Hanne Hirsch Liebmann

Born 1924, Karlsruhe, Germany

Hanne's family owned a photographic studio. In October 1940, she and other family members were deported to the Gurs camp in southern France. In September 1941, the Children's Aid Society (OSE) rescued Hanne and she hid in a children's home in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Her mother perished in Auschwitz. In 1943, Hanne obtained false papers and crossed into Switzerland. She married in Geneva in 1945 and had a daughter in 1946. In 1948, she arrived in the United States.

Describes harassment and anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany.

Henry Schmelzer

Born 1924, Vienna, Austria

Henry was the youngest of four children in a Jewish family. His brothers fled Europe, while the rest of the family endured Nazi raids on their home. Finally, they were evicted. In 1938, Henry escaped to England, where he found refuge at a children's camp. He remained in England throughout the war--living with a group of young Zionists, living with his sister, making airplane parts in a factory, and ultimately joining the Royal Scots Fusiliers.

Describes escaping from a group of bullies who wanted to beat him because he was Jewish.

Ben Meed

Born in Warsaw, Poland

Ben was one of four children born to a religious Jewish family. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Ben was a teenager attending school and working a job. After the Germans occupied Warsaw, Ben decided to escape to Soviet-occupied eastern Poland. However, he decided to return to be with his family, then in the Warsaw ghetto. Ben was assigned to a work detail outside the ghetto. Later, he went into hiding outside the ghetto and posed as a non-Jewish Pole. During the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943, he worked with others to rescue ghetto fighters, bringing them out through the sewers and hiding them. After the uprising, Ben escaped from Warsaw by posing as a non-Jew. Following liberation, he rejoined his father, mother, and younger sister.

Describes antisemitism in Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland in 1939.

Ernest G. Heppner

Gad Beck

Liliana Guzenfiter