Transcripts For CSPAN3 Surviving The Holocaust In Amsterdam

Ii. Next, Louise Lawrence israel talks about what the holocaust was like in the netherlands where she grew up. Thats followed by survivor julius mann who tells his story of getting through the war in poland and lithuania. Then anna grows who survived the holocaust in romania. The political battled during reconstruction, and at 10 50 historians discuss the different narratives created after the war to explain why the south lost. Next on American History tv holocaust survivor Louise Lawrence israel recalls going into hiding with her family after German Forces invaded the netherlan netherlands. Louise celebrated her second and third birthdays in an amsterdam apartment hidden in plain sight using false identification papers acquired by her father. She discusses how her family coped with life in hiding and how it has affected her since. This event was part of the United States Holocaust Memorial museums first person series. Weve prepared a brief audio visual introduction and some images. She was born in the netherlands in 1942. The pointer is now pointing to amsterdam, the capital of netherlan netherlands. This is a picture of louise when she was 1 years old. She was cute then. Shes still cute now. This is louise with her favorite doll. Her brothers little pull toy in one of the chairs that she had as a gift for her second birthday. That chair is now in the possession of the United States Holocaust Memorial museum, and its been occasionally on exhibit thanks to louise. Louise spent her second birthday in hiding with her parents, and they celebrated her birthday during that time in hiding thanks to some of their friends and reserve officers from the outside. This was the attic apartment where her family hid. They would spend an additional year in hiding almost until their liberation by Canadian Forces in may of 1945. Marie sorry. Louise lawrence israels story is a mosaic of history experienced by holocaust survivors, and today shell share that story with us. Please join me in welcoming Louise Lawrence israels. [ applause ] maybe we could start by the kind of family experiences did before the war started. How did they live before the german invasion of the netherlands . My parents got married just before the nazis invaded holland, so they got married in 1940. And i have a brother who was born in november 1940. My father was in business with his dad. They manufactured clothing. Theyre jewish. Our whole family is jewish, but they werent very religious. It wasnt the most important thing in their daily life. When the nazis invaded poland, the dutch army mobilized. Every capable man above the age of 18 had to go and serve. The dutch army was really in sham bells. We hadnt participated in the first world war, so my dad was a reserve officer, but he said the uniforms were hard boiled wool that he couldnt even move his arms. But in the meantime they trained for a possible invasion, but they never expected. The germans were our friends. Right. We gave domicile to the german. Why would you invade a friendly country . They did. Probably because they wanted the city of rodderdam. It was easier to have their ships there than invade the rest of the world. When they came into holland on may 10th, 1940, my fathers Engineering Battalion was ready in the southern part of holland, and they were ready to blow up the bridges over the river. The german army was so prepared. When he was taken prisoner of war, did this the fact that he was drafted, the fact that he served in the dutch army, this did not really save him from the threat of deportation. What happened to your dad when he was captured . He was with his whole group. They were prisoner of war. After holland capitulated, because they only fought for four days, a couple of weeks after that they let all the dutch officers go back to holland. We became part of germany. My parents settled in the town of harlan. The threat against jews wasnt there yet. My father just lived there. There was persecution shortly afterwards . All the things that everybody would see when you go through the museum, like jewish children were not allowed to be educated in regular school. If you were sick, you could only go to a jewish hospital. You could only be treated by jewish doctors. You couldnt walk through parks. In my case or my familys case, our business was conphysician ska confiscated because it was a jewish business. Very early on i remember your story, your family had a very traumatic experience in harlan, and that had to do with the president of the Jewish Community there and his family who were your neighbors. Right. That was in 1942. The occupying nazis were ready to have their trains prepared for the jews to go to death camps in poland, but also our resistance. A lot of those were some of those soldiers that had been taken prisoner of war had joined the resistance. Thats how my father knew them. Our neighbors across the street were very religious jews. They had seven children. All the ages of my parents. Around 30. A couple of them were engaged, but nobody was married yet. One set of grandparents and two unmarried aunts. Everybody lived in that house. So in 1942 after the order came that everybody above the age of 6 this is just for holland had to wear a star. We got orders to move to amsterdam, and the resistance blew up registration offices to make it harder for nazis to find where jews lived. As a punishment, they took the ten most influential men and shot them in the town square. With them was our neighbor across the street across the street, and the two rabbis and the two men. What happened then with that family . None of them were able to work anymore because they were jews. A daughter, my moms age, they were good friends. They were by that time almost 6 months old. And a couple of days after selmas dad was shot, she was in our house, and i saw from my bedroom window right across the street she was looking at her house, she saw a large truck pull up in front of her house, and people jumped off with a lot of screaming, kicked in her door, and rounded up everybody in that house. The truck drove away. Except for one brother that escaped, she never saw her family again. That same night we moved to amsterdam. We had no place to really live yet, so we moved in temporarily with one of my fathers military friends that was also in the resistance, and my father went out to look for a hiding place. Right. So did he continue he couldnt continue his business in amsterdam. What was he doing there . In harlan, the business was confiscated early in 1940. That was in amsterdam. Then in harlan temporary he found a job as a pants presser in a small jewish dry cleaning place. A little basement. I tell you to compare it to my father was a spoiled man. He had a doctorate in economics. He was been to the senate of the United States to do an internship here for two years. He came back. He got a Corner Office from his father, and he kind of ran the business. Really spoiled man. Then he became a pants presser. I couldnt ask him questions for many, many years because my parents didnt want to talk about the war. Just before he passed away i said how did that make feel. He said, actually, i went to work singing, and he had to walk five miles because his bicycle was confiscated, and jews were not allowed to use public transportation. I came back singing. He said i was happy because everything is relative, and you have to feed your family, so i made some money every week. Not much, but just enough to buy bread or milk, so it made him happy. Right. But all this time he was making elaborate arrangements to bring you and your brother and your mother and his parents my fathers parents. Yes. Into hiding. Can you talk about that . Right. He made the elaborate plans after he moved to amsterdam. Its kind of a silly thing that i was always wondering growing up. Why didnt he do it before . They didnt know how long this would last. Always maybe it will be over tomorrow. Then, of course, it wasnt over tomorrow. He found this hiding place that saved us. It was a fourstory walkup. A storage attic with nothing much in it except a table and chairs and a cupboard and some other dusty boxes. But it was across the street from the main park in amsterdam, and he figured he would have to go out at night, make contact with the resistance, try to get some food for us, and that way he would have neighbont have n could see the strange man coming out in the dark. He also asked some of the people that he worked with he had a textile firm. They worked with bolts and bolts of fabric. He had asked some of the people if they could take as many bolts out as possible. He figured that would be something that he could barter with. When there was no more income, he could trade a couple of yards of fabric for a couple of slices of bread, and he also used that fabric when we got into the attic to make makeshift rooms, walls, actually, so that everybody had a little bit of privacy. And he paid a lot of rent, right, for the apartment . He paid rent for ten years so that he didnt have to go out when the rent was due. Maybe it will be too dangerous. He didnt know how long it would last. Right. So when you went into hiding, what time was that, and so what time frame was that and how many people went into hiding with you . Okay. So initially it was my father and my mother, my brother and myself, our friend selma who stayed with us because her parents were already rounded up, and she had no idea where they were. It was no good. She knew that. Then my fathers parents. Temporarily. Right. And i always say that you cant move in into hiding with a moving truck, so they really thought about the bare necessities. They took mattresses for the adults, a crib for me since i was only 6 months old. Theres no kitchen there. My mom took a camping stove, some oil lamps, everything burned on oil, and some pots and pans, some utensils, and we only had a small toilet there that was already there, and a small sink with cold running water. That was it. Right. And you were very young at this time. What did your parents tell you about . Do you remember some of the things that happened when you were in hiding there . Right. There were two things. My parents were amazing, thinking about that now and a couple of years ago. When you are in the middle of it, you think you take everything for granted. My parents did everything they could to shield us, to save us and to shield us. That was the most important thing for them. They never talked about the outside world. They never told us what was going on, and they never told us how scared they were. My fathers parents only stayed with us a short time. Somebody from the resistance picked them up and found another hiding place for them. They had no idea where anybody was, but they didnt share that with us. They thought if we didnt know, then we wouldnt miss it. Also, they never talked about the outside world. If my mom had said on a nice sunny day and we had only a tiny little dormer window if she had said its a Beautiful Day and we live across the street from a park, i wish you could take take your children out to play, we would have missed it, but by not talking about it, every day was normal for us. Not for them, but for us. They had to keep us busy. Right. My father took in a lot of scrap paper and colored pencils, so i saw crawling around when we went into hiding i saw my father and my mother, selma, and my brother sit around a table. Mom and selma were always sewing. But they were talking to my brother, and it looked like they were having a lot of fun. So i i was an early talker and early walker. As soon as i could talk, i said can i sit with you . I was talking so much that my father finally said you can sit with us, but you have to listen. You cant talk anymore. You can sit there, but at least i can sit there. What they were doing with my brother, they were doing colors, and they were doing games with colors. Then they were teaching him numbers. Very simple arithmetic. All in play form. Then letters and words. So it was a form of ho homeschooling. I loved it. I wanted to participate. Its funny because if you say a bird is brown, okay, then what is a bird . My mom could draw very well, so she would draw a bird. She wouldnt say birds are flying outside and sitting in trees because that would kind of make us wonder what are outside is and what are trees . We would know what a bird was or we would know what a flower was, and it was always color. It was playing. They homeschooled us really from Early Morning to when we went to bed because thats how they kept us busy. When we were finally liberated, i was almost 3, and i could read. Its not because im smart. You are all much smarter than i am, but its just its repetition. We did not have electronics. We did not have television. We didnt have any other toys. Or a radio, right . No radio. Nothing. This was it. Right. So how did you just so its clear for our audience, how did you survive that time . Sometimes your father went out. Right. He also had contacts . Food was very scarce, and we were very often hungry. Even for the dutch population . So were all the dutch people. Absolutely right. Because the occupying nazis and the collaborators took all the good stuff. The nazis sent it to germany to their family and the collaborators feasted on it, and everything was rationed for everybody. Of course, we didnt have ration cards as soon as we went into hiding. The resistance was unbelievable. Without that, i wouldnt be sitting here today. So if there was nothing in the morning, my mom on her camping stove would boil water, and we would get a bowl of warm water. That settles your stomach and takes your hunger pangs away to start with. We as children got something every day just before we went to bed so we didnt have to go to bed hungry. Sometimes it wasnt more than sharing half a cracker. My parents always had some emergency food, but it was always for the children first. They went hungry for many days. Can you tell us about a happy occasion that happened there . Your birthday . My father always had this worried look. So did my mom and so did selma. We didnt know that. We thought that was perfectly normal, whatever they looked like. But then my father went out again to make contact with someone from the resistance, and it was very important. Besides food and medicine to bring home news. We had no newspapers. There was no way to get any news. News would give you hope. So he came home, and he looked differently. My brother picked up on that and said what happened, papa . You went outside, and you look different. I guess my father looked happier. My brother saw it. I didnt. He said i have good news. The allied army has landed in normandy, and maybe it will be over soon. Sure. If you are born in july right. This was june. My father wanted to make it a special day, and they picked my birthday, my second birthday, to do that. Now, if you plan if you forget your best friends birthday this morning, you can still plan a nice party at night, right . Its easy. You have everything. You have your cell phone, your internet. Corner bakery. Not when you are in hiding. It took a lot of planning and help from the people in the resistance that helped us. You made a cake . My father made a cake, and he baked it on top of a camping stove because we didnt have an oven. My mom cut up an old blouse and made a beautiful birthday dress for me. Selma out of old rags made a doll, my first doll. My brother wrapped his only toy for me. I had been watching that for years, but i had never been able to touch it. I could just look at it. It was his toy. He was going to give it to me for my birthday. For one day, right in. Except when he gave it to me, he said its only for today. I want it back tonight. It didnt matter. I was very happy. Your chair and then somebody from the resistance knew about the plans because he had given my father the ingredients for the cake and said shes getting her first doll, and he gave this tiny little wicker doll chair that was already an antique. It was 150 years old. When i got it, i was so happy. I sat in it. I was so little that i sat in the chair, and i held the doll in my arm. Thats the picture that we saw . Thats correct. And that picture, if i can add something thats a tribute to my parents because what you saw in the picture is a perfectly happy 2yearold. Not any different on any of your siblings or cousins that turn 2 years old because my parents wanted us to be happy children. Since we didnt know the difference between the outside and the inside, we actually were happy children. Thats its a beautiful thing that your parents did for you in this very scary situation, potentially deadly situation. Right. Many people when they think of hidden children, they think of ann frank who was not very far from you. About five blocks from where you were hiding. Right. But in a very different context. For one thing, happily, youre alive and with us today. Right. But secondly, you werent hiding in a secret annex. You were sort of hiding in plain sight in that attic. What did your neighbors think . Did they suspect you were there . We were lucky. We had our own walkup. Its a little different setup in that row of houses that every floor has its own front door and its own set of stairs. We never my father going downstairs never met anybody, and that probably saved him. We have neighbors below us that must have heard us walk, flush the toilet. They never said anything. People can say, well, there were they heard people up there, but maybe they werent interested in you. For us that was a lucky thing. It was much better that help came from afar. If they had known us, if they had befreniended us or even held us, if a nazi or collaborator had range that doorbell or saw them on the street and had asked is there anybody living upstairs, they would have had to lie, and when you lie, you know, or they would have seen it that it was a lie when they said no. Since they didnt know us at all, they could say, well, we dont know. Its just a storage attic. It was better for us. Afterwards, it i would say they were probably very good dutch people. They knew that people were there, and they never said a word. Never said a word. Right. Towards the end of your time in hiding, there was a roundup of dutch jewish officers, and your father didnt show up for that head count. Well, actually, it was a head count for all officers. Since my father could not go out without a star, it was after the invasion of the allied army, and i guess the nazis got pretty jittery, especially their army, and they just said we have a head count. My father was told by some of his army buddies that there was a head count and it was close to the central station. The train station. My father said im not going. I have a star that i have to wear, even though he had fake identity papers, but still, he said i will never make it. So he didnt go, and he was right. There was a h