{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/bv79s1n758/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Lowenberg, Ruth"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/082/original/TheBreman_SecondaryMark_Horizontal_Blue_Black.png?1713640889","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2001-11-25 (captured)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Kent, John (Interviewer)","Lowenberg, Ruth Grunkraut (Interviewee)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["video"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source"]},"value":{"en":["William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum","Esther and Herbert Taylor Oral History Collection","Jewish Oral History Project of Atlanta"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eJohn Kent interviews Ruth Grunkraut Lowenberg in Roswell, Georgia on November 25, 2001.\u003c/p\u003e (general)","\u003cp\u003eRuth Grunkraut Lowenberg was born on August 25, 1925 in Bielsko, Poland to Chana Grunkraut (1910-1945) and Salomon Grunkraut (1899-1945). Ruth had a younger brother, Ernst (1932-1944). Her father was a successful timber exporter. Despite some incidences of antisemitism, Ruth enjoyed a very comfortable childhood. The family was very secular, but they celebrated Jewish holidays. Ruth learned Hebrew and attended a Jewish primary school. Then, she attended a private girls’ school at a convent until Jewish students were expelled.\u003cbr\u003eIn the summer of 1939, the family moved to Krakow, Poland. Just a few months later, the Germans invaded and life became increasingly difficult for the family. They were soon forced into a ghetto and required to work for the Germans. When the ghetto was liquidated, they were sent to the Plaszow concentration camp. There, Ruth remained with her mother. Her father and brother remained together until May 1944, when Ernst was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau with all the other children and killed. As the Russians advanced in the summer of 1944, Plaszow was evacuated. Ruth and her mother were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her father was sent to Mauthausen, where he later died. From Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ruth and Chana were transferred to Muhlhausen and then Bergen-Belsen. Shortly before liberation, Chana died from the horrendous living conditions in Bergen-Belsen.\u003cbr\u003eFollowing liberation, Ruth was sent to Sweden to recuperate. She then spent a year in England before returning to Sweden. In 1948, she married another Polish survivor, Natan Lowenberg (1923-2001). In 1950, the couple welcomed twin daughters just before they immigrated to the United States. Ruth and Natan would later welcome a son and another daughter. They lived in New York City until they could afford to buy a home in Jericho, Long Island. Natan operated a series of bakeries with Ruth’s help. \u003cbr\u003eWhen Natan retired, they moved to Roswell, Georgia to be near their son and youngest daughter. There, they enjoyed being close to their two grandsons. Natan and Ruth shared their experiences with their children, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, as well as this interview Ruth gave for the Breman Museum. Natan passed away in 2001 and Ruth died on March 17, 2013.\u003c/p\u003e (bioghist)","\u003cp\u003eRuth provides an overview of her childhood in Poland and experiences during the war. She explains what happened after liberation. Ruth talks about getting married and deciding to immigrate to the United States. She recalls her early years in the United States. Ruth remembers her post-war experiences. She recounts her brother-in-law’s experience. Ruth talks about adjusting to life in the United States. She shares her memories of antisemitism in Poland. Ruth remembers her family’s struggle to survive. She describes building a new life in the United States. Ruth discusses how survivors and immigrants were treated in the United States. She considers what her children know about her experiences. Ruth talks about faith and survival.\u003c/p\u003e (scope content)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, recorded by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written consent of the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum.\u003c/p\u003e"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eJohn Kent interviews Ruth Grunkraut Lowenberg in Roswell, Georgia on November 25, 2001.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eRuth Grunkraut Lowenberg was born on August 25, 1925 in Bielsko, Poland to Chana Grunkraut (1910-1945) and Salomon Grunkraut (1899-1945). Ruth had a younger brother, Ernst (1932-1944). Her father was a successful timber exporter. Despite some incidences of antisemitism, Ruth enjoyed a very comfortable childhood. The family was very secular, but they celebrated Jewish holidays. Ruth learned Hebrew and attended a Jewish primary school. Then, she attended a private girls\u0026rsquo; school at a convent until Jewish students were expelled.\u003cbr /\u003eIn the summer of 1939, the family moved to Krakow, Poland. Just a few months later, the Germans invaded and life became increasingly difficult for the family. They were soon forced into a ghetto and required to work for the Germans. When the ghetto was liquidated, they were sent to the Plaszow concentration camp. There, Ruth remained with her mother. Her father and brother remained together until May 1944, when Ernst was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau with all the other children and killed. As the Russians advanced in the summer of 1944, Plaszow was evacuated. Ruth and her mother were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her father was sent to Mauthausen, where he later died. From Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ruth and Chana were transferred to Muhlhausen and then Bergen-Belsen. Shortly before liberation, Chana died from the horrendous living conditions in Bergen-Belsen.\u003cbr /\u003eFollowing liberation, Ruth was sent to Sweden to recuperate. She then spent a year in England before returning to Sweden. In 1948, she married another Polish survivor, Natan Lowenberg (1923-2001). In 1950, the couple welcomed twin daughters just before they immigrated to the United States. Ruth and Natan would later welcome a son and another daughter. They lived in New York City until they could afford to buy a home in Jericho, Long Island. Natan operated a series of bakeries with Ruth\u0026rsquo;s help.\u0026nbsp;\u003cbr /\u003eWhen Natan retired, they moved to Roswell, Georgia to be near their son and youngest daughter. There, they enjoyed being close to their two grandsons. Natan and Ruth shared their experiences with their children, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, as well as this interview Ruth gave for the Breman Museum. Natan passed away in 2001 and Ruth died on March 17, 2013.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eRuth provides an overview of her childhood in Poland and experiences during the war. She explains what happened after liberation. Ruth talks about getting married and deciding to immigrate to the United States. She recalls her early years in the United States. Ruth remembers her post-war experiences. She recounts her brother-in-law\u0026rsquo;s experience. Ruth talks about adjusting to life in the United States. She shares her memories of antisemitism in Poland. Ruth remembers her family\u0026rsquo;s struggle to survive. She describes building a new life in the United States. Ruth discusses how survivors and immigrants were treated in the United States. She considers what her children know about her experiences. Ruth talks about faith and survival.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, recorded by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written consent of the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/082/original/TheBreman_SecondaryMark_Horizontal_Blue_Black.png?1713640889","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/254/686/small/Lowenberg_Ruth.m4v_1729537983.jpg?1729537984","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Lowenberg_Ruth.m4v"]},"duration":3646.91,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/254/686/small/Lowenberg_Ruth.m4v_1729537983.jpg?1729537984","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-thebreman.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/254/686/original/Lowenberg_Ruth.m4v?1729537980","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":3646.91,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Lowenberg, Ruth [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Okay, let us start with your name at birth and your current name.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2.0,8.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: My name is Ruth Lowenberg, born Grunkraut, G-R-U-N-K-R-A-U-T, in Bielsko, B-I-E-L-S-K-O, Poland.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=8.0,23.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: In what year?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=23.0,26.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Born 1925.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=26.0,30.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Since you have already done a tape for [the USC Shoah Foundation], you do not need to go over the whole story.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=30.0,36.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: [Yes].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=36.0,36.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Can you just give us an overview of your life before the war, just what it was like for you?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=36.0,42.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Before the war, I was an only daughter. I had a brother seven years younger. My father was a very well-cemented timber exporter, so I had everything I wanted. Then, I went first to a Jewish school; not a yeshiva, but a regular elementary school, but run by Jewish teachers. Then I went two years to high school, which was a convent. This was the best girls' school. Then, the war came when I was 14 and there was no schooling for Jewish children. I don't even know if there was schooling for others. We went to Krakow, which is not too far, and we stayed there for a while. Then ... I tell you that [story] in short. Then, they put us into a ... We couldn't live wherever we wanted--there were secluded areas for Jews---and then they opened the ghetto and we came to the ghetto. My father was educated in Vienna [Austria], so he helped with the bookkeeping for the Germans. We were in the ghetto there until 1942 [or] 1943 [it] was. You know, every time, they put people together, and they were sending them away, sending away, and they were all killed. Then, they brought us to Plaszow, P-L-A-S-Z-O-W, which was the Jewish new cemetery in Krakow. They made a concentration camp there. I stayed with my mother, but my father also was [there] with my brother for a while. My mother and I worked in an upholstery [shop] and my father ... My little brother didn't work. But then, on ... When was that? Then, in May 1944, [they] took all the children that were still in the concentration camp and they sent them to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was not far from Krakow. All those children were killed because I came on the fifth of August 1944, together with my mother to Auschwitz-Birkenau and a man I knew said, \"Don't tell your mother, but all the children were burned.\" My father went later, which I haven't seen him anymore. But my father was killed in Mauthausen, by Linz [Austria] in the beginning of March 1945. My mother died in my arms six days before the liberation in Bergen-Belsen. When the liberation came, we were all very sick with typhus and all those terrible sicknesses. There was no help. There was no water. In Bergen-Belsen, there was no bread and no water. We had the first little bit of water taking like this with the hands when the English came in. I was left with a gypsy woman. She used to slap my face and says, \"Your mother wants you to live, so you must live.\" Then, she called in an English soldier because my mother must have told her that I speak English. So he came and asked how we are. Now, he saw what was happening. So I ask him, \"What will you say when you come to England?\" He says, \"Nothing because they'd put me in an insane asylum.\" He said, \"It will take you years to understand that I was right.\" I remember he gave me two pieces of soap and two such small chocolates. I gave each one to the gypsy and I told her, \"Get the kapo,\" and I gave her also the part. I says, \"Bring me to the door,\" and I held out to the English soldier, \"Take me to a hospital.\" They said, \"Take off all your clothes and jump into the blanket.\" They didn't understand that somebody spoke English because in Europe you didn't learn English. [You learned] French, mostly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How did you know English?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=374.0,376.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: I learned English myself. A doctor gave me a book [of] German, English [and] English, German. I learned it by heart. Only, I knew that my pronunciation is not right, so my mother found me a teacher and I had a lot of conversation with her. That's how I learned. Now, the liberation came. The liberation came on the 15th of April, 1945. The Germans were supposed to dynamite this Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on the 16th, so they weren't so lucky. They took me to such a makeshift hospital because I couldn't stand on my legs. I still have trouble with the right leg. Then, we were free, but there was nothing to do. They told us that we can go to Sweden. Some people said maybe to Spain, but I only heard Sweden, so I registered for Sweden. I figured this is a neutral country. I think it was in June that they took us through the Baltic Sea to Sweden. Again, the English language helped me so I could learn easier how to speak Swedish, because this is a language for itself. I went from Trelleborg [Sweden] to Malmo [Sweden], which is a beautiful city. We stayed there in a quarantine. They were afraid that we bring some bad diseases. They were friendly, very friendly, the Swedes and there were doctors. They pulled our teeth without Novocaine, which wasn't very good. But later on, they sent us to camps by nationality. Being that my father was a purely Polish citizen, I went to a Polish camp very high up where the king's lodges were there for hunting lodges. I saw the King, King Gustaf the fifth, I mean. He came by and the lady in charge, the [unintelligible] said, \"Pick up some flowers and give it to him and tell him what you want.\" I said, \"I want to thank you, Excellence, for letting us come to Sweden.\" He says, \"Valkommen [Swedish], welcome.\" He was already an old man. Then, from there, they resettled us to work and I was sent to Vasteros [Sweden]. I still have a friend there. You maybe heard of [unintelligible]. [It] is a big factory there. They make the ball bearings, the steel ball bearings, and I worked there for a while, but my nerves were very bad and I cried. I wanted my father. I, at that time, didn't know yet that he was killed too. So the doctors sent me to a sanatorium. I was there, I think, three weeks and the only thing I did was swim back and forth. It was bitter cold, the water, but I swam and the doctor permitted that. Then, when I came back, the doctor in that sanatorium said, \"Go someplace where you can cry in your own language.\" And I used ... My friends used to send these letters that I got. I choose to go to England, to my father's cousin. But I [was] told I must work. I can't stay with them, so she found me a family that I stayed with for 11 months as a domestic [helper]. They were very nice to me. Then, I went back to Sweden. But in the meantime, I knew my husband already. We used to write letters.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=376.0,659.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How did you meet him first?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=659.0,661.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: My husband was in a camp where there were other Polish girls. Eva Lily Abramovich was there and he came to Vasteras to visit. That's when I met him. We were married May 2nd, 1948, the day that Israel was declared a free country. This is different in the Jewish calendar. My husband was a cake baker and he worked. He usually got work. They needed people to work. I worked as a seamstress in one of those factories. Then, my husband didn't want to stay in Sweden. It was too close to Russia. He said, \"One tyranny is enough in one lifetime.\" I had a friend who promised me in Bergen-Belsen on the floor, she will send me an affidavit. I wrote to her. I was already pregnant and in a hospital. She sent the affidavit right away because he had this quota. He knew a girl that put this quota--because Polish quota was five years--she wrote down in the consulate that he would like to come to America. So that's how we got the permission to come here. But my twins were born on the 30th of August 1950 and it was lucky because they were ... Our affidavit or our visa wasn't ready yet, so they could come without an affidavit because they were infants. We came here to New York [City, New York]. My friend that promised me [the] affidavits rented an apartment in Kew Gardens [neighborhood], which was 91 dollars, and my husband made 42 [dollars] a week. But later it was easier. I passed by a nice bakery, and I walked in, and I asked if they needed a good konditor [Swedish: pastry chef]. She says, \"Well, how do you know he is good?\" [I said,] \"Because I know he is good.\" So he said to me, \"You know what? Tell him to come in the evening.\" This was in walking distance. We didn't have a car, so he gave him one bag and said, \"Bake a few cookies.\" He says, \"You're hired.\" He doubled his salary, which will make the job a little easier, but he worked seven, six days. From there, we go to another apartment in Forest Hills [neighborhood], which was a few dollars cheaper. Later, in 1954, my son was born. Then, we looked for a house. In 1957 [or] 1956, we bought a house in Jericho, Long Island. The kids had good schooling and all are graduates, all are. All four of them are college graduates with titles. Later, the kids went out from New York, so there was nothing left for us. The youngest daughter came here to Roswell [Georgia] and my son-in-law said, \"Go all over America and you will see that here is the best.\" So, we did because my husband went on retirement and we looked around, bought this house, and stayed here. My daughter lives only ten minutes away and my son is one house away.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=661.0,918.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Well, going back a little bit again towards the end of the war ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=918.0,922.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=922.0,923.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: ... how did you go about trying to find out about your father?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=923.0,927.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: I had an uncle who wanted to sell a piece of property, my property that my father bought in 1929 and will build the nicest house for me when I get married. I had written to him that I don't sell that property, this stays like a grave for the three of them. He wrote me back. He had sold the property and he says, \"Your father died I heard in March of 1945.\" He later ... I went to Poland and he gave me the money back, but I wouldn't have sold it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=927.0,974.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: When you and your husband were deciding where to go and what to do, was there any thought of going to Israel?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=974.0,982.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: My husband wanted to go to Israel, but I said, \"After all we went through, let's go someplace where living is a little bit easier,\" so we chose here, America. My friend that sent me the affidavit, she is ... She's died, too, quite a few years ago. She was a very nice lady.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=982.0,1006.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: What was her name?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1006.0,1007.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: She lived in Amsterdam [New York].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1007.0,1009.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: What was her name?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1009.0,1011.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Loni Katz. Yes, we got together always on holidays and the kids' birthdays when we were in New York. She was a nice lady. She promised a complete stranger to send an affidavit. I think this was very nice of her.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1011.0,1038.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: You mentioned that at the end of the war ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1038.0,1042.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1042.0,1042.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: ... in Bergen-Belsen you were very sick physically.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1042.0,1044.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1044.0,1044.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Do you remember what your outlook was on your future? How you felt about your future?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1044.0,1052.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: To tell you the truth, I didn't think I have a future. I was alone. I had no education and nothing. Then, it was lucky that Sweden took us. Sweden was the only country that opened the doors. But there was an agreement between America and England that they have to help to rehabitate those people. So they said they need young people to work and that's what it was. We went to work. The wages were very small. It was hardly enough to ... They took away for food and grocery, which was right because we probably wouldn't know how to handle it. In later years, we had it better. You know, I worked--I could--as a seamstress. It was easier. My husband got always a job because they needed ... They eat a lot of sweets, cakes, and stuff like that and he learned actually the trade there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1052.0,1126.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Can you describe what your husband was like? What kind of a person was he?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1126.0,1132.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: My husband was the most decent person on earth, a wonderful husband, a father, and a grandfather, Papa. They called him 'Papa.' Yes, always hard working, never on what it is that people take her when they ... welfare. Never. [He] always worked from when we came. The next day, he went to work. My friend found him a job in a factory where they make those little statues for cakes. He worked there for maybe two, three weeks and then I found the job in the bakery. Always working.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1132.0,1177.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Could you describe what you were like as a young person?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1177.0,1182.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: I always wanted an education. The last time I saw my father, the last minute ... My father had money. He was a timber exporter. He made money. He made business with Budapest [Hungary], so he told me a name of a bank, and everything, the street. It still exists. He said to me, \"If you and mother survive, then the money belongs to Mother. She will invest it and she will live comfortably.\" This was an amount, at that time, what he put in 1938, 10,000 dollars. This was 50,000 pengo [Hungarian currency]. This was a lot of money. He says, \"If you stay alone, you pay for an education.\" [I have] never gotten a penny. Right away, I wrote letters. Not a penny. That's the telephone. Can I? You want to get ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1182.0,1257.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: You said you wanted more of an education.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1257.0,1259.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1259.0,1259.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: If the war had not changed everything, what were your expectations for adulthood? What did you want to do?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1259.0,1267.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Well, I could have had a profession, for example, in anything. But I was in England. First, I went to the Mosaiska forsamlingen [Swedish: Mosaic community]. It is the Jewish community in Stockholm. I asked if they could help me become a nurse, for example. In those days, you didn't need a college education to become a nurse. She said to me, \"Find yourself an elderly Swede. He will pay for your education.\" So one of the boys beat up ... our boys, the Polish boys, so .... Anything. Then, when I went to England for 11 months, I went to school, but what they taught in school wasn't any more for me. I had learned this all, and I knew how to write, and read English, so this was not for me either. I stayed--they were very nice elderly people--with them and they treated me nice. A year went by and I knew I come back to Stockholm and I will meet up with my husband. I mean, he wasn't a husband yet. I came back in 1947.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1267.0,1348.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Did you ever go back to your hometown to see what was left?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1348.0,1351.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes, we were a few times in Poland. Yes, there's nothing left, nothing. It only has ... You know, there were 25,000 people in the city. Most of them had factories, material factories, because they make this wool material that was just as good as the English. There was a river and it has the chemicals in the water [from] when they washed it. Your material must be always washed. That's what makes this material so good. I went back. Couldn't stand it there. There were 5,000 Jews living in this city and a lot of them very wealthy, like my father, and timber exporters, and people that had factories. Nothing was left, nothing. Then, we went, and we were in Krakow. And we were also in Wadowice, where my husband comes from. My husband was in his city in 1947 and he put ... He went to the magistrate to register that he's the only survivor. He had three brothers. One was older, the others were younger. Because his father had a house with tenants and a bakery. He could have sold that for 1,000 dollars, but he was smart and he didn't. Many years later, he gave it to a woman and she took out from the archives, the papers, and they found that everything my husband said was right. About six years ago, I think, we sold it. My husband sold it because there was a baker there and he told my husband three years earlier that he doesn't have yet the money, and my husband should wait, and he will buy the bakery with the house. He did. He gave us, of course, the money in Polish zlotys. But now you can exchange any waluta [Polish: currency]. You pay a percent. It was ten percent my husband lost, but ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1351.0,1503.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Your husband's name?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1503.0,1506.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Natan Lowenberg, N-A-T-A-N. He had ... He was lucky he could have lived. He always said it would be nice when his brothers would be alive. That never do ... One of his brothers, younger a year, was in Auschwitz-Birkenau and the only Jew escaped Auschwitz-Birkenau. Somebody gave him a coat which was marked with the star of David and [said] \"Jude\" [German: Jew], you know. He took that coat. He was supposed to sell it on the outside. A whole night, he was under the barrack, but he knew the vicinity because the city where my husband comes from is a few kilometers only from Auschwitz-Birkenau. Then, he stayed with a maid in the cellar for maybe a couple of days. Then, she threw him out and he was killed a few--my husband didn't even know--a few months, a few weeks before the Russians liberated this part of Poland. This was in January 1945 already. The story was that he worked for a priest, and some punks came, and told him to take the pants off, and you know, only Jews were circumcised in Europe, and they killed him. I never told my husband, never.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1506.0,1605.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Do you know his name?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1605.0,1608.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Zygmunt. Zelik in Yiddish.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1608.0,1617.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Well, talk a little more of your early days in America.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1617.0,1623.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Were very tough, very hard. I couldn't go to work. My husband worked. The apartment was 92 dollars and he brought home 42 [dollars] a week. It was very hard. The babies were small and we needed the doctor. The doctor was a decent man. He used to come to the apartment and charge three dollars. Once, I didn't have the money and he gave me a prescription. He said to me, \"I'll speak with your husband.\" He spoke Yiddish. I went to the drugstore and called my friend, the friend with the affidavit, to bring me the money. When she did, he was in tears. He didn't want to take the money. He says, \"You know how many wealthy people owe me money? I have to take them to court. And you went and called your friend to bring some money.\" He was a very nice man. He was very happy when we bought a house.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1623.0,1689.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Talk about the Jewish part of your life. What has that meant?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1689.0,1693.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Excuse me?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1693.0,1694.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: The Jewish part of your life, you and your husband ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1694.0,1698.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: With my husband? No.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1698.0,1701.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: What has that meant to you?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1701.0,1703.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: I was brought up not in a religious or Orthodox family, but traditional ... all the holidays, everything, beautiful tables, always whatever they could afford. I didn't go to any kind of yeshiva or something like this, but I learned Hebrew as a modern language. When I was in the convent, I still went to the teacher. My husband was from a more religious family. He used to say to me that his mother wanted he should lay the tallit and tefillin in the morning. He was more religious. But we went along whatever life could offer. We had our son bar mitzvahed. Of course, the girls didn't go to Hebrew school. They went for a year, but didn't like it. Just like that. That's all. Our grandson was bar mitzvahed. I gave, in the funeral home, I gave them the tallit that my husband wore on his grandson's bar mitzvah. He was such a proud Papa. I hope they put it on. I guess they did.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1703.0,1793.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How was the Jewish community in America any different from Europe or were there any differences?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1793.0,1801.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: I think the European Jews were more Orthodox, a little bit crazy with their kashrut, with everything. I know even my husband said that his mother was so religious it wasn't even funny. She wanted to bring her youngest son, who was blond--my husband was dark; I'll show you the picture--to [hide with] a [non-Jewish] woman, but she was afraid that he wouldn't eat kosher meals. You know, this was in their mind. That was no good. Of course, in Poland, the antisemitism ... They were so antisemitic. They still are. They don't have any Jews. They have about 3,000 Jews. They are still antisemitic.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1801.0,1859.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: What is your opinion about that part of the past, the antisemitism there?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1859.0,1864.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Terrible. We went skating. They would push us over, you know, we went ... well, when we were kids. Then, the convent that I went to only took about 11 Jewish girls. They needed money. The tuition was very high. I don't know by zlotys what it was. Then, in 1939, in June, before school ended, they threw out all the Jewish girls. They wanted a convent without Jews. You couldn't go to the higher ... to the universities. There was a numerus nullus [Latin: zero number] and numerous clauses [Latin: closed number] on the universities. If you wanted to study, your father had to be wealthy enough to send you to, when I was a child, to Germany or Austria. There they took the Jews. Switzerland took Jews, Italy. But you could not in Poland. They should be wiped out from the surface of the earth.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1864.0,1935.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How did you respond to that kind of an attitude? How did you deal with it?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1935.0,1943.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Well, we got used to it. I went out. I tell you a story you will hear you've never heard before. My grandmother on Yom Kippur ... Are you Jewish? Yes, Yom Kippur, she was all day long in the synagogue. My mother gave me a little bouquet of flowers and they had such apples with clover for smell. I was dressed. I was five years old, dressed from top to toe all [in] brand new stuff. I went to the synagogue, and on the way back to the house, a boy came and slashed my dress with a razor blade. I ran to my father. My father was in his office. I didn't know how bad it was, but I was crying for the dress. Things like this were many. I went out with a new coat. Somebody spit at me. This was just terrible for little children, very bad. And you see, my father employed a lot of people. He employed not only in his office, he had five people or six, depends [on] what he needed, but also as a timber exporter, he had a sawmill. He had to have people there and people that he was buying [from]. He bought the forest, the trees, so he employed a lot of people, yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1943.0,2041.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: What was your understanding of why that kind of hostility existed? Have you ever understood what that was about?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2041.0,2049.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: I think a lot of it was jealousy. The Jew was usually prosperous. The Jew was prosperous and mostly educated, even if he was educated only in the Talmud and the Torah, it gave him also a good education. I tell you, if I may, in Plaszow, in the concentration camps, they took everything away, everything, and they pulled teeth. You know, people had gold teeth. They pulled them out. I had a little, like a little pouch with diamonds and gold. I gave that pouch to two very poor girls. My mother always tried to give them something more to eat as long as it was possible. I said to them, \"My mother will share that with you.\" And they believed. They were decent girls. A friend of my mother, when the Germans came, pointed me out, \"When you want something, you take her.\" So he came and held like this [at my neck] a knife. My mother was saying, \"Give it to him. Give it.\" So I took two white and blue diamonds out and I put it in my mouth. He looked already in my mouth. I didn't have any crowns and those ... We gave everything away. Those two diamonds I brought for my father. My father [was sent] to the airport. There was a small airport in Krakow, and my father was arrested. He sent 50,000. This German that bought it, worked work for my father, and my father later put him in his own business ... So he took 50,000 zlotys and gave it to such a man that he was ... How do you call it in English? He was going back and forth making business. You know, when you needed something, he for money, he would do everything. When he came and he was caught with 50,000 dollars, the zlotys, he says everything belongs to my father. My father was beaten severely and sent to the ghetto. There was one house that they make like a prison. When the German heard--the German that bought the two diamonds--heard about it. He came. He was a higher officer in the Wehrmacht than the commandant of the ghetto, in the Plaszow concentration camp. He says, \"I will ... I know that man so-and-so many years. I worked for him. He put me in my own business. I only send 5,000 zlotys. Here are the diamonds.\" He said, \"Let him out.\" They let my father out right away because there were some that were half decent.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2049.0,2248.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: What do you remember about your mother's experience during the war?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2248.0,2252.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Well, my mother suffered terrible. There was a time that we could escape. One of my father's clerks, who died here in California not long ago, came and said he has a man to cross the borders towards Hungary. My father had some money there, so he figured that would be good. But [the man said] he can't take four. He can only take two people. He wanted to take my father and myself because I could walk better and then send more people for my mother and my brother. My mother stood in the hallway and said, \"If we can't go all together, we don't go.\" If she would let go, maybe they would survive. They suffered plenty. They took my brother and then my mother said ... The day that they took the children, my mother says, \"Run! Find Papa,\" so I run. There was one wall [of] wire, with electric wires, that I found my father, and I pushed him on the ground, and I laid on top of him. My father wasn't grey [haired], but in those few hours, those temples became white and he said to me, \"Tell me I did wrong.\" Even my husband would say ... My husband didn't know my father, of course, but he knows of him what people told him. [My husband] says, \"With all his money and jewelry ...\" and we didn't look so Jewish, so ... \"he didn't escape?\" He didn't escape. And Russia was a terrible flight. You see, because through history, there were always fights with Russia. He, my father, was afraid of Russia, but people went to Russia and survived. It wasn't easy.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2252.0,2389.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: What was it like for your mom at the very end of the war when you were with her?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2389.0,2394.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: [At the] very end, my mother was very sick. In Bergen-Belsen was terrible, the box, the typhus, the starvation alone. No water and no bread, nothing. Only such a mush they gave in the morning. I guess flour and a little bit of water. She said to me ... I used to shake her up. I say, \"You must live. You must live for me.\" She says, \"I don't have the strength anymore.\" In the last minute, she said to me--she was completely conscious--she says, \"You want to live. You will survive. Six years of war is too much for me.\" Then she gave such a deep breath and said, \"If you ever have children and they are in a small percentage as good to you as you were to us, you will be very lucky.\" I had ... And then, she was finished. I put those four fingers in her mouth. She was cold. My husband was unconscious already on Wednesday, completely unconscious, but my mother was conscious to the last minute. Nice story?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2394.0,2479.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Well, let us move on to the happier things. Talk a little more of the earlier days in America and slowly building up your family. Let us hear the memories of those days.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2479.0,2490.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Well, we both worked hard. My husband had three bakeries. When my son was about three and a half, we opened the first bakery. It was very hard because the kids stayed home alone and he had to go to a nanny. Like, she was keeping him during the day. It was no good and it was a big bakery to begin with. Then, my husband sold it, and went back to work, and we bought a house. We saved enough. We save four and a half thousand dollars from 1950 till 1956. For a small salary, this was pretty good. We bought the house. The house was 20,000 dollars. We knew there will be a school across the street, so this was good. We had three children. Then, my husband bought again a bakery. I used to work in the front always, but the children were already bigger. And the vicinity was good. This was 75 percent Jewish, a lot of temples all around. We belonged to the East Nassau Congregation, where my son was bar mitzvahed. Off and on he worked. Then, the last bakery he bought, a German that worked for us, a German baker, wanted he should come in as a partner and he did. He was reluctant because the woman was a Nazi. You can't even imagine what a Nazi that [woman] was. But he went in and I think we stayed with them about two years. Then, he sold it to an Australian who went to jail and the woman wanted to sell. So, my husband bought it for $7,000. Yes, and we stayed a couple of years. The bakery business is very tough. There is never a holiday, never a Sunday or Saturday, never, so this is ... We stayed until my husband says he sells it out. He doesn't want it anymore. He went to work for about three years more, and he retired, and we came here. He didn't work here. He was out of work already about 18 years and he retired.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2490.0,2658.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How do you suppose the experience of starvation affected your relationship with food?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2658.0,2663.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: With whom?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2663.0,2664.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: With food after the war ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2664.0,2666.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Oh.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2666.0,2667.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: ... especially being in the line of work of having food.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2667.0,2671.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: No, you just try not to think about [it]. Yes, what was bad [was] that my husband says you cannot sell anything tomorrow in New York. Here, they sell old stuff, but not in New York. I couldn't stomach it. One day, there were only 98 dollars in the register and I had so much left, beautiful Danish and rolls ... Oh, this broke my heart. My husband said, \"You can't eat it.\" So I called a few places like an orphanage or old age home. They told me, \"Come and bring it.\" I says, \"I don't bring nothing,\" so that was very difficult. I still don't throw bread out. But the starvation was bad. For the Polish Jew, I think it was easier. It was systematic, less and less always. But I remember in April of 1944, the Hungarian Jews came. They couldn't take it. I know my mother begged the girls to eat something, \"They won't give you anything else. You have to eat what is it.\" They died out later in Auschwitz-Birkenau like flies. Terrible. When they came, they were so beautiful, well fed. They even were dressed nice. Then, they took the clothes away, but they wouldn't eat.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2671.0,2772.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How did people treat you after the war once they knew that you were a survivor?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2772.0,2779.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: We were treated well in Sweden. They opened the doors. They tried to help us. They were also ... We couldn't speak. Who learned Swedish? Nobody. So they tried very hard to understand and we worked. You know what we did? We used to buy the newspaper and read the newspaper, not every word, but whatever we could understand. Then, slowly, we would go to a theater or to a movie and we could understand already. The Swedish people were very nice, very decent people.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2779.0,2825.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: When you came to America ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2825.0,2827.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2827.0,2829.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: ... how did the local Americans treat you? Was there any kind of discrimination or ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2829.0,2835.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2835.0,2835.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: ... anything like that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2835.0,2837.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes, some. Some people looked very much down on us and said ... didn't like that we came in. I remember in the first apartment, there was a woman that saw me at the butcher's stand. I don't keep a kosher kitchen. She said to me, \"What do you mean? A girl like you doesn't keep a kosher kitchen?\" So I said, \"The Jewish G-d is not in the kitchen.\" I couldn't afford to do kosher meats. They were terribly expensive. Also, my husband at work sometimes he was discriminated because he was a Greener. They used to call that a 'Greener.'","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2837.0,2889.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How did you explain what the numbers on your arm mean to people?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2889.0,2894.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Some people ... Like, I told a lady in the swimming pool. A woman came up to me, said to me, \"Are you that stupid that you can't remember your phone number?\" I said to her, \"Go to the library and look it up.\" There are people. Some people ask, \"Why don't you take it off?\" It's not my shame. It's not my doing. My mother's number was number two on the end. I had ... When we lived already in our own house in Jericho, we had neighbors. They were ... Let me see ... They had four children [who were] bastards, real bastards. The girl was a couple years older than my twins. She said to my twins--they were Irish people, but born here in America--she said to my twins, \"Here, when somebody is in jail, they have the number on their jackets. Your mother must have killed and murdered that she has a number on her arm.\" Well, I ringed the bell and I told them, \"Would you explain that?\" This girl was impossible. She used to tell my children, \"You have no furniture in the house,\" but I had a house, right? I had the house. We bought. It was spring, but we bought it and we did right because other people, everybody ended up ... in the family. So my husband says, \"Okay, we have $3,000 in the bank. We buy furniture,\" and we did that. She was always coming to the door, always something she had. We had a swing. She would swing all around. She could get hurt. We had a swimming pool outside. She threw the dog in. [She did] all kinds of stupid things. So, one day I told her, \"Virginia, you come to my door, I slap your ugly face both ways.\" I did. Of course, they took me to court. I called my lawyer and she says, \"Oh, no, this is an Irish man. He can't stand me. You go yourself.\" I won right away. I won right away because I said, \"I was told in America even a Jew has a right to live. \"Yes, yes,\" he said. I said, \"Your Honor, all I want is peace; not only for me, but for the whole neighborhood.\" [He said,] \"Yeah.\" He wanted I should pay the lawyer that he brought. I didn't come with a lawyer. You encounter certain things, you know, while you go along. Here in Roswell, people are very nice. We have very nice neighbors here. Only I don't know if there are any ... Well, I think there is a Manny Friedman. Maybe he's a Jew.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2894.0,3083.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How did you explain your past to your children as they were growing up?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3083.0,3089.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: That was very difficult. This was very difficult because the girls, when they were small, they used to ask me, \"Why don't you have a mother, a father, an uncle, or somebody [unintelligible]?\" As long as I could tell them ... They had a canary and it died. Sometimes I used to say, \"Well, they are far away,\" when they were about two years old and asked because the other children had grandparents and uncles. I said, \"They far away.\" But then when the canary died, I explained, \"You see, our parents and our brothers died too, and we can never see them again. And you must grow older to understand what has happened to us.\" Then, when my son was born, he's three and a half years younger. When he asked the questions, the twins would say to him, \"You don't need anybody. You have Mommy and Daddy and you have us, so don't ask questions.\" He didn't. The youngest was not interested anymore because a friend told her, \"My grandmother is a pain.\" You see? So children learn and children understand. I had an uncle. That lady that sent the affidavits, she was always very nice to the kids, really nice. We all send presents and we were together on holidays. [She] was really nice. I had a cousin, who is gone already many years. She used to say when the daughters didn't eat, \"Eat because I starved.\" This is stupid. This is not the children's fault.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3089.0,3204.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: What did you want your children to understand once they were old enough? How did you explain?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3204.0,3212.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: My husband complained that they don't have enough understanding for us for what's happened to us, but I didn't know what to do because I can't force them to ask questions about the Holocaust. I can't force them. They know what has happened. They saw some movies and things. They didn't see that Shoah [interview]. They, like, don't want to see it yet, so I will leave it for my son and when I am gone, maybe he will. He has to come at us. He will probably show it to them. I have a friend--you will know about her--Gerda Weissman Klein. She writes books about the Holocaust. She's a big woman. She writes books and she ... Her children maybe have more understanding than mine for what has happened. I can't force them to understand, to ask questions. Some people take the children to Poland. What will they see there in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Plaszow? What for? I don't think it's necessary. Do you think it's necessary to show them concentration camps?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3212.0,3301.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3301.0,3303.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3303.0,3305.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How did that whole war experience affect you inside do you suppose?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3305.0,3313.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Very bad to lose parents, a little brother I loved so much. To see my ...  You see what was the hardest thing? To see my parents hungry. I couldn't do anything. In Plaszow, you couldn't do anything, nothing. In the beginning, from the ghetto, I used to go out and buy in the German stores. I speak German perfect. But later you couldn't do anything, nothing. I think the last time I saw my father, he was swollen from hunger. This was in August 1944.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3313.0,3358.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: What would you say were the personal qualities about you that helped you get through that hardship?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3358.0,3365.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: You know, you will laugh in my face. I think [it was] the hatred against the Nazis, what they did. They took the blood from my veins. I think that hatred [and belief] that we can stand up and be human beings again. I tell you, between those survivors, I think 90 percent did very well. They went into businesses. They ... I know in Sweden, they went into all kinds of little businesses and those that had trades, were tradesmen. They did alright.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3365.0,3411.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Do you think there were particular qualities that enabled some people to survive, beyond luck?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3411.0,3419.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Special qualities of people? Look, they beat me that my blood was running. I survived that, too. I survived the starvation. I think it's the person by itself that can take so much. You see, you can. A horse will not pull if you don't feed him and water him, but the human being does. You just have to be strong.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3419.0,3457.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: How did your feeling about Jewishness change because of that experience, or did it change any?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3457.0,3467.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: I never was religious. I asked my father, \"Where is the G-d you wanted me to believe in?\" I learned. I liked the Bible stories and everything. He said, \"Don't ask questions. I have no answer.\" But my grandfather, my father's father, died in 1938. So did his wife a few weeks later. [He] was a religious Jew with a big beard. He had ... You know, like they show in those cowboy movies, where the railroad station is there usually is a hotel and an inn? That's what my grandfather had. As antisemitic as the people were in the small city, they came to him and he was safe. My youngest, the youngest brother of my father, was keeping that inn. They were safe for a long time but in 1938, they resettled them to Krakow. They didn't want him to be in such a small city. I remember I asked my grandfather--he was always invited to all the christenings and all the weddings--\"What do you eat?\" He says, \"They know that I am an observant Jew. They give me a glass of tea and a piece of bread.\" You see, they had an understanding for him. The other grandfather ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3467.0,3560.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Go on.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3560.0,3564.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: My other grandfather, from Wednesday to Thursday--I haven't thought even of him--came to me in my dream with the tallit under the arm and looked down, didn't say nothing. From Thursday to Friday, he did the same thing. I said to myself, \"Oh, my G-d, he's taking my husband,\" and he took. He had the tallit around his arm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3564.0,3599.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Is there anything more that you would like to add that I did not ask about?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3599.0,3605.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: I don't know. You see, life goes on. I lost my parents, my only brother. Now, I lost my husband. He could have lived, but he was so sick. In four days, he was finished. The rabbi called me and said, \"This is better this way.\"","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3605.0,3637.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Kent: Thank you for being willing to tell us your story.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3637.0,3641.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/transcript/72054/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lowenberg: Yes. I can give you those things from the Shoah but you ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3641.0,3646.91"}]},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Annotations [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eBielsko was a city in southern Poland, in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Katowice. Bielsko was on the west bank of the Biala River, which once divided Solesia and Lesser Poland. The population as mostly German speaking. In 1951, the city was merged with Biala, a city on the east bank of the Biala river, and became Bielsko-Biala [Czech: Bílsko-Bělá, German: Bielitz-Biala].\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=8.0,23.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eFilm director Steven Spielberg (of Schindler’s List fame) established the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in 1994 to gather video testimonies from survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust. In addition to interviewing primarily Jewish survivors, homosexual survivors, Jehovah’s Witness survivors, liberators and liberation witnesses, political prisoners, rescuers and aid providers, Roma and Sinti survivors, survivors of Eugenics policies, and war crimes trials participants were also interviewed. Today the foundation is known as the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education and the collection includes nearly 52,000 video testimonies of Holocaust survivors. The archive has also been expanded to include another 10,000 testimonies of witnesses from other genocides, including Rwanda. Ruth and her husband, Natan Lowenberg, were interviewed by the foundation in 1997.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=30.0,36.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eIn June 1939, Ruth’s family moved to Krakow, a city on the Vistula River in southern Poland near the border of today’s Czech Republic. In 1939, some 56,000 Jews (almost one-quarter of the total population) resided in Krakow. When the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, many of Krakow's Jews fled east. Meanwhile, other Polish Jewish refugees fleeing the advancing Germans flooded into Krakow. Anti-Jewish Aktionen and measures began immediately following the German occupation of Krakow in 1939. German soldiers kidnapped Jews for forced labor, humiliated them in the streets, and arrested and killed some, seemingly at random. Jewish businesses were looted and marked with a Star of David. Soon, all synagogues, prayer houses, and Jewish schools were closed. Jewish homes were searched for gold, jewelry, foreign currency, and other items illegal for Jews to possess. A curfew was imposed, and anyone caught disobeying could be shot. Jews were required to register and wear armbands with the Star of David. The 60,000 to 70,000 Jews in Krakow at the beginning of the war were not put into a ghetto a first but their lives were highly restricted, and they were put to work for the Germans. Some without work permits were expelled to Lublin and other places between November 1940 and April 1941. \u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eTo assist in managing the large communities within concentration or labor camps, German authorities installed a hierarchy of administrative units under their control. A kapo was a prisoner in a concentration camp who was assigned by the SS guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks in the camp. Kapos were generally criminals. The kapo system minimized costs by allowing the camps to function with fewer SS personnel. It was designed to turn victim against victim, as the kapos were pitted against their fellow prisoners to maintain the favor of their SS guards.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003e“Gypsy” is a racial slur often used to refer to Roma, [singular Rom; also called Romany]. Roma are an ethnic group that originated in northern India but live worldwide today, principally in Europe. This minority is made up of distinct groups called “tribes” or “nations” and includes the Roma, Sinti and Lalleri family groupings. They were called “Gypsies” because Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt. As a traditionally nomadic group, Roma have often been viewed as outsiders. For centuries, Roma were scorned and persecuted across Europe. Among the groups the Nazi regime singled out for persecution on so-called racial grounds were the Roma, Sinti, and Lalleri, whose fate was parallel to that of the Jews. It is estimated that at least 250,000, but possibly as many as 500,000 Roma were killed during World War II.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/106","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eBergen-Belsen was liberated on April 15, 1945, by the British 11th Armoured Division. The soldiers discovered approximately 60,000 prisoners inside, most of them half-starved and seriously ill, and another 13,000 corpses lying around the camp unburied. The horrors of the camp, documented on film and in pictures, made the name \"Belsen\" emblematic of Nazi crimes in general for public opinion in many countries in the immediate post-1945 period. Today, there is a memorial with an exhibition hall at the site.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/107","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eBergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentration camp. Initially this was an \"exchange camp\", where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas. The camp was later expanded to accommodate Jews from other concentration camps. A tent camp was erected in Bergen-Belsen in August 1944. Initially, it served as a transit camp for non-Jewish women from Poland, whom the Germans had deported to the Reich to work in armaments factories, but the SS soon began using the tent camp to house sick and injured prisoners transported from other concentration camps who were no longer able to work. By November 1944, the tent camp also held around 8,000 women who had been evacuated from Auschwitz-Birkenau, most of whom were Jewish. Eventually, the tents were so badly damaged by a storm that the prisoners from the tent camp were moved into already overcrowded barracks. After 1945, the name was applied to the displaced persons camp established nearby, but it is most associated with the concentration camp. From 1941 to 1945, almost 20,000 Soviet prisoners of war and a further 50,000 inmates died there. Overcrowding, lack of food and poor sanitary conditions caused outbreaks of typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever and dysentery, leading to the deaths of more than 35,000 people in the first few months of 1945, shortly before and after the liberation.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/108","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eMauthausen was the primary concentration camp in Austria. It had a whole series of sub-camps (about 50). It was opened after the Anschluss (when Germany annexed Austria) in March 1938. It was established on the site of the Weiner Graben granite quarry and its purpose was to use slave labor to exploit the quarry. At first it was a punishment camp where prisoners were sent to serve out their sentences under very severe conditions. The death rate was the highest among all the camps in the Greater Reich. In addition to working in the quarries, which was essentially a death sentence, the prisoners also worked on construction projects (such as building roads, power plants, tunnels or power stations) and for the armaments industry. About 200,000 prisoners passed through Mauthausen and its sub-camps and the death rate was about 50 percent. The Americans liberated it on May 5, 1945.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/109","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eThe approaching front line caused the evacuation of Plaszow and its sub-camps to begin in the summer of 1944. Most inmates were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mauthausen and Stutthof concentration camps. Only a few hundred prisoners remained alive in the camp when Soviet soldiers liberated it in January 1945.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/110","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eYeshiva [Hebrew: sitting] is a Jewish educational institution for religious instruction that is equivalent to high school. It also refers to a Talmudic college for unmarried male students from their teenage years to their early twenties.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/111","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eWorld War II officially began in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on Friday, September 1, 1939. Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany on September 3. In 1939, Britain and France had signed a series of military agreements with Poland that formed a military alliance based on mutual assistance in case of a military invasion from Germany.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/112","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eOn March 3, 1941, a ghetto was formally established in Krakow, Podgorze, a poor area in the southern part of town. Between 15,000 and 20,000 Jews from Krakow and nearby areas lived within the ghetto boundaries, which were enclosed by barbed-wire fences and, in places, by a stone wall. The conditions were terrible with disease and starvation rampant. Four guarded entrance gates accessed the Krakow ghetto. The Germans established several forced labor factories and camps within and near the ghetto.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/113","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eAuschwitz-Birkenau was a network of camps built and operated by Germany just outside the Polish town of Oswiecem (renamed “Auschwitz” by the Germans) in Polish areas annexed by Germany during World War II. Auschwitz was a complex of camps: the Main Camp (Auschwitz I), Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and Monowitz (Auschwitz III). Many smaller sub-camps were attached to the complex, which drew their labor from the Main Camp and Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is estimated that the SS and police deported at a minimum 1.3 million people (approximately 1.1 million of which were Jews) to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex between 1940 and 1945. Camp authorities murdered 1.1 million of these prisoners.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/114","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eIn comparison to other camps, Plaszow’s inmate population included a comparatively high proportion of Jewish women and children. While most Polish Jewish children under the age of 14 had been killed by the end of 1942, there were still some in Plaszow until the spring of 1944. In March 1944, a special barrack or “kindergarten” was installed in Plaszow. In mid-May between 250 and 300 children were separated from their parents and moved into the barrack. On May 15, 1944, the children were loaded into wagons, while their horrified parents, gathered nearby for a roll call, stood watching. The children were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were killed. Survivors who witnessed the deportation recall the Germans playing lullabies such as Gute Nacht Mutti [German: Goodnight, Mommy] over loudspeakers.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/115","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eIn the spring and summer of 1942, almost half of the Krakow ghetto’s inhabitants were murdered or deported to labor and extermination camps including Plaszow, Belzec, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The ghetto was liquidated in a series of Aktions between June 1942 and March 1943.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/116","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eThe Plaszow camp [Polish: Płaszów; also known as the “Krakau-Plaszow” camp] was initially a labor camp, constructed in a southern suburb of Krakow, Poland on the site of two Jewish cemeteries. Built in late 1942 and further expanded until mid-1944, it was transformed into a full-fledged concentration camp when Jews from the Krakow ghetto were sent there. Mass executions, random violence and beatings were an almost daily feature of life Plaszow. At its peak, an estimated 25,000 prisoners were in the camp and at least 8,000 died there.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=42.0,374.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/117","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eGustaf V (1858-1950) was King of Sweden from 1907 until his death in 1950. He was the eldest son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Sophia of Nassau.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=376.0,659.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/118","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eRoswell, Georgia is in northern Fulton County. It was incorporated in 1854 and today is the ninth largest city in Georgia. It a suburb of Atlanta and is known for its affluent historic district.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=661.0,918.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/119","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eThe 1924 Johnson-Reed Act had cut immigration quotas to admit fewer than 6,000 Polish immigrants into the United States per year. From 1939 to 1945, the quota for Polish immigrants admitted into the U.S. had increased to 15,000 per year. Immigration restrictions were still in effect at the end of the war until President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order, the \"Truman Directive,\" on December 22, 1945. It required that existing immigration quotas be designated for displaced persons (DPs). While overall immigration into the United States did not increase, more DPs were admitted than before. About 22,950 DPs, of whom two-thirds were Jewish, entered the United States between December 22, 1945 and 1947 under provisions of the Truman Directive. The Polish quota between 1945 and 1948 was 17,000 a year. Congressional action to increase immigration quotas did not come until 1948.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=661.0,918.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/120","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eIn November 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948 when the British mandate was scheduled to end. After the British began the withdrawal of their military forces from Palestine in early April 1948, Zionist leaders moved to establish a modern Jewish state. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many survivors felt there was no future for Jews in Europe. Israeli statehood represented hope to survivors who longed for a homeland where Jews would not be a vulnerable minority. On May 14, 1948—the day the British Mandate over Palestine expired—David Ben-Gurion, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, announced the formation of the state of Israel.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=661.0,918.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/121","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eAn Affidavit of Support and Sponsorship was among the criteria applicants seeking an entry visa into the United States during the 1930s and 1940s had to meet. This required two sponsors who were United States citizens or had permanent resident status. Sponsors had to provide proof of their financial status (Federal tax returns and an affidavit from their bank and employer) to ensure the immigrants would not become dependent upon social welfare programs.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=661.0,918.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/122","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eThe Hebrew calendar consists of months of 29 or 30 days which begin and end at approximately the time of the new moon. The starting point of Hebrew chronology is the year 3761 BCE, the date for the creation of the world as described in the Old Testament.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=661.0,918.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/123","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eAt the request of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Sweden accepted over 9,000 displaced persons and survivors after the war. These people were brought to Sweden for medical treatment so they could eventually return to their home countries.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1052.0,1126.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/124","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eAt the outbreak of World War II, there were approximately 12,000 Jews in the Bielsko and its vicinity, with about 4,700 Jews in Bielsko proper. After the war, only between 200 and 350 returned.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1351.0,1503.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/125","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eOnly 928 prisoners (878 men and 50 women) are known to have escaped from the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex of camps. Most of the escapees were from Poland or the Soviet Union. Of those who escaped, 196 were successful in surviving the war, 25 were recaptured later, and 433 were not successful. The fate of the others is not known. \u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1506.0,1605.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/126","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eYiddish is the common historical language of Ashkenazi Jews from Central and Eastern Europe. It is heavily Germanic based but uses the Hebrew alphabet. The language was spoken or understood as a common tongue for many European Jews up until the middle of the twentieth century.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1608.0,1617.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/127","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eA tallit is a prayer shawl fringed at each of the four corners in accordance with biblical law. The wearing of tallit at worship is obligatory only for married men, but it is customarily worn also by males of bar mitzvah age and older. In non-Orthodox congregations, women may also wear the tallit if they so choose.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1703.0,1793.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/128","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eA bar mitzvah [Hebrew: son of commandments] is a rite of passage for Jewish boys aged 13 years and one day. At that time, a Jewish boy is considered a responsible adult for most religious purposes. He is now duty-bound to keep the commandments, he puts on tefillin and may be counted to the minyan quorum for public worship. He celebrates the barmitzvah by being called up to the reading of the Torah in the synagogue, usually on the next available Sabbath after his Hebrew birthday.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1703.0,1793.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/129","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eOrthodox Judaism is a traditional branch of Judaism that strictly follows the written Torah and the oral law concerning prayer, dress, food, sex, family relations, social behavior, the Sabbath day, holidays, and more.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1703.0,1793.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/130","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eTefillin, also called “phylacteries,” are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, which are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers. They are worn around the arm, hand and fingers and on the forehead in a process called lehani’ach tefillin [Hebrew: bind tefillin]. The Torah commands they should be worn as a “sign” and “remembrance” that G-d brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1703.0,1793.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/131","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eKashrut is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jews are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér, meaning \"fit\" (in this context, \"fit for consumption\").\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1801.0,1859.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/132","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eOnly approximately ten percent of Jews in Poland survived the Holocaust. In all, approximately 3,000,000 of a pre-war Jewish population of around 3,300,000 were murdered. In 2010, the Jewish population of Poland was around 3,200. In 2023, it was estimated to have increased to between 10,000 and 20,000.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1801.0,1859.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/133","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eBefore the Holocaust, Jews were the largest minority in Poland. In Poland’s major cities, Jews and Poles spoke each other’s languages and interacted in markets and on the streets. Even smaller towns and villages in Poland were, to some extent, mixed communities. That did not mean that antisemitism did not impact the lives of Polish Jews, however. After World War I (Poland) had become a democratic independent state and increasing Polish nationalism made Poland a hostile place for many Jews. The antisemitic atmosphere increased in Poland during the 1930s. A series of pogroms and discriminatory laws were signs of growing antisemitism, while fewer and fewer opportunities to emigrate were available. A series of pogroms occurred in the 1930s. In Lodz, for example, organized attacks wounded and killed Jews in April 1933, May 1934 and in September 1935. At Polish universities, Jews experienced discrimination and exclusion. Unofficial quotas restricting Jewish enrollment to around 10 percent was introduced at some universities. Jewish students often endured harassment and even physical violence from right-wing students. Most were required to sit in segregated areas of the classroom known as “ghetto benches” [Polish: getto ławkowe]. An economic boycott of Jewish businesses was in full force by 1937. Wealthy Jews were arrested in 1938 and guards were placed outside Jewish shops to prevent non-Jewish customers from entering them.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1801.0,1859.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/134","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eNumerus clausus\u003cbr\u003e [Latin: closed number] refers to fixed quotas that limited Jewish admission to certain professions, public offices, or educational institutes. In general, numerus clausus policies were religious or racial quotas used to discriminate against Jews. Such policies were not unique to the Holocaust but gained favor in the inter-war period leading up to the Holocaust. Numerus clausus policies were a manifestation of widespread antisemitism in Eastern Europe. In countries such as Poland, the numerus clausus was introduced as a quasi-legal means, or was applied in practice, as part of an antisemitic policy. Some Polish towns and universities also independently initiated what was known as a numerus nullus[Latin: zero number], meaning a complete exclusion of Jews.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1864.0,1935.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/135","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eYom Kippur [Hebrew: “day of atonement”] is the most sacred day of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur is a 25-hour fast day. Most of the day is spent in prayer, reciting yizkor for deceased relatives, confessing sins, requesting divine forgiveness, and listening to Torah readings and sermons. People greet each other with the wish that they may be sealed in the heavenly book for a good year ahead. The day ends with the blowing of the shofar (a ram’s horn).\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=1943.0,2041.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/136","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eIt was common practice in concentration camps for gold teeth and fillings to be removed before victim’s bodies were cremated or buried. Along with other gold valuables such as jewelry, the gold would then be melted down and reused by the German Reich. Allied soldiers found piles of teeth and fillings when they liberated many of the camps.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2049.0,2248.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/137","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eThe Wehrmacht were the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2049.0,2248.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/138","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eAs the invading German forces advanced east into Poland in September of 1939, hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees fled westward. Most fled so suddenly, they took only what they could carry and had no specific destination in mind. Few made contingency plans or took the time to prepare adequately for a long journey. When the Russians then annexed eastern Poland and a German-Russian demarcation line was established, 300,000 Jewish refugees found themselves trapped on the Soviet side of a heavily guarded border. Some of the refugees returned home, while about 40,000 continued their flight fearing arrest and persecution in either German- or Russian-occupied territory. Many headed to Romania, Hungary, and Lithuania, only to later become victims of mass killing operations when German forces advanced deep into Soviet territory in 1941. Most of the Polish refugees, however, remained in Soviet-occupied Poland. In 1940 and 1941, Soviet secret police officials arrested many of the refugees, who were considered “unreliable elements,” and deported them to Siberia, central Asia, and other locations in the interior of the Soviet Union. While they endured horrible conditions, this paradoxically saved the lives of a few hundred thousand Jewish refugees. Most of those Jews who survived were in Russian during the war – 170,000 returned to Poland during the first repatriation in 1946 and an additional 19,000-20,000 returned in the second repatriation from Russia in 1956.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2252.0,2389.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/139","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003ePrior to World War I, Poland’s territory was divided among the empires of Germany, Russia and Austro-Hungary. Poland’s geographical position between the fighting powers meant that much of the fighting occurred in Poland and its territories existed under different occupation regimes. Occupied land was often exploited for food, raw materials, and compulsory labor. The start of World War I reignited Polish dreams of self-determination. The defeat of Germany and Austro-Hungary, and the collapse of imperial Russia, ended the main barriers to Poland’s independence. In the turmoil of the First World War, Poles managed to gain independence and expand its territories, but the independent Polish state was plagued by a series of territorial disputes fought between 1918 and 1921. Poland was involved in armed conflicts with Russia, Lithuania, and Czechoslovakia. Uprisings against German rule in other areas also broke out. When the war ended, the three powers that had partitioned Poland at the end of the eighteenth century ceased to exist. This paved the way for a fully independent and united Poland.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2252.0,2389.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/140","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eTyphus is a disease spread by lice, fleas or mites. During World War II, typhus epidemics killed many individuals in POW camps, ghettos and in concentration camps who were held in unhygienic conditions.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2394.0,2479.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/141","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eAlthough the Hungarian Jews were subjected to wide-ranging discrimination and persecution and tens of thousands were killed, the majority lived in relative safety for much of the war. Although Hungary had initially been resistant to mass deportations of its Jewish population, after the German occupation in March 1944, Hungarian authorities complied. Under the guidance of German SS officials, Hungarian police, gendarmerie, and local administrators began to systematically roundup and concentrate the Hungarian Jews in ghettos before forcing them onto the deportation trains. In just eight weeks between late April and early July 1944, approximately 440,000 Hungarian Jews were deported in more than 145 trains, around 426,000 of them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. With the deportations from Hungary, the role of Auschwitz-Birkenau as an instrument of the German plan to murder the Jews of Europe achieved its highest effectiveness.  The SS sent approximately 320,000 of them directly to the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau and deployed approximately 110,000 to forced labor in the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. Thousands were also sent to the border with Austria to be deployed at digging fortification trenches. During this period as many as 8,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered daily. The crematoria were unable to keep up and open-air pits were used. The deportations started with Jews in communities outside of Budapest, and in Transylvania and territories taken from Romania. When those towns were Judenrein [German: Jew free], the Germans turned to their final task: emptying Budapest of its Jews. However, on July 7, 1944, Regent Miklos Horthy, the puppet leader of Hungary, called off the deportations before the Budapest Jews could be deported.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2671.0,2772.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/142","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eA ‘greenhorn’ is an inexperienced person and oftentimes refers to newcomers who are unfamiliar with the ways of a place or group. The form “greeny,” “greener,” or “greenie” was also widespread in America.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2837.0,2889.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/143","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eDuring the Holocaust, concentration camp prisoners received tattoos only at one location: the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex. Tattooing was introduced at Auschwitz in the autumn of 1941 for Soviet prisoners of war. In March 1942, tattoos were used to identify prisoners at Auschwitz II (Birkenau). By the spring of 1943, the SS authorities throughout the entire Auschwitz complex adopted the practice of tattooing almost all previously registered and newly arrived prisoners, including female prisoners. Prisoners were given tattoos on their forearms of their camp serial number, which was also sewn onto their uniforms. Only prisoners selected for work were registered and given serial numbers; those that were sent directly to the gas chambers were not registered or given tattoos. The biggest group of those deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau was Jews from more than 20 European countries. Until 1944, both Jewish men and women were ascribed with numbers from general series. In May 1944, the camp authorities decided to distinguish all Jewish prisoners with a separate system of numbered series. An assumption was to start the Jewish women and men series with subsequent letters of the alphabet. In such a system, from May 1944 until the end of the camp's functioning, there were: 20,000 numbers with a letter \"A\" issued to male Jewish prisoners; 15,000 numbers with a letter \"B\" issued to male Jewish prisoners; 30,000 numbers with a letter \"A\" issued to female Jewish prisoners. According to records in the Bad Arolsen archive, Ruth was issued prisoner number A-20953. Her mother, Chana Grunfeld (1910-1945), was issued prisoner number A-20952.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=2889.0,2894.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686/annotation_set/1729/annotation/144","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eGerda Weissmann Klein (1924-2022) was an American writer and human rights activist born in Bielsko, Poland. Her autobiographical account of the Holocaust, All But My Life (1957), was adapted for the 1995 short film, “One Survivor Remembers,” which received an Academy Award and an Emmy Award, and was selected for the National Film Registry. She married Kurt Klein, the Lieutenant who liberated her in Czechoslovakia, in 1946. The Kleins became advocates of Holocaust education and human rights, dedicating most of their lives to promoting tolerance and community service. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Gerda Weissmann Klein also founded Citizenship Counts, a nonprofit organization that champions the value and responsibilities of American citizenship. She has served on the governing board of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which features her testimony in a permanent exhibit. On February 15, 2011, Klein was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/137457/file/254686#t=3212.0,3301.0"}]}]}]}