Cesare was born in Napoli, Italy. His Jewish mother, Margit, was a Hungarian ballerina and his Roman Catholic father, Pasquale, was a famous orchestra director and music composer. They baptized Cesare and brought him up as a Catholic. In 1938, the Italian government issued anti-Semitic laws and began expelling foreign Jews from the country. Margit … [Read more...] about Cesare Frustaci
Carla Benninga
Carla Meijer Benninga was born in 1928 in The Hague. Her family stayed there until they, like the rest of the Jewish Dutch, were forced to relocate to Amsterdam. Upon the beginning of the war in Holland in May 1940, Carla’s family attempted to leave but the port was crowded with people with the same intentions. Trapped, the Meijers stayed in … [Read more...] about Carla Benninga
Bruna Nelson
Bruna was born in 1926 in Bettolle, Italy. She was born and raised as a Catholic. Her father passed away when she was very young, and her mother had to provide for her five children. Bruna has memories of begging for food when she was younger and never had any toys due to the family’s financial situation. In 1943, at age 17, Bruna went to work … [Read more...] about Bruna Nelson
Benno Benninga
Benjamin “Benno” Benninga was born in the Leeuwardern, Holland. Prior to the war the family was very well off due to Mr. Benninga’s shortening company. In 1940, they moved to Bussum and then Amsterdam two years later. In Amsterdam they moved in with friends and were exempt from razzias (the German pick-ups of Jews) due to Mr. Benninga and Benno’s … [Read more...] about Benno Benninga
Beatrix Margolis
Beatrix was born in Berlin, Germany in 1921. Her family belonged to a reform temple and she attended Sunday school. When she began high school, anti-Semitism was growing. Her father was arrested in either 1937 or ‘38 but returned home shortly after. During Kristallnacht, Beatrix was out in the streets and saw people carrying buckets of red paint … [Read more...] about Beatrix Margolis
Annemarie Pinto
Annemarie was born in 1922 in Berlin, Germany. She was a “mischling,” the child of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. Her father was a successful corporate attorney who worked for the German steel and heavy metal industry. She experienced anti-Semitism at her school. Annemarie's family remained in Berlin throughout the war. They were … [Read more...] about Annemarie Pinto
Anneliesse Yosafat
Anneliesse was born in 1937 in Leipzig, Germany. She was five when she and her parents went into hiding and eight at the end of the war. In Liepzig they hid, always together, in thirteen different homes. The family left Leipzig in 1944 for Blundez, Austria. The townspeople were kind to them until they revealed their Jewish identity in 1946. … [Read more...] about Anneliesse Yosafat
Anneliese Salamon
Before the war, Anneliese had a comfortable childhood in a small town in Czechoslovakia. In 1940, Anneliese and her family were relocated to a Jewish ghetto. In 1941, the Gestapo took Anneliese’s parents. She never saw them again. In 1942, the remaining Jews from her ghetto were deported in boxcars to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp. Five … [Read more...] about Anneliese Salamon
Anne Zvibelman
Anne Zvibelman was born Hannah Taffet in 1937 in the small town of Zbaraz in Poland. She was raised in a Jewish family. Before the war, she lived a comfortable life but Anne did not recall much about her day to day life. Anne’s life shifted with the start of the war. Anne’s grandfather was taken away after the Nazi invasion of Poland. Around … [Read more...] about Anne Zvibelman
Anne Frankel
Anne Frankel was born in 1920 in Esslingen, Germany as Anne Liebel. The family was Jewish but Anne's parents decided to observe Christian holidays, and Anne was brought up Protestant. Her father made this decision to protect the family. In Esslingen, she was bullied for her Jewish heritage upon the rise of Nazism. In 1936, her family sent her to … [Read more...] about Anne Frankel