Ashley Lampe Mr.

Neuburger English 102-102 (summer) 31 June 2012 Testimonies on Survivors during the Holocaust

Ursula Levy was interviewed by Marie Kaufman. Ursula was born in Asnabrook,
Germany. She was the younger sister of one brother, George, and lost her father Max at a very young age. Her mother Lucia feared for their safety after Max returned from a concentration camp with injury to his leg and he was very ill. He died just days after returning home to his family. Ursula and George were sent to a Dutch home for children for their safety. In 1943 the Nazis took her and George to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. While residing in the concentration camp, a man from the Dutch childrens home came to visit her. He brought her a present for her birthday but the best present of all was when the man told the Nazis that George and Ursula were not full Jewish. They were half American so the guards sent them to a camp for privileged Jews rather than a camp to kill her. After staying at this camp the Nazis came and loaded 2,600 Jews on a train. After thirteen days 2,000 of the Jews had died. On that thirteenth day the Russians overpowered the Germans and freed all Jews on the train. There was a town they sent all the Jews to, it was full of empty houses and they just had to pick one. Because they were still children, the man from the home let the brother and sister stay with him. Their aunt took them in after some time but she lived in America. Her aunt convinced her to change her last name to be less Jewish. She changed her name back to Levy at the age of 40 years old. Ursula was proud to be a Levy. She found out after she was freed from the train that her mother was killed in a concentration camp.

Ursula was lucky to not be one to go to a killing camp, Ilsa Blue was a proud Jewish and in 1942 was sent to a concentration camp and in 1943 was killed. To avoid these camps means someone was looking out for her and her brother. After her release simple things like a kite were wonderful things to her because it symbolized their freedom. Ursula and George stayed together through all of this which is quite surprising. Ursula now resides in Beverly Hills, California. After Ursula and George were free they had to find food, so they would go into houses and look for things that they could eat. During a time collecting food with her brother she recalls an even and tells the story; George and I, we took a little kite and um George told me to watch the kite with the food while he was going into another house, and there was some noise going on at the end of the street. And I was nosey, I wanted to see what was going on and I left the kite for a minute and it was gone when I came back. And of course George was upset but we got another kite and started the process over again. And it was a wonderful ecperience to be free, to have survived, at the same time it was very sad.

Edith Coliver was interviewed by Joseph Belanoff and was born as Edith Simon.
Edith was born in Karlsruhe, Germany. As the war began her family received a gold star on their home symbolizing that a Jewish family lived there. Ediths uncle from the United States would come to Germany one time a year to see his family and as he saw the things happening in Germany he asked if Edith could come back to the states with him. Her mother, Hedwig, asked her if she would like to move to America but Edith turned down the opportunity. In 1937 Ediths teacher had to break the news that Edith could no longer attend school due to her being Jewish. Edith loved school and was an excellent student so when her mother told her that the closest school was in England she took the opportunity and moved. She made wonderful friends at her school just as her father, Fritz, called a year after sending Edith to England. She had to come

home so they could all go to America. Edith did not want to go but it was very bad to not listen to your parents so she went home and because she was only 17 years old she was able to be on her fathers Visa and leave Germany. In June she received her Visa and in August of 1938 they were on a boat with all their belongings saying good bye to Germany and awaiting the arrival for America. Edith wanted to be the first to see the Statue of Liberty, she stayed awake all night and sat on the deck of the boat and was able to see the Statue of Liberty. When they finally got to New York where most of Fritz relatives were they saw a parade and all the people were chanting how Hitler was going down. They got back on a boat which took them around the country to San Francisco with more relatives. Edith attended George Washington High School and was in the first graduating class. As she graduated she went with a friend and eventually made it to Washington D.C. Edith had known about the war that had happened right after her family fled the country of Germany but as she became an interpreter for the United Nations she learned first-hand what had happened to the Jews. She was not confident in her interpreting for the prosecution of Nazis. Some of the Germans were totally in denial, some claimed they were just one person and could not do anything. Edith went to a concentration camp after Liberation and saw first-hand what these people lived like. She felt very lucky she got out when she did. During the prosecutions she heard many testimonies as to what all happened. She even heard the Displaced Persons Testimonies. After the war she had run into an old classmate. They did not have much to talk about but as soon as there was mention of the death of one of the classmates in the concentration camp they quit talking and just walked away from each other. She returned to the United States when

her job had been completed. She ended up graduating from college, getting married and her husband becoming a lawyer and lived a happy life. She must have changed much from her childhood. At the time she was in a gang which is what us Americans today call tomboys. She had very close friends before the year of 1938. She was gone from 1938 to 1946 when she got back Edith had a hard time trusting all of her classmates for the mere fact that she did not know what they had done from 1933 to 1945. Edith loved sports and played on a league called the Erioef, (German/Jewish sports club). As Edith grew up she adored her grandmother. Her grandmother taught her to knit and all other types of crafts. They were very close when her grandmother got ill from cancer. Not much was mentioned much about Ediths younger brothers Harold; previously known as Joachion in German, and Urnest; whom kept his name after the move. Edith was lucky her father made the decision to move prior to the war. Edith was also lucky she was able to get on her fathers Visa due to her age. If she were unable to get the Visa she would have be placed on a ten year waiting list. Edith currently resides in San Francisco, California not far from the original home of her parents when they first moved to the United States. These two women have been through a lot in their life time, but in the end they are not ashamed of being Jews, they are proud of their names and there heritage and did not run from their past and changed themselves because it may have been easier. I respect these women for what they had to go through and see in their life time. I hope they are able to live the rest of their lives in peace and put aside what had happened and focus on the happiness they have today. Edith states: The wives got a PHT meaning putting hubby through. Ursula worked for five years while her husband when to college to become a lawyer. The wives of all the soon to be lawyers received this so called title.