Meet our Survivor Volunteers

Eve Kristine Vetulani

“During the war he asked my mother, ‘Can you take a Jewish woman into your house?’ and, no, he asked me, if my mother would take this Jewish woman, and I said no, never tell her that she is Jewish. This grandmother did not want to go with her Jewish children to Italy, she said I’m too old I am going to die here, I’m not going any place, I love this city, okay. And the cook was left with her, but then when she came to live with us the cook would always come to deliver food so that my mother really didn’t have to do anything except make the toilet paper. But everything else was delivered. And so he was also the one who, she stayed. And I was already in Germany and she died peacefully in our house and nobody knew. Except that I had to teach her, my uncle said, you have to teach her prayers, Catholic prayers, the first thing they do they ask you about the Christian Catholic holidays, and the years of this and that.”
(postwar testimony)

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Gerald Liebenau

Born November 30, 1925, in Berlin, Germany

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Gerald was born to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. His father worked in the textile business. Gerald was the eldest of two children; he had a younger sister. He attended public school until 1936, when he and other Jewish children were forced to leave public schools. In December 1938, Gerald’s family moved to London, England. They lived in London for approximately one month, as they waited for their visa numbers to be announced. In February 1939, Gerald and his family emigrated to the United States. Gerald was only fourteen. They moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and several years later moved once again to New London, Connecticut. Gerald’s mother spoke English well and taught piano lessons. After finishing high school Gerald joined the U.S. Army. He spent one year in the infantry and one year in the Office of Strategic Services. After serving in the Army, Gerald went back to school and in 1950 graduated from Yale University.

Photo Album