Jewish Studies Commons^™

"Bp", Gavin Fryer

Bronx Jewish History Project

BP was born in 1937 in Pelham Parkway, and moved to the Parkchester housing development in 1941, where he grew up. He recalls the convenient amenities such as nearby shopping and playgrounds, but notes the occasional shortages and power outages connected to World War II. He also shares his experiences with antisemitism, citing the 4.7% quota on Jewish tenants and taunts from children while coming home from school.

BP led a busy, studious childhood at JHS 98 and the Bronx High School of Science, from which he graduated in 1954. He continued his education at New York University’s University Heights …

Hendler, Elliot, Reyna Lee Stovall

Bronx Jewish History Project

Elliot Hendler is a lifelong Bronx resident, born during the Great Depression in 1935. He moved to various addresses throughout his childhood, having lived on 172nd Street and Washington Avenue, 169th Street and Washington Avenue, and 170th and Townsend Avenue. Describing his childhood neighborhood as “bad” and marked by crime, he details his experiences with violence and vandalism. When he married his wife, Libby, in 1958, they moved to an apartment on 205th Street, and in 1969 moved to Co-op City, where they have lived ever since. Together, they have two children and two grandchildren.

Hendler details his impressive educational …

Hendler, Libby, Reyna Lee Stovall

Bronx Jewish History Project

Libby Hendler shared her life story, detailing her upbringing in the Bronx. Libby discusses her upbringing in a kosher home and her decision to maintain kosher practices initially. Libby shares that her mother kept a kosher home, and she continued this practice when she got married. She mentions having two sets of dishes, one for Passover and one for regular use. She recounts how she stopped keeping kosher after her daughter turned three, opting for non-kosher food during a vacation where kosher options were unavailable. Despite this change, she still has a strong aversion to certain non-kosher foods, such as …

Schaechter Viswanath, Gitl, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Gitl Schaechter Viswanath was born into a Yiddish-speaking family. Her father came from Romania to the United States in 1951, becoming a renowned Yiddish linguist and Columbia professor. He and his wife wanted to raise their children speaking Yiddish within a Yiddish community, and so they created this community with two other families living near one another on Bainbridge Avenue in the north-central Bronx, the Fishmans and the Gottesmans. The families were primarily secular but focused on Jewish culture and tradition.

Schaechter Viswanath attended PS 56 and describes the school and area as primarily Jewish. After school, she went to …

Koppel, Mark, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Mark Koppel was born in October 1942 at Bronx Hospital. He first lived on 245 East Gun Hill Road before moving to Chicago with his family while his father served in World War II. Following the war, Koppel’s family moved back to the Bronx and settled in an apartment on 167th Street and College Avenue. He remembers the enighborhood he grew up in being predominantly Jewish and the close friendships he made with the other kids in his neighborhood and the street games they would play together.

Koppel’s family was not religiously observant growing up. However, Koppel had a Bar …

"Len", Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

“Len” was born in the Bronx to Hungarian immigrants who immigrated to the United States in their early twenties. Len’s mother was a housekeeper in Brooklyn until she married Len’s father, a factory worker. After marriage, Len’s mother became a homemaker, and both of Len’s parents moved to the Bronx. Len’s mother had aspirations for him to become a rabbi, and as a result, he attended yeshiva before electing to leave parochial school for high school. Len’s family lived within two blocks of the yeshiva for the first fourteen years of his life, and Len describes his childhood as insular …

Life Is Beautiful, Or Not: The Myth Of The Good Italian, Shira Klein

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Life is Beautiful illustrates a popular misconception about Italy's role in the Holocaust. The film features the good Italian and the warped view that Italy treated Jews kindly in the late 1930s and during World War II. Historians have proven this claim to be grossly exaggerated, arguing that Italians persecuted Jews vigorously. Yet popular representations of the past-films, novels, museum exhibits, and websites-continue to give credence to the notion that Italians were overwhelmingly good to Jews. Although France and Germany cultivated similar self-acquitting myths in the decades immediately after the war, they eventually moved on to accept the more …

Nazi-Confiscated Art: Eliminating Legal Barriers To Returning Stolen Treasures, Stephanie J. Beach

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

World War II ended over three-quarters of a century ago, but there still remain prisoners of war. Before and during the war, the Nazis confiscated approximately 650,000 works of art—an “art theft” orchestrated by Adolf Hitler to rid society of Jewish art and artists and to collect worthy works to build his own art capital. Seventy-five years later, looted Holocaust-era artworks are still either undiscovered or in the possession of museums across the globe without proper ownership attribution or payment to Holocaust survivors or their heirs. There are modern remedies, such as the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets, …

Finding Edith: Surviving The Holocaust In Plain Sight, Edith Mayer Cord

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Finding Edith: Surviving the Holocaust in Plain Sight is the coming-of-age story of a young Jewish girl chased in Europe during World War II. Like a great adventure story, the book describes the childhood and adolescence of a Viennese girl growing up against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the rise of Nazism, World War II, and the religious persecution of Jews throughout Europe. Edith was hunted in Western Europe and Vichy France, where she was hidden in plain sight, constantly afraid of discovery and denunciation. Forced to keep every thought to herself, Edith developed an intense inner life. After …

Jud Ms 05 Sumner T. Bernstein Papers Finding Aid, Susannah Clark

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Sumner Thurman Bernstein (1924 - 2002) grew up in Portland, Maine, the son of lawyer parents. He served in the South Pacific in the U.S. Army during World War II (achieving the rank of Captain) and attended Harvard University for his undergraduate education and for law school. He returned to Portland after marrying Rosalyne Spindel in 1949, to join his father and uncle’s law practice, which he helped to grow into Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson in 1964. He was very engaged with the community, participating in the following organizations, among others, often serving as president or chair of …

Realtors, Resistance, And White Roses, Casey Trattner

SURGE

I remember driving to school with my mother, eyes wide. I thought, as we passed by buildings and stores and little cafes with seats outside, that the small suburban town we were driving through was beautiful.

And when I told my mom, she looked at me out of the corner of her eyes and told me:

“Did I ever tell you how Dad and I were going to move here?”

“Here?” I said. “No… I don’t think so.”

“We were looking at a house that we both liked, but when I asked the real estate agent about how I heard …

A Boy In Hiding: Surviving The Nazis, Amsterdam 1940-1945, Stan Rubens

Zea E-Books Collection

A Boy in Hiding: Surviving the Nazis is a poignant, true-survival story of a young boy who hid for four years underground in Holland during World War II. A Boy in Hiding sheds a light on the difficult road that lay ahead for Anne Frank—had she survived. This book is written from the point of view of an eight-year-old boy growing up too fast during the five years of the war. Now, sixty years later, Rubens gives a voice to the young boy, who—despite the hard times and difficulties he encountered, never lost his positive view on life.

The Tragedy Of Deportation: An Analysis Of Jewish Survivor Testimony On Holocaust Train Deportations, Connor Schonta

Senior Honors Theses

Over the course of World War II, trains carried three million Jews to extermination centers. The deportation journey was an integral aspect of the Nazis’ Final Solution and the cause of insufferable torment to Jewish deportees. While on the trains, Jews endured an onslaught of physical and psychological misery.

Though most Jews were immediately killed upon arriving at the death camps, a small number were chosen to work, and an even smaller number survived through liberation. The basis of this study comes from the testimonies of those who survived, specifically in regard to their recorded experiences and memories of the …

Book Review: In Those Nightmarish Days: The Ghetto Reportage Of Peretz Opoczynski And Josef Zelkowicz, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

The author presents a review of the book In Those Nightmarish Days: The Ghetto Reportage of Peretz Opoczynski and Josef Zelkowicz.

Sobrevivimos … Al Fin Hablo, Leon Malmed

Zea E-Books Collection

Esta es la historia real de Leon Malmed quien, junto a su hermana Rachel, escapó de Francia durante la época del Holocausto gracias a sus valientes y heroicos vecinos quienes, después de haber presenciado el arresto de los padres de nuestro protagonista en 1942, se ofrecieron a cuidarlo a él y a su hermana hasta que regresaran. Primero, los padres de Leon fueron llevados a Drancy, después a Auschwitz-Birkenau, y nunca volvieron. Mientras tanto sus vecinos, que vivían en el piso de abajo, Henri y Suzanne Ribouleau, los acogieron dándoles un hogar y una familia; protegiéndolos mientras la ocupación los …

"Il Signor Mengele Di Bolzano": L'Alto Adige Come Via Di Fuga Dei Criminali Nazisti (1945-1951), Gerald Steinacher

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Il tecnico altoatesino Richard Klement, il meccanico bolzanino Helmut Gregor: apparentemente semplici cittadini emigrati in Argentina dopo le devastazioni della seconda guerra mondiale. Ma questi nomi ne celano altri ben più noti: Adolf Eichmann e Josef Mengele. Sono solo due delle migliaia di nazisti che dopo la sconfitta, attraverso l'Alto Adige e il porto di Genova, riuscirono a raggiungere terre più sicure come Spagna, Sudamerica, Medio Oriente. Eichmann e Mengele si erano avvalsi per la loro fuga oltreoceano nel 1950 di documenti rilasciati loro in Alto Adige dopo aver assunto una nuova identità. Perché il prototipo del "burocrate dello sterminio" …

Jud Ms 02 Portland Jewish Community Center Uso Guest Book Finding Aid, Karin A. France

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

The Jewish Community Center on Cumberland Avenue in Portland, Maine was the site of United Service Organization (USO) social events, held regularly from at least October 1943 to September 1946. Most of the servicemen (and some women who were nurses) who attended events at the Community Center were in the Navy, stationed on shops docked or anchored in Casco Bay. These social events were sometimes held out on the islands. Although hosted by the Jewish Community Center, anyone was welcome, regardless of religion. Eleanor Edison Taft saved this ledger listing the names of attendees at the USO events when …

Interview No. 1639, Itzhak Kotkowski

Combined Interviews

Itzhak Kotkowski is an author that wrote about his experiences in the Holocaust during World War II; he was born in Warsaw, Poland on December 25, 1921; his family was Jewish, attended private school; Mr. Kotkowski addresses anti-Semitism among Polish people, personally never experienced it; he lived in the Jewish section, enjoyed life there until the German invasion on September 1, 1939; he recalls being at home when Warsaw was occupied, had always respected German culture; he explains his father worked hard to give them an education; he describes his three sisters, one was in Mexico, one immigrated to the …

Ministers Of Compassion During The Nazi Period: Gertrud Luckner And Raoul Wallenberg, The Institute Of Judaeo-Christian Studies

Teshuvah Institute Papers

The Shoah or Holocaust, defined as the vicious, prolonged and deadly attack on the Jewish people and their way of life in Nazi-dominated Europe, has cast a long and dismal shadow over the latter two-thirds on this century. As we grapple with the inadequacies of so many people in virtually every walk of life and every religious or secular community to stand up to the Nazi threat, we are grateful for heroic examples of those who did act with courage and resolution. They remind us of the moral and spiritual challenge to follow one's conscience when it is not only …

Nathan Asch Papers - Accession 344, Nathan Asch

Manuscript Collection

The Nathan Asch Papers consist of personal and business correspondence, legal and financial papers, published short works of Nathan Asch, book reviews, unpublished manuscripts, notes, photographs, clippings, and a tape recording of the novelist. There is exclusive correspondence with many literary personalities including Malcolm Cowley, Josephine Herbst, James Farrell, Morley Callaghan, Stefan Zweig, Sholem Asch, Doris Lessing, Hart Crane, Hermynia Zur Mühlen, John Dos Passos, and Ford Madox Ford. There is also information pertaining to his work with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and his service in the US Army Corps during World War II.

Resistance Is The Lesson: The Meaning Of The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Morris U. Schappes

Van Sickle Leftist Pamphlet Collection, 1900-1993

No abstract provided.

05/31/1946, Israel Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to Sumner Bernstein from father Israel regarding family visits; summer school; Kravchenko's I Chose Freedom.

05/29/1946, Sumner T. Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to family from Sumner Bernstein regarding visit with family (Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Don, Aunt Esther, Ellen); summer school; court martial; Cluny Brown.

05/28/1946 B, Israel Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to Sumner Bernstein from father Israel regarding attempt to call Senator Brewster; registration for Harvard.

05/28/1946 C, Rebecca Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to Sumner Bernstein from mother Rebecca (Peggy) regarding attempts to move up Sumner's discharge date; Harvard summer school.

05/28/1946, Sumner T. Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to family from Sumner Bernstein regarding meeting with Colonels; when he will leave the Army; registering for Harvard.

05/27/1946, Sumner T. Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to family from Sumner T. Bernstein regarding meeting with Colonels on timing of his leaving the Army; life insurance.

05/27/1946 B, Israel Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to Sumner Bernstein from father Israel regarding train strike.

05/26/1946, Sumner T. Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter to family from Sumner Bernstein regarding plans for leaving the Army; visits with family friends in Allentown, PA.

05/24/1946, Sumner T. Bernstein

Sumner T. Bernstein Correspondence

Letter from Sumner Bernstein to sister Helen Barbara regarding correspondence; Harvard registration; news from home.