Holocaust Survivor Stories
Discover the life stories of more than 20 Holocaust survivors from different countries. They were persecuted under National Socialism for various reasons and were able to save their lives by fleeing their homeland.
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Berlin, Germany
Charlotte Charlaque
Born in 1892, Jewish, a transgender woman who works as a receptionist at Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science. In 1934, she escapes to Czechoslovakia, flees further to Prague in 1939, and finally settles in New York in 1942.
Sources: Self-testimonies & newspapers
Photo: Národní archiv, Prague. Collection Police Directorate 1941-1951
Munich, Germany
Freia Eisner
Born in 1907, stepdaughter of the social democratic politician Kurt Eisner, who is murdered in 1919. She flees to Sweden and France in 1933, then seeks refuge in Great Britain in 1935. In 1948, she returns to Germany.
Sources: Life history interviews
Photo: Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin- Centrum Judaicum, Archiv, CJA, 6.04, Nr. 70.
Radzyń, Poland
Gustawa Tänzer
Born in 1923, Jewish, Gustawa is 16 years old when German troops invade Poland. She manages to obtain a forged passport with a Polish-Christian identity and uses it to escape to Munich in 1943, where she volunteers as a worker.
Sources: Letter to her grandson & other self-testimonies
Photo: Private (in possession of the family)
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Alfred Bader
Born in 1924, he is the son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. At the end of 1938, he is evacuated to Great Britain with the first Kindertransport (Children’s Transport) from Vienna.
Source: Diary of Alfred Bader, 16 years old
Photo: Queen’s University Archives, Alfred Bader fonds
Hanna Kuh
Born in 1913, Jewish, escapes to Great Britain in October 1938 where she was able to work as a domestic servant. She is the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust.
Sources: Letters with family and friends
Photo: Hanna Kuh Collection. Literaturhaus Wien / Austrian Archives for Exile Studies