Sura Andrezejko Born 1927 in Stawiski, Poland

Sura Andrezejko

Born 1927 in Stawiski, Poland

Sura, the youngest daughter of Hershel and Fay Andrezejko, grew up on a farm in rural Poland. She lived in a small village, where the entire population was Jewish. Outside the village, the non-Jewish peasants were often hostile to the Jews.

Sura's older brother, Mordechai, left the village in 1938 for the United States. Sura remained in the village with her grandfather, parents, and older sister.

Sura's village, in the Bialystok region, was taken over by the Russians in 1939. Their lives were disrupted, causing much hardship, but no news about the mass exterminations carried out by the Germans in Poland, was permitted by the Russians. The Germans invaded Stawiski in July 1941, and immediately massacred most of its residents. Sura and her family were trapped.

German killing squads, called Einsatzgruppen, continued to massacre Jews in surrounding towns. The Nazis murdered more than 20,000 Jews during the first two months of the German invasion. On November 2, 1942, one of the most carefully organized and intensive round-ups of the war took place.

Sura and her family were hunted down by the Germans. They were taken, along with all the remaining Jews in the surrounding villages, to a military camp.

In January 1943, the entire camp, with its 20,000 inmates, was forced into sealed cattle cars. The Jews were taken to the Auschwitz death camp where they were murdered in the gas chambers. Sura was fifteen years old.

Sura was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators in the Holocaust.



Inge Auerbacher

Born December 31, 1934 in Kippenheim, Germany

Inge, the only child of Regina and Berthold Auerbacher, was born a year after the Nazis came to power. She lived in a small village in southern Germany where her father had his own textile business. Inge's father, a soldier in World War I, had been badly wounded and received the "Iron Cross" for bravery.

On the night of November 9-10, 1938, just before Inge's fourth birthday, countrywide acts of terror and destruction were carried out against Germany's Jews. Inge's father was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. After his release a few weeks later, the family realized the need to leave the country, but they had nowhere to go. They moved to her mother's home town. Inge's grandfather soon died, hurt by the country he loved so much.

Harsh restrictions were imposed and life became increasingly difficult. A former servant provided them with food. Inge could no longer attend the local public school. Six year-old Inge had to walk two miles to a larger town to catch a train in order to attend a Jewish school in Stuttgart. In 1941, she was forced to wear the yellow star, and was taunted by the other children on the train.

In late 1941, Inge, her parents and her grandmother were told to report for "resettlement." Her father, a disabled World War I veteran, obtained a postponement, but her grandmother was sent to Lativa where whe was murdered.

On August 22, 1942, Inge and her parents were arrested and deported. Forced to leave all their possessions behind, they were sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Inge and her parents were sent to the disabled war veterans' section of the ghetto where they were allowed to stay together. Conditions were horrendous. Food was scarce, sanitation was poor, and heating was inadequate. The ghetto was infested with disease-carrying vermin. Always hungry, Inge and her parents constantly lived with the fear that they would be deported to the death camps in Poland. In the spring of 1945, the Germans began building gas chambers in Theresienstadt, where they planned to kill all the remaining Jews. But on May 8, 1945, Soviet troops entered the ghetto and ten year-old Inge and her parents were freed.

Of the 15,000 children who had been imprisoned at Theresienstadt, only 100 survived. The Germans and their collaborators murdered 1.5 million Jewish children in the Holocaust.



Eva Beem

Born May 21, 1932 in Leeuwarden, Holland

Eva, the daughter of Hartog and Rosette Beem, was an eight year-old schoolgirl when the Germans invaded Holland in May 1940. Eva's father was a high school teacher in the small city of Leeuwarden, in northern Holland. The Jews of the Netherlands were well-integrated into the general population and they were active in all aspects of the country's social, cultural and economic life.

When the Germans invaded, they immediately embarked upon steps to separate the Jews from the rest of the population. Beginning in October 1940, they liquidated Jewish businesses and banned Jews from most professions. The rich became poor and the middle class was reduced to subsistence levels. At first, the Dutch population resisted the anti-Jewish measures enacted by the Germans. But the Germans reacted brutally, and were able to break up most organized resistance.

Many Jews were forced into restricted ghetto areas in July 1941, and after May 1942, all Jews had to wear the yellow star. Beginning in mid-July 1942, the Germans began rounding up Holland's Jewish citizens. They were first taken to transit camps, and from there to death camps in Poland, where they were murdered.

Eva's parents decided that the family would go into hiding. They felt that the children would be safer posing as non-Jews in a rural village. Eva and her younger brother were sent to the village of Ermelo, and a Christian family, willing to risk death to save them, was found. Eva was given a new name and identity. She was known as Linni de Witt, and she attended school along with the other village children.

The Nazis, realizing that many Jewish children had been sent into hiding, intensified their search. They found collaborators willing to turn them in for payment. Eleven year-old Eva was denounced as a Jew in February 1944. Eva, along with her younger brother Abraham, was soon deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, where both were murdered upon arrival.

Eva was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.



Lia Borak

Born 1928 in Lvov (Lemberg), Poland

Lia and her twin sister, Mia, were the daughters of Evelina (Wender) and Adolf Borak. They lived in the city of Lvov, in eastern Poland. Their father had been a very wealthy landowner who lost much of his money before the war. The family was still well off, however, and they lived in a comfortable villa in a suburb of the city. The two girls were always dressed in pretty clothes, and had many toys and dolls. They were fraternal twins, and could be easily told apart because Mia wore glasses and had lighter hair.

Lvov had a thriving Jewish community in 1939. It was home to a Jewish population of 110,000, and was a center of culture, education and political activity.

The Germans occupied Lvov on June 30, 1941, and immediately began murdering Jews. During four days of horrible antisemitic rioting, over 4,000 Jews were killed. Soon after, all Jews age fourteen and above were forced to wear the yellow star. Over the next few months, Jewish property was plundered, Jews were sent to forced labor, synagogues were burned down, and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated.

In December 1941, the Germans forced the Jews of Lvov into a closed-off ghetto. During the move, over 5,000 elderly and sick Jews were murdered. Conditions in the ghetto were horrendous. There was terrible overcrowding and little food or sanitation. That winter, the Germans began sending Jews to labor camps, where they were worked to death. After March 19442, the Germans began rounding up Jews and sending them to the Belzec death camp. Only those working in factories that performed essential functions for the German military were to be spared. In January 1943, the ghetto officially became a labor camp. Now the Germans began murdering Jews at their places of work. On June 1, 1943, a final round up of the Jews in the ghetto was begun. German and Ukrainian police units surrounded the ghetto, blocking all exits. Other units were sent into ghetto to capture the remaining inhabitants. When they met resistance, the Germans blew up buildings or set them afire. The 7,000 Jews they forced out of hiding were immediately shot.

Mia and Lia were twelve years old when the Germans occupied Lvov. No details are known about their fate. A rumor circulated that the girls were forced to take part in German experiments on twins.

One and a half million Jewish children were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.



Augusta Feldhorn

Born May 29, 1934 in Vienna, Austria

Augusta, the only daughter of Margarete (Krigsman) and Julius Feldhorn, was born in Vienna, Austria. Her father, originally an accountant, had established his own men's hat factory, inventing most of the machinery himself. After the Germans annexed Austria in 1938, they immediately began to persecute its Jewish citizens. Augusta's family fled to Belgium, hoping to reestablish their lives. Augusta began school and made friends. Life seemed to be getting back to normal. This was not to last. The Germans invaded Belgium in May 1940, just before Augusta's sixth birthday. The terrified family attempted to flee to France, but was turned back at the border.

In October 1940, all Jews in Belgium were ordered to register with the police. Augusta's parents decided to hide her in a convent in the countryside. A few months later her parents, wanting to be near her, hid Augusta with Christian friends who lived a few streets away from their home. In May 1942, Jews were forced to wear the yellow star, and Jewish adults were required to report for forced labor. Her parents went into hiding with false papers.

One morning, early in the summer of 1942, Augusta's mother left home to buy some milk. Their house was surrounded by police. Her father, uncle and aunt were forcibly seized and taken to the transit camp at Malines.

Escaping the raid, Augusta's mother immediately put her terrified eight year-old daughter on a train taking her back to the convent. She soon joined her there, posing as a nun. Twenty other Jewish children were hidden in the convent. Augusta turned inward, however, and did not make friends with them. When she was nine years old, Augusta's tonsils had to be removed. The nuns could not take her to the hospital for fear that she would be denounced as a Jew. They removed her tonsils and adenoids themselves, without anesthesia.

Augusta and her mother remained in the convent until liberation. In April 1945, while walking alone down a road, Augusta saw approaching soldiers. Eleven year-old Augusta fainted when she realized that the soldiers were American, and that she was free. She eventually learned that her father had been taken to the Birkenau concentration camp and murdered there.

One and a half million Jewish children were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators in the Holocaust. Augusta was one of the few who survived.



Hannah Hajek

Born February 10, 1939 in Prague, Czechoslovakia

Hannah was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on February 10, 1939. Her parents, Bedrick and Margit (Karpeles), had left Vienna, Austria, in 1935 for political reasons. Both worked in an Austrian emigree organization, where they were responsible for finding housing for the large numbers of Austrians who fled the Nazi takeover.

Soon after Hannah's birth, the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia, instituting harsh anti-Jewish measures. Mr. Hajek emigrated via Poland to England. Hannah, her mother, and her grandmother remained behind, hoping to join him when he got settled. In October 1941, the Nazis began deporting the Jews of Czechoslovakia to concentration camps. Hannah and her mother constantly feared deportation.

Hannah's mother was arrested twice by the Gestapo because of her underground political activity, but each time she somehow managed to get released.

In 1943, Hannah, her mother, and her grandmother were forced into the nearby Theresienstadt ghetto. The ghetto was overcrowded, lacked adequate sanitation and food, and was infested with typhus spreading vermin. People died daily of disease and malnutrition. Jews were constantly being packed into trains headed for the Auschwitz death camp.

In October 1944, Hannah, her mother and her grandmother were sent to Auschwitz. Upon arrival they were immediately taken off the train and murdered in the gas chambers. Hannah was four and a half years old.

Hannah was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators in the Holocaust.



Lilly Klein

Born September 29, 1927 in Mateszalka, Hungary

Lilly, the daughter of Sara and Sandor Klein, lived with her mother and seven siblings, in the city of Debrecen, Hungary. When the Germans invaded Hungary in March 1944, Lilly was a seventeen year-old student.

Hungary was a staunch ally of Nazi Germany. As such, the Germans did not, at first, invade the country, but urged the government to deport its Jews to concentration camps. The Hungarian government was not willing to send its Jewish citizens to their deaths, but did pass many discriminatory laws against them. Young men were sent to forced labor camps. Lilly was able to continue her studies at the local Jewish high school until her seventeenth year.

By 1943, the Hungarian government realized that their German ally was losing the war. Hungary, therefore, tried to break its alliance with Germany. In a fit of rage, Hitler ordered his armies into Hungary. In 1944, German troops occupied the entire country, and with the help of Hungarian collaborators, began deporting local Jews to concentration camps.

Lilly and her family were rounded up and herded into a sealed-off ghetto where they were kept for two months. The Germans began sending the Jewish residents of Debrecen to the Auschwitz death camp. Towards the end of June, Lilly was put on a train going to Auschwitz. The train could not get through, because the tracks had been bombed in allied air raids. The train was instead diverted to the Strasshoff concentration camp in Austria. There, Lilly was forced to work to the point of total exhaustion. Food was scarce, and those who couldn't work were murdered.

When the camp was liberated in April 1945, eighteen year-old Lilly was barely alive.

One and a half million Jewish children were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust. Lilly was one of the few to survive.



Stella Klingerova

Born December 14, 1927 in Prague, Czechoslovakia

Stella, the daughter of Gustav and Marie Klinger, was an eleven year-old schoolgirl when the Germans occupied Prague, Czechoslovakia, in March 1939. Her father was a businessman, and had three older children from a previous marriage. Stella's mother stayed home and cared for her.

Prague was a large, cosmopolitan city, and was home to one of the oldest and most revered Jewish communities in Europe. Jews contributed greatly to the economic progress of the city and played a key role in its rich cultural life.

After the German occupation, various antisemitic measures were passed, prohibiting Jews from practicing their professions or taking part in normal civic life. Property was confiscated, and Jews were prevented from participating in religious, cultural or any other form of public activity. They could not, for example, attend public schools or use public transportation.

From October 1941 to March 1945, the Jews of Prague were deported by the Germans to concentration camps.

In early 1942, Stella and her parents were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Conditions in the ghetto were horrible. There was terrible overcrowding, poor nutrition, and antiquated, limited sanitary facilities. Typhus-carrying vermin infested the ghetto. There were daily "selections," and those on the list were deported to the Auschwitz or Treblinka death camps.

Stella and her parents were "selected" in April 1942. They were deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. Upon their arrival they were taken to the gas chambers and murdered. Stella was fourteen years old.

Stella was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators in the Holocaust.



Cary Krell

Born January 27, 1936 in Vienna, Austria

Cary, the daughter of Diana (Rosenzweig) and Willi Krell, was born in Vienna, Austria. Her father was the managing director of a knitting factory. Cary's parents were born in an area of Poland that once belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In April 1938, after Germany annexed Austria, Cary's father moved his family back to Poland, where he had been offered a job as a bookkeeper in the town of Boryslaw.

The Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 1939 called for the eventual division of Poland along the San and Bug Rivers. Cary and the rest of the Jews living in Boryslaw were, at first, spared the full force of German anti-Jewish measures that began with the German invasion of Poland, because their town lay within the Soviet administered area.

The Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, when Cary was five and a half years old. Right behind the invading German forces were the Einsatzgruppen, the mobile murder squads. At first, many Jews in the Boryslaw area were needed as a labor force to secure the raw materials Germany so desperately needed. Nevertheless, the Jews were eliminated in stages through various massacres and deportations to death camps. Cary's father worked in the Jewish administration in Boryslaw. He and his family were deported with the last Jews of the town in the summer of 1944. They were transported to the Plaszow concentration camp.

On October 15, 1944, Cary and her parents were shipped to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. There, her mother was taken away and sent to Auschwitz where she was immediately murdered. Mr. Krell smuggled Cary into the men's barracks dressed as a boy. She stood at roll-call every morning with her father even when they were sent later to Auschwitz. One day, a boy noticed Cary's odd way of going to the bathroom and revealed her secret. She was separated from her father and sent to a women's barracks. They had stopped the gassings in Auschwitz at this point, but it was dead winter. There was little food, and horrendous sanitary conditions spread disease everywhere. Mr. Krell joined every work detail he could in order to pass by Cary's barracks and get a glimpse of her. Cary, weakened by hunger, died of typhus on January 6, 1945, a few weeks before her ninth birthday and liberation.

Cary was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators in the Holocaust.



Liane Krochmal

Born July 25, 1937 in Vienna, Austria

The daughter of Jacob and Amalie Krochmal, Liane was only a baby when Austria lost its independence and became part of Nazi Germany. Vienna had been home to some 175,000 Jews and was one of the world's most important Jewish cultural centers. But Vienna also had a reputation as a city in which antisemitism flourished. When the Germans took over in March 1938, they found many Austrians willing to participate in the persecution of the Jews.

Seeing no hope under the Nazis, the Krochmal family fled to France. From France they hoped to eventually receive permission to enter the United States. Liane had an uncle living in New York who was willing to guarantee the support of the entire family.

Despite her uncle's guarantee, the U.S. State Department refused the Krochmals permission to come to the United States. Soon thereafter, Liane's parents and older brother, Siegfried, eleven years old, were arrested by the French police and handed over to the Germans. They were sent to a transit camp, where Siegfried died. Liane's parents were eventually deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.

Liane, who was five, and her seven year-old sister Renate, were sent to live in the children's home at Izieu. On April 6, 1944, the home was raided and the children were shipped to Auschwitz. They were murdered in the gas chambers upon their arrival.

The German officer who ordered the despicable raid on the children's home was Klaus Barbie. Barbie escaped punishment after the war by agreeing to work as a spy for the United States, and it was only many years later that the scandal was uncovered. Barbie was eventually sent back to France for trial, where on July 4, 1987, he was convicted of "crimes against humanity" and sentenced to life in prison.

The Krochmals never lived to see Barbie brought to trial. They were murdered by the Nazis, because no country would take them. Liane was only seven years old when she died.

Liane was one of 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators in the Holocaust.



Renate Krochmal

Born September 3, 1935 in Vienna, Austria

The daughter of Jacob and Amalie Krochmal, Renate was only two and a half years old when Austria lost its independence and became part of Nazi Germany. Vienna had been home to some 175,000 Jews and was one of the world's most important Jewish cultural centers. But Vienna was also a city in which antisemitism flourished. When the Germans took over in March 1938, they found many Austrians willing to participate in the persecution of the Jews.

Seeing no hope under the Nazis, the Krochmal family escaped to France. From France they hoped to eventually receive permission to enter the United States. Renate had an uncle living in New York who was willing to guarantee the support of the entire family.

Despite the guarantee, the U.S. State Department refused the Krochmals permission to come to the United States. Soon after, on September 16, 1942, Renate's parents and older brother, Siegfried, eleven years old, were arrested by the French police and handed over to the Germans. They were sent to a transit camp, where Siegfried died. Renate's parents were eventually deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.

Renate, who was seven, and her five year-old sister Liane, were sent to live in the children's home at Izieu. On April 6, 1944, the home was raided and the children were shipped to Auschwitz. They were murdered in the gas chambers upon their arrival.

The German officer who ordered the despicable raid on the children's home was Klaus Barbie. Barbie escaped punishment after the war by agreeing to work as a spy for the United States, and it was only many years later that the scandal was uncovered. Barbie was eventually sent back to France for trial, where on July 4, 1987, he was convicted of "crimes against humanity" and sentenced to life in prison.

The Krochmals never lived to see Barbie brought to trial. They were murdered by the Nazis, because no country would take them.

Renate was only eight years old.