This young man is Jeno Brieger, born November 17, 1925- the oldest amongst his 7 siblings. Jeno had a bright future, worked very hard in school and eventually decided to pursue a tailoring career. Unfortunately at the age of 17, as well as 17,000 other Jews, he was moved into a Jewish ghetto in Nyiregyhaza that the Hungarians set up. Within a couple months of being moved, they were all forced to Auschwitz. Not realizing the severity of his predicament, he hid his sewing supplies in the hopes of resuming his normal life upon return. Fortunately, within a year Jeno was freed as the British troops liberated Bergen-Belson (the concentration camp Jeno had been deported to after Auschwitz). Following good fortune of being liberated, he quickly emigrated to the United States to get away from the horrors that surrounded his homeland.
Luciano Fano- Born on February 16, 1933 in Parma, Italy
· Born in a small village in northern Italy.
· Son of Ermanno and Giorgina (Padova).
· His father worked as a pharmacist.
· Had a sister named Liliana who was two years younger than him.
· He and his family were among the 232 Jews that lived in Parma, Italy.
· The anti-Jewish racial law was passed in November of 1938 causing Jews to lose the right to have an education and profession.
· In August of 1943, the Germans started to arrest and deport the Italian Jews.
· At that time, many of the Jews in Parma fled searching for refuge, but the Fano family stayed.
· The Fano family was arrested on December 8, 1943.
· They were imprisoned in local internment camps.
· On April 5, 1944 Luciano and his family were sent onto a train packed with Jews to Auschwitz.
· Upon arriving Auschwitz, the family was taken straight to the gas chambers and were all murdered.
· Luciano Fano was 11 years old when he was murdered.
· Born in a small village in northern Italy.
· Son of Ermanno and Giorgina (Padova).
· His father worked as a pharmacist.
· Had a sister named Liliana who was two years younger than him.
· He and his family were among the 232 Jews that lived in Parma, Italy.
· The anti-Jewish racial law was passed in November of 1938 causing Jews to lose the right to have an education and profession.
· In August of 1943, the Germans started to arrest and deport the Italian Jews.
· At that time, many of the Jews in Parma fled searching for refuge, but the Fano family stayed.
· The Fano family was arrested on December 8, 1943.
· They were imprisoned in local internment camps.
· On April 5, 1944 Luciano and his family were sent onto a train packed with Jews to Auschwitz.
· Upon arriving Auschwitz, the family was taken straight to the gas chambers and were all murdered.
· Luciano Fano was 11 years old when he was murdered.
Augusta Feldhorn- Born on May 29, 1934 in Vienna, Austria
· Daughter of Julius and Margarete (Krigsman).
· Julius, her father, was an accountant and established his own men’s hat factory.
· The Germans annexed Austria in 1938 causing the Feldhorn’s to flee to Belgium.
· Augusta started to go to school and make friends in Belgium, but then the Germans invaded Belgium in May of 1940.
· The family tried to flee to France, but was turned around at the border.
· The Feldhorn’s then went to hide in the countryside with Christian friends.
· Margarete and Julius were hiding with false papers.
· In the summer of 1942, Margarete went out to buy milk but was stopped when the house was surrounded by police.
· Augusta’s father, uncle, and aunt were taken to the transit camp at Malines.
· Augusta’s mother escaped the raid and sent Augusta on a train taking her back to the convent.
· Augusta and her mom were walking alone one afternoon in April of 1945 when she saw soldiers approaching.
· The soldiers were American, and at 11 years old she finally realized that she was free.
· Her father, Julius, was murdered in the Birkenau concentration camp.
· Daughter of Julius and Margarete (Krigsman).
· Julius, her father, was an accountant and established his own men’s hat factory.
· The Germans annexed Austria in 1938 causing the Feldhorn’s to flee to Belgium.
· Augusta started to go to school and make friends in Belgium, but then the Germans invaded Belgium in May of 1940.
· The family tried to flee to France, but was turned around at the border.
· The Feldhorn’s then went to hide in the countryside with Christian friends.
· Margarete and Julius were hiding with false papers.
· In the summer of 1942, Margarete went out to buy milk but was stopped when the house was surrounded by police.
· Augusta’s father, uncle, and aunt were taken to the transit camp at Malines.
· Augusta’s mother escaped the raid and sent Augusta on a train taking her back to the convent.
· Augusta and her mom were walking alone one afternoon in April of 1945 when she saw soldiers approaching.
· The soldiers were American, and at 11 years old she finally realized that she was free.
· Her father, Julius, was murdered in the Birkenau concentration camp.
Naomi Posinova- Born on January 4, 1932 in Prague, Czechoslovakia
· Her parents were Max and Rachel Posinova.
· Her father, Max, was a hat maker who also owned a plastics factory.
· The Germans occupied Prague in March of 1939.
· The Germans deported 46, 067 Jews from Prague to the death camps from October 1941- March 1945.
· The Posinova’s were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia in August 1942.
· Conditions in the ghetto were terrible and overcrowded. There was never enough food/space.
· There were daily “selections” and whoever was chosen was deported to Auschwitz.
· In late 1944, the Posinova family was “selected” and ended up being transported to Auschwitz.
· After arriving in Auschwitz, Naomi and her mom, Rachel, were murdered in the gas chambers.
· Naomi was only 12 years old when she was murdered.
· Her parents were Max and Rachel Posinova.
· Her father, Max, was a hat maker who also owned a plastics factory.
· The Germans occupied Prague in March of 1939.
· The Germans deported 46, 067 Jews from Prague to the death camps from October 1941- March 1945.
· The Posinova’s were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia in August 1942.
· Conditions in the ghetto were terrible and overcrowded. There was never enough food/space.
· There were daily “selections” and whoever was chosen was deported to Auschwitz.
· In late 1944, the Posinova family was “selected” and ended up being transported to Auschwitz.
· After arriving in Auschwitz, Naomi and her mom, Rachel, were murdered in the gas chambers.
· Naomi was only 12 years old when she was murdered.
Maria Orlicka-Born on July 2, 1928 in Jaworzno, Poland
- Both her parents worked. She took care of the house when her parents worked.
- The Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939; she was 11.
- She was arrested at 14 by the Germans for using black market ration cards to get food, which they said she then sold at "profiteering prices."
- She was deported to Auschwitz and put in the "Bunker of Death"
- Instead of being shot she was transferred to a slave-labor camp for children in Lodz's Jewish ghetto.
- Her parents were told that she was executed and her dad died of a heart attack from shock.
- She was 16 when she was released from the camp on November 9, 1944, and emaciated from typhus, scurvy, and malnutrition.
Michal Scislowski-Born on September 30, 1922 in Siedlce, Poland
- His father was an intelligence officer in the Polish army.
- He was one of two siblings, and as a child he enjoyed photography and was active in boy scouts.
- He was living in Wilejka when the Germans attacked Poland on September 1, 1939.
- When the soviets invaded on September 17, his father left with his unit to avoid getting captured. His mother, sister, and him stayed in Wilejka.
- In school the teachers were replaced by Russian army officers who taught them Russian and Communist Party doctrine.
- In 1940 him and his family escaped to Warsaw and they opened a delicatessen outside of Warsaw.
- In September 1941 he was arrested by the SS for being suspected of being in the underground.
- He escaped but was arrested again in March 1943 and held in Warsaw's Pawiak Prison.
- After interrogation and beatings he was shipped to Auschwitz where he barely survived starvation, brutality, and untreated pneumonia.
- In 1944 he was sent to the Flossenburg camp in Germany.
- He was liberated while on a death march to Dachau in April 1945.
- He worked with the US Army for five years in Germany and France before emigrating to America in 1950.
Zigmond Adler-Born on July 18, 1936 in Liege, Belgium
- His mother, Rivka, was a shirtmaker, and his father, Otto, was a businessman.
- A year after Zigmond was born his mother died. His father remarried, but it didn't last long. His father remarried a third time, soon Zigmond had a new half-sister and a stable family life.
- As a boy he often visited his Uncle Jermie's family.
- He was 3 when the Germans occupied Belgium, two years later his father was deported for forced labor.
- After that, his step-mother left Liege and gave him to Uncle Jermie and Aunt Chaje.
- When the Nazis started rounding up Jews some of Jermie's Catholic friends gave them false papers to hide their identity and rented them a house in a nearby village.
- Two years later the Gestapo came to the house, suspecting Jews lived there.
- Zigmond, his aunt, and two cousins were sent the Mechelen internment camp, then to Auschwitz.
- Zigmond was gassed on May 21, 1944; he was 7 years old.
Nelly Adler- Born on February 28, 1930 in Liege, Belgium
- She was the youngest of three daughters. Her Yiddish-speaking parents moved to Belgium from Czechoslovakia a year before she was born.
- She grew up speaking French with her friends at school.
- Her families apartment was above a cafe and across the street from a Catholic church.
- Her parents ran a successful tailoring business from their home.
- She attended public school and had many Catholic friends, her religious mother made sure her and her sisters studied Hebrew.
- She was 10 when the Germans occupied her city. Two years later her and her sister were forced out of school because they were Jews.
- Some Catholic friends helped them get false papers and rented them a house in a nearby village.
- One Sunday, two days after her father checked into the hospital the Gestapo came to her house at 5 a.m.
- They heard a family of Jews lived there and then they demanded to know where her father was. She told them the truth but the Gestapo slapped her for lying.
- Everyone in the house was arrested and deported.
- Nelly was gassed in Auschwitz on May 21, 1944; she was 14 years old.
Maria Sava Moise- Born on June 1, 1925 in Iasi, Romania
- One of four children born to poor gypsy parents. Her family lived in a mixed neighborhood including Romanians and gypsies.
- She grew up in a house with a yard where her family kept a pig and some chickens.
- Her father made a living by singing and working at wineries.
- Her parents couldn't afford to send her to school. To help make ends meet her, her sister, and older brother helped their mother pick grapes for a local winery.
- The work was seasonal and they were contracted by the week. They worked from 5 a.m. until evening.
- When she was 16 her father was drafted by the Romanians to fight against the Soviet Union.
- A year later the Iasi gypsies were rounded up and sent eastward by cattle car. They disembarked in Transnistria and were marched to a farm left in open fields to die slowly. That's how her sister died.
- Her husband Stefan was able to run away. Coincidentally her father's unit was stationed nearby and on New Year's Eve of 1943 he smuggled some of them back to Romania on a troop train.
- She survived the rest of the war in Iasi, and after the war ended she and he husband reunited and resettled in Iasi.
Stefan Moise- Born on January 30, 1923 in Iasi, Romania
- Born to gypsy parents in a mixed neighborhood of gypsies and Romanians.
- His father made a living by playing guitar in local restaurants. As a child Stefan learned to play violin and often performed with his dad.
- When he was a teenager and old enough he left his father and teamed up with another young man to perform in restaurants. They performed all over Moldavia.
- In 1939 the outbreak of war was bad for business, many restaurants closed down and he had to resort to farm work to support himself.
- In 1942 the Iasi gypsies were rounded up and sent eastward by cattle car. They were disembarked in Transnistria then marched to open fields and left to starve.
- He was urged by his wife to run away, he took his violin with him. He hitched a ride on a freight train to Odessa and found work playing in a hotel, but he couldn't stop feeling guilty about leaving his wife and sister.
- In 1944 he was arrested and inducted into the Romanian army.
- After the war he was reunited with his wife in Iasi. He worked as a musician until his retirement in 1983.
To find more victims of the Holocaust you can go to:
http://www.graceproducts.com/fmnc/main.htm
http://www.graceproducts.com/fmnc/main.htm