Tamar Hendel was born Rut Hendel on April 26, 1935 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Her father, Isac (Eisig), owned a successful dry goods store. Her mother, Hana Surah Weissman, helped run the store. While the family was not Orthodox, they kept a kosher diet and spent Jewish holidays with their family in the suburbs. Tamar’s brother, David, who was seven years her senior, attended Hebrew school. As a child, Tamar’s mother took her to children’s shows and to the park where she played with her cousin, Giselle.
In April 1941, Nazi Germany and its Axis allies invaded and partitioned Yugoslavia. Zagreb became the capital of a German satellite state called the Independent State of Croatia. At that time it was under the control of the fascist Ustaša regime. The new Croatian government enacted antisemitic regulations. This included forcing Jews to wear a yellow badge with a “Ž” on it for Židow, the Croatian word for Jew. Shortly thereafter, the Hendel family began to search for a means of escaping Croatia. That summer, Isac was able to sell his dry goods store to one of his employees at a considerable loss in order to pay a member of the Ustaše to smuggle Tamar and Hana out of Croatia via train. They settled in Fiume, Italy (today Rijeka, Croatia), a port city near the pre-war Italian-Yugoslav border. The sale of the family business also paid for Isac and David to leave for the Italian-Yugoslav border via a fisherman’s boat. After several failed attempts to flee, Isac and David were finally able to join Hana and Tamar.
When the family reunited, they settled into a ground floor apartment in Italian-occupied Ljubljana (today Slovenia) for a short time. Members of their extended family from Croatia, who had also fled the Nazis and their collaborators, joined Tamar and her family. In early December 1941, when Isac heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Tamar overheard him say, “Good, the Americans will now enter the war.” Later that month, the extended family made their way to Rovigo, Italy. Fascist Italy was an ally of Nazi Germany and had passed its own antisemitic laws in 1938. But, compared to other parts of Europe, it was relatively safe. The Hendel family took up residence in a small apartment next to the synagogue. This was arranged by the local police in conjunction with a member of the Jewish community. They were also issued food ration cards and given a monthly stipend by the Italian government.
Although conditions were difficult, Tamar maintained some semblance of a normal childhood. She spent her time playing with her cousins and other children on the street, learning Italian and how to ride a bicycle. Since Jews could not attend schools alongside non-Jewish Italians, Tamar’s parents taught her and her cousins how to read and write. They hired a teacher for arithmetic. Isac also taught the children how to read Hebrew prayers.
Life changed for the Hendels again in the fall of 1943 when on September 8, 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies. The Germans responded by quickly occupying Northern and Central Italy. The extended family fled south to Rome, seeking to hide in the anonymity of a large city. After a crowded and harrowing journey by train, Tamar and her family arrived in Rome. There, the extended family split up. For a time, they were hidden under the false last name Endelli and in various convents and monasteries.
After months of bombings and air raids, American troops liberated the Hendel family in June 1944. Soon after liberation, Jewish relief organizations arrived in Rome. They informed the survivors of opportunities to travel to the United States.
With the help of these organizations, the Hendels and their cousins arrived at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York in August 1944. There, Tamar attended school for the first time. She learned to read, write, and speak English. She participated in social activities like the Girl Scouts. In 1946, the family moved to New York City. The family members who remained in Croatia were murdered in the Holocaust including her maternal grandfather, Mordechai Weissman, and her uncle, Aron Kremer. Mordechai and Aron were part of a group of 100 Jews murdered in a reprisal action after an act of sabotage by the Partisans. Tamar’s paternal uncle, Wolf Hendel, and his wife, Golda, were murdered in Auschwitz.
Tamar became a public school teacher in New York and Maryland before becoming an art therapist. She started an art center called “Create Arts Center” in Silver Spring, Maryland. Tamar is currently an art teacher at her retirement residence. She is a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.