Holocaust survivors and U. S. liberators oral history collection. 1910-1994.

ArchivalResource

Holocaust survivors and U. S. liberators oral history collection. 1910-1994.

These fourteen interviews were recorded on twenty-four cassette tapes, and Mrs. Weinrib transcribed all except for Alice Franks' interview. She took a photograph of each of her interviewees, and some loaned her photographs of themselves and family members for her to reproduce. Some also allowed her to photocopy booklets, programs, drawings, memoirs, and other materials they had related to the Holocaust. The collection is divided into two subgroups, liberators and survivors. The liberators subgroup consists of the interviews and papers of five World War II veterans: Harvey Cohen, George Harper, Robert Lieberman, Herman "Dick" Loeb, and Marcus "Bubba" Marks. Included with Harvey Cohen's transcript are photocopies of the program for a Holocaust memorial service in Rhode Island; his memoir "Whiskey Blue Love, L Company, 5th Infantry Regiment in World War II" (1945, additions 1985); a booklet entitled "A Corner of Hell: The Liberation of Gunskirchen Lager by the Seventy-First Infantry Division, U. S. Army, May 4, 1945" (1990); and another booklet, "The Seventy-First Came...to Gunskirchen Lager" (1945). Dick Loeb was a lieutenant in charge of an African American unit attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. He submitted copies of wartime photographs, including a photo of the African American soldiers in his unit, one of whom was boxing champ, Joe Louis. Robert Lieberman was in the 104th Infantry Division. George Harper was in the 15th Corps of Engineers. Marcus Marks was in the 3119th Signal Corps. The survivors subgroup consists of the interviews and papers of nine Holocaust survivors or relatives of survivors. The parents of Hanna Berger of Selma, Ala., were German Jews who left Nazi Germany for the United States in early 1938. They first lived in New York before moving to Selma around 1939. Copies of their German passports from 1938 are included. Sonja Adelberg Bromberg and her sister were placed in a Catholic nunnery by their father who then went into hiding from the Nazis. She and her sister were smuggled out of Germany and reached Ellis Island in 1940. They were reunited with their father after the war. Pauline Merenstein Davidson grew up in Poland and spent the early part of the war running from the Nazis. She witnessed many atrocities and was severely beaten by a Nazi soldier before she escaped into Russia. She immigrated to the U. S. with her husband in 1951. Susan, a Hungarian Jewish woman who was living in Montgomery by 1990, agreed to share her story with Louisa Wienrib on the condition that her married name be kept anonymous. She was imprisoned in Dachau from October 1944 until the end of the war. In addition to her interview, she also submitted a copy of her friend Ferry's memoir of Dachau in Hungarian with an English translation (possibly incomplete). Edith Goetz Sanders and her parents left Nazi Germany in 1937 for Milan, Italy and then left Italy for Honduras in 1939, where they spent the remainder of the war. In Honduras she met her future husband, Ernest Sanders (also interviewed), whose family immigrated there from Germany that same year. They married and later moved to the U. S. in 1948. Eliakim Stencel grew up in Rypin, Poland. Not long after Germany invaded Poland, his family escaped to Russia and spent most of the war in Uzbekistan. After the war, they went to Austria where they stayed in a refugee camp for four years. Mr. Stencel was sponsored by the Jewish Federation to come to Montgomery. Charles Wampold was born and raised in Montgomery, but his mother's parents lived in Nazi Germany until 1939. Mr. Wampold tells of visiting Germany in 1935 and again in the 1980s. He submitted a photocopy of a 1963 booklet entitled, "Die Geschichte der Judischen Gemeinde in Talheim" (The Story of the Jewish Congregation in Talheim), which recounted the history of the Talheim Jews from the Middle Ages through the Holocaust.

24 audio cassette tapes.

Related Entities

There are 21 Entities related to this resource.

Louis, Joe, "Brown Bomber", 1914-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bq0s4g (person)

Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981), known professionally as Joe Louis, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. He reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949, and is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis' championship reign lasted 140 consecutive months, during which he participated in 26 championship fights. The 27th fight, against Ezzard Charles in 1950, was a challenge ...

United States. Army. Signal Service Battalion, 3119th.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61p200s (corporateBody)

Franks, Alice.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fx7dd5 (person)

Berger, Hann, b. 1942.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dn48nf (person)

Bromberg, Sonja Adelberg, b. 1930.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6988bdx (person)

United States. Army

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6km312r (corporateBody)

The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land-based military operations. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 and United States Code, Title 10, Subtitle B, Chapter 301, Section 3001. As the largest and senior branch of the U.S. military, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which wa...

Marks, Marcus, b. 1924.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vd73ff (person)

Stencel, Eliakim, 1906-1993.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6df6vfg (person)

United States. Army. Infantry Division, 104th

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United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 5th. Company L.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gt9mbs (corporateBody)

Lieberman, Robert, b. 1924.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ww7nnw (person)

Sanders, Edith Goetz, b. 1923.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k0784v (person)

Loeb, Hermann, b. 1912.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jh3q4k (person)

Weinrib, Louisa,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zw1qdx (person)

From 1990-1992 Louisa Weinrib, a Jewish woman from Montgomery, Ala., interviewed five Jewish World War II veterans and nine Jews who either fit the definition of Holocaust survivor or are descended from a Holocaust survivor. The term "Holocaust survivor" is defined by the Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors as a "person who was displaced, persecuted, and/or discriminated against by the racial, religious, ethnic, and political policies of the Nazis and their Allies. In addition to former inmat...

United States. Army. Corps of Engineers

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jh793p (corporateBody)

The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is an engineer formation of the United States Army that has three primary mission areas: engineer regiment, military construction, and civil works. The day-to-day activities of the three mission areas are administered by a lieutenant general known as the commanding general/chief of engineers. The chief of engineers commands the engineer regiment, composed of combat engineer army units, and answers directly to the chief of staff of the army. Comba...

Sanders, Ernest H.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x069zr (person)

Epithet: of Columbia University New York British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001026.0x00015a ...

United States. Army. Airborne Division, 82nd

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Harper, George Mills 1914-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60p12m0 (person)

Cohen, Harvey, b. 1923.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s75jzf (person)

Wampold, Charles H.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tq64z0 (person)

Davidson, Pauline Merenstein, b. 1920.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v40zb1 (person)