese to obtain the visa, and then travel to a part of departure- Rotterdam. Thus on December 31, 1946 when Thomas was six and one half years old, we boarded a freighter together at Rotterdam and traveled to Galveston, Texas. My younger sibling of who had already been living in the states, met us in Galveston. Arranging for Paul, my new husband, to join us in the states took another three years because of several complications. We traveled to New York by train and joined my youngest sister and two brother's. There were five living in that small apartment from 1947-1951. These were economically rough times for the family. We all spoke German at home, listened to Yiddish language on the radio and spoke English in public.
I placed Thomas in school. I was enthusiastic and firm about Thomas's educational plans. I wanted a complete and refined education for me and I carefully attended to many focus points in Thomas's studies. I also wanted Thomas to have a Jewish experience and enrolled him in Yeshiva, a Jewish elementary school from grades 2 to 6. This experience added another new language, Hebrew. The morning classes were in Hebrew and afternoon in English. That experience thoroughly completed the religious component of Thomas's education. I was determined for Thomas to be well educated and planned for his Jewish education.
Additionally I knew the importance of music education. So many Jewish artists had been murdered thus it was so important to educate Jewish children to be musicians and excel in the arts. I arranged for Thomas to work with a violin teacher- Ms. Rosen, a classic musician who had arrived in the United States before 1938. She lived in a gorgeous apartment overlooking Central Park West at 92nd Street. She was influential in instilling a love for music and incorporating it as a major segment of Thomas's life. I continued to work long hours. My skills as a superb cook and baker put me in demand. In the summer time I was invited to work at jobs in the Catskills in New York and enjoyed recognition as an outstanding cook for fine foods.
Making arrangements for my husband to come to America was laborious. A cousin voched for him in a financial manner, which was still required by the government which stretched the process through three years before he actually arrived in the US. Paul was highly intelligent, very skilled in languages. He was a marvelous story teller. At family gatherings he talked about the war, he often told about his experiences with the Nazis in the concentration camps. During that time, not many survivors discussed those difficult and scary times when the Nazis were in control, murdering Jewish people and rounding them up for death and work camps. Paul openly related stories about life in the camps and the atrocities performed by the Nazis.
