Sura Andrezejko Born 1927 in Stawiski, Poland

Renate was one of 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.



Agnes Lebovics

Born April 13, 1939 in Chust, Czechoslovakia

Agnes, the oldest daughter of Mor and Marketa Lebovics, was an infant when Hungary took over the part of Czechoslovakia in which she lived. Her father came from a family of wealthy livestock dealers, and he worked in the family business. Her mother's father owned a flourishing print shop. The Hungarians immediately began oppressing the Jews of Chust. Agnes's father was sent to work in a forced-labor camp in Hungary. He was, however, allowed home for visits. Agnes's younger sister, Eva, was born two years later. Soon after Eva's birth, harsh economic and social restrictions were imposed upon the Jewish population, and life became even more difficult for Agnes and her family.

In early 1944, the Germans occupied Chust and immediately increased the persecution of the Jewish population. A German soldier even tried to pull Agnes's earrings from her ears.

In March 1944, Agnes, her sister Eva, and her mother were forced to leave their home and live in a sealed-off, overcrowded ghetto along with over 10,000 Jews from the surrounding area. They were forced to leave their possessions, including the family dog, Boombi, behind. They were allowed to move in with her mother's parents, whose apartment was in the ghetto area. Agnes and Eva cried for their big white dog and could not understand why they were not allowed to bring him with them.

On May 23, 1944, the Lebovics family was forced into sealed, overcrowded cattle cars. They had no food, water or sanitary facilities, and they did not know where they were going. After three days and two nights, the train arrived at the Auschwitz death camp. The women were sen to stand in line. Agnes and Eva held their mother's hand. A Polish "kapo" came over to Agnes's mother and told her that if she wanted her children to live, she should give them to their grandmother and say that they were not hers. She would then go to another line of people chosen to work. By working, Agnes's mother would be able to provide her children with food. Mrs. Lebovics called over to her father, who stood in another line with the men, and asked him what to do. Her father told her to give the children to her mother, and move into the other line. When Agnes and Eva cried out for her and called her name, she returned to them, but was beaten back into line by a German soldier. Five year-old Agnes, her sister, her grandmother and great-grandmother were taken straight to the gas chamber where they were murdered.

Agnes was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators in the Holocaust.



Assia Levinski

Born 1928 in Kazlu-Ruda, Lithuania

Assia, the daughter of Leon and Chaja Levinski, lived with her parents and younger brother Monia in a small village in Lithuania. Assia's father was a lumber dealer. Assia was a member of a large, loving, close-knit extended family. Her grandparents lived on a large farm a few miles outside of town. Both of her parents had attended high school in Marijampole, the closest city. Marijampole's 2,545 Jews earned their livelihood from trading in agricultural produce and from small industry. The Jews of Marijampole established the first Hebrew high school in Lithuania. A small farm which trained youth interested in pioneering in Palestine was established outside the city.

Assia was a thirteen year-old schoolgirl in the summer of 1941, when the Germans invaded Lithuania. Assia and her family were forced to leave their home. Along with all the Jews of the surrounding area, they were confined to an overcrowded, sealed-off ghetto in Marijampole. Over 7,000 people endured great hardship. There was inadequate food, medicine, and sanitation.

At the beginning of September 1941,Jews were forced to leave the ghetto. In groups of 500, they were marched by members the Einsatzgruppen, special mobile killing squads, and their Lithuanian collaborators, a few miles outside the city. Anyone trying to escape was immediately shot. Forced to stand along already prepared ditches, they were massacred. Assia was thirteen years old.

Assia was one of 1.5 Jewish children who were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.



Monia Levinski

Born 1931 in Kazlu-Ruda, Lithuania

Monia, the son of Leon and Chaja Levinski, lived along with his parents and his older sister Assia in a small village in Lithuania. Monia's father was a lumber dealer. Monia was a member of a large, loving, close-knit extended family. His grandparents lived on a large farm a few miles outside of town. Both of his parents had attended high school in Marijampole, the closest city. Marijampole's 2,545 Jews earned their livelihood from trading in agricultural produce and from small industry. The Jews of Marijampole established the first Hebrew high school in Lithuania. A small farm which trained youth interested in pioneering in Palestine was established outside the city.

Monia was a ten year-old schoolboy in the summer of 1941, when the Germans invaded Lithuania. Monia and his family were forced to leave their home. Along with all the Jews of the surrounding area, they were confined to an overcrowded, sealed-off ghetto in Marijampole. Over 7,000 people endured great hardship. There was inadequate food, medicine, and sanitation.

At the beginning of September 1941, the ghetto was emptied. Jews, in groups of 500, were marched a few miles out of the city by members of German mobile killing squads, the Einsatzgruppen, and their Lithuanian collaborators. Anyone trying to escape was immediately shot. Forced to stand along already prepared ditches, they were massacred. Monia was ten years old.

Monia was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators in the Holocaust.



Tsila Marcus

Born July 14, 1939 in Rovno, Poland

Tsila, the younger daughter of Batya (Fuchs) and Shchane Marcus, was born in Rovno, Poland. Her mother had moved there from Koretz after her marriage. The Germans invaded eastern Poland in June 1941, when Tsila was two years old.

Tsila's father, along with 8,000 other Jews from Rovno, was murdered by the Germans. The remaining Jews were locked into a ghetto where many died from starvation and disease. Tsila's sister, Bella, was murdered when the Nazis raided her apartment. Soon after, the Germans rounded up healthy young women and forced them to work as servants. Tsila's mother was assigned to work for the mayor. There, she became acquainted with a German who worked as a bookkeeper. One day, he confided that he would do everything he could to save her life. In early July 1942, Tsila's mother was told to go to her German friend's home and hide there, as the Nazis were planning to murder the remaining Jews of the city. Mass graves had already been prepared in a nearby forest. Mrs. Marcus and her daughter escaped from the city dressed as Polish peasants. Tsila and her mother walked barefoot, almost 50 miles, to Koretz, where they had relatives. After they smuggled themselves into the sealed-off ghetto, they discovered that most of Tsila's relatives, including her grandmother and aunt, had already been murdered. Two days before the Koretz ghetto was to be emptied and its residents murdered, Tsila's mother received a letter from her German friend telling her to leave the city. She immediately warned the rest of the ghetto. Many tried to escape, but they were caught and murdered.

Tsila and her mother dressed themselves again as Polish peasants and escaped to the forest. Tsila's mother eventually joined the partisans (the underground resistance fighters). Tsila was brought to live with a peasant, since it was determined that being only four years old she was too young to live in the forest. The peasant, fearing for his own life, abandoned the small child in the forest. Tsila lived in the forest for six weeks. The days and nights were very cold. She lived on flowers and grasses, and hid with every noise. Found by partisans, she was reunited with her mother. Tsila looked like a wild animal. Moss grew in her hair and she had become mute. Tsila and her mother stayed with the partisans until liberation. Tsila, who was only five years old, helped them find food in the forest when they were cut off from their supply.

Tsila was one of the few Jewish children who survived. One and a half million Jewish children were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.



Lida Mordehay

Born June 29, 1936 in Ihtiman, Bulgaria

Lida, the daughter of Mina (Masiach) and Behor Mordehay, was five years old when Bulgaria allied itself with Nazi Germany. She had an older brother, Nissim, who was nine. Lida's family owned a large store that sold textiles and clothing. They lived in the largest building in the city. It was so large that they rented out the first floor to the police department. The town jail was even located in the basement. Lida's family was well-off. Each child had a nanny, and there were other servants to do the laundry and cleaning. The family was well-respected by their non-Jewish neighbors, and all of Lida's playmates were non-Jews.

Because there were so few Jews in Ihtiman, Lida's family did not feel the brunt of the harsh anti-Jewish measures that were passed by the Bulgarian government in 1941. Life went on much as before. His parents were forced to wear the yellow star required by the government, but Lida and her brother were exempt from wearing it because they were children. However, Lida and her brother were not permitted to attend public school during the 1942-43 school year because they were Jews. Their cousin tutored them at home.

In 1943, the Germans began pressing their Bulgarian allies to deport their Jews to concentration camps in Poland. Over 20,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz from Macedonia and Thrace, areas that had recently been annexed by Bulgaria. The Jews of Old Bulgaria were to be next. The King of Bulgaria ordered all plans for deportations of Bulgaria's Jews stopped. He was, however, unable to prevent the expulsion to the countryside of Sofia's 20,000 Jews. From there, they were to be transported by ship to "the East." The people of Bulgaria protested this action. Lida's many relatives from Sofia were given shelter in her home. The Bulgarian people began large-scale protests against the treatment of the Jews. Instead of arousing antisemitism, the expelled Jews won the sympathy of the peasants. In November 1943, a new cabinet permitted the Jews of Sofia to return to their homes. By January 1944, massive allied bombing of Bulgaria began, and plans to deport the Jews were completely shelved. The Jews of Old Bulgaria were saved due to the courageous defiance of the King of Bulgaria and his people.

Lida was fortunate. She lived in a country that was able to protect its Jewish citizens. One and a half million other Jewish children did not have the protection of their governments. They were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.



Jacqueline Morganstern

Born 1932 in Czernowitz, Rumania

Jacqueline was the daughter of Suzanne and Karl Morganstern. She moved to Paris with her parents as a tiny child to escape the oppressive antisemitism of Rumania. Jacqueline's father and uncle owned a beauty shop in the center of the city. When the Germans occupied Paris in 1940, Jacqueline was an eight year-old schoolgirl. Her parents were forced to give their shop to a non-Jewish Frenchman.

Jacqueline and her parents fled to Marseilles, a city in southern France not occupied by the Germans. They carried forged papers identifying them as non-Jews. They were discovered, however, and denounced to the Gestapo.

On June 20, 1944, Jacqueline and her parents were deported to the Auschwitz death camp. For the time being, Jacqueline and her parents were spared. Jacqueline and her mother were sent to the women's camp. Jacqueline's mother became weak because she gave most of her food to her daughter. After she fell ill, her mother was murdered in the gas chamber.

Upon her mother's death, Jacqueline was sent to a special children's barracks. The 20 children in these barracks were being held for use in experiments. The barracks were heated and the children were provided with decent food. The staff sang songs to the children, taught them games and distracted them from the horrible smells of the crematoria. Most of the children spoke only Polish, but Jacqueline found one child who spoke French, and they became close friends.

In the fall of 1944, Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer, the doctor who had requested the children for experimentation, had them transferred to the Neuengamme concentration camp. Jacqueline and the rest of the children were injected with tuberculosis cultures. Shortly before the end of December 1944, they became extremely ill. In January 1945, Dr. Heissmeyer decided to operate on the children. He wanted to find out how their glands had reacted to the TB infection.

On April 20, 1945, when the British were less than three miles from the camp, all 20 children were brought to a school in Hamburg. They were injected with morphine and fell asleep. Thirteen year-old Jacqueline and her friends were then hanged one by one.

Jacqueline was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators in the Holocaust.



Ruth Moses

Born 1935 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Ruth was the only child of Berta and Hugo Moses. She lived in Frankfurt am Main, one of Europe's most important Jewish centers. Frankfurt's Jewish community participated in all aspects of the city's social and cultural life. Jewish citizens played an important role in the city's commerce and industry. In 1933, the city even had a Jewish mayor, Ludwig Landmann.

Following the Nazi rise to power on January 30, 1933, Frankfurt's Jews were subjected to physical assaults and to a general boycott of Jewish businesses, even before any official laws were enacted. All public institutions dismissed Jews from their staffs - hospitals, courts, schools, universities, and institutions of culture and the arts. Economic conditions grew even worse after the passage of the "Nuremberg Laws" in 1935. Ruth was born in that year.

After October 1941, Jews were forbidden to leave Germany. The Nazis began rounding them up and sending them to ghettos in eastern Europe. Six year-old Ruth and her parents were deported to a sealed-off ghetto in the city of Riga, the capital of Latvia.

The Riga ghetto's previous residents, 30,000 local Jews, were murdered by the Nazis in November 1941, to make room for the newly arriving German Jews. Conditions in the ghetto were horrendous. The ghetto was plagued with little food, poor sanitation, and horrible overcrowding. Thousands of people died of starvation, disease, and exposure.

The ghetto was eventually emptied of its inhabitants. Most of the inhabitants were gassed to death in transport vans or were shot. Others were sent to labor camps, where they were worked to death. By December 1943, there were no Jews left in the Riga ghetto.

Nothing is known about Ruth's fate after she was sent to Riga. No trace has ever been found.

One and a half million Jewish children were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.



Magda Mozes

Born June 7, 1927 in Cluj, Rumania

Magda Mozes was born on June 7, 1927 in the northern Transylvanian town of Cluj. She was the only child of Gus and Bertha Mozes. At the time of Magda's birth, Cluj was part of Rumania, but in 1940 northern Transylvania was taken over by Hungary, an ally of Nazi Germany. Magda, a thirteen year-old schoolgirl at the time, found out overnight that she was no longer Rumanian, but Hungarian.

Hungary was a staunch ally of Nazi Germany. As such, the Germans did not invade the country, but urged the government to deport its Jews to concentration camps. The Hungarian government was not willing to send its Jewish citizens to their deaths, but passed many discriminatory laws against the Jewish population. Magda continued her studies at the local Jewish high school until her seventeenth year.

Realizing by 1943 that its German ally was losing the war, Hungary tried to break its alliance with Germany. In a fit of rage, Hitler ordered his armies into Hungary. In 1944, German troops occupied the entire country. With the help of Hungarian collaborators, the Germans began deporting local Jews to concentration camps. Magda and her family were rounded up and herded into a brickyard where they were kept for three weeks.

On June 6, 1944, they were deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. Because Magda was a healthy seventeen year-old, she was not sent to the gas chambers, but was put to work as a slave laborer. When she attempted to stay with her mother, camp guards broke her shoulder and collar bone. Magda and others were transported to work camps in Germany, as the Germans were forced to retreat from eastern Europe. Near the very end of the war she was liberated at Meklenburg by allied soldiers. Magda returned to her home town, Cluj, on August 26, 1945, but could find no trace of her family. They had all been murdered by the Nazis.

Magda was one of the few Jewish children to survive the camps. One and a half million Jewish children were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.

Magda came to the United States in 1947, married, and lived to have grandchildren.



Naomi Posinova

Born January 4, 1932 in Prague, Czechoslovakia

Naomi Posinova was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on January 4, 1932. She was an only child, part of a large, extended family. Her father, Max, was a hat-maker who also owned a plastics factory. Her mother, Rachel, was a housewife.

Prague was a large, urban city, and was home to one of Europe's oldest and most revered Jewish communities. Jews contributed greatly to the economic progress of the city and played a key role in its rich cultural life.

After the German army occupied Prague in March 1939, various antisemitic measures were enacted. Jews were barred from their professions; their property was confiscated; they were prohibited from participating in religious, cultural or any other form of public activity. They could not attend public school, use public transportation, or the telephone. From October 1941 to March 1945, the Germans deported 46,067 Jews from Prague to the death camps.

In August 1942, Naomi and her parents were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Naomi's father worked there in a cap factory and her mother worked in a children's home. Though children over the age of ten were forced to work, Naomi was somehow able to continue her education. Conditions in the camp were horrible. There was terrible overcrowding, lack of adequate nutrition, and limited primitive sanitary facilities. Typhus carrying vermin infested the camp. There were daily "selections," and those chosen were deported to the death camps at Auschwitz and Treblinka.

In late 1944 or early 1945, Naomi and her parents were "selected" for transport to Auschwitz. Soon after their arrival, Naomi and her mother were murdered in the gas chambers. Naomi was twelve years old.

Naomi was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.



Agnes Ringwald

Born November 17, 1935 in Pestszenterzsebet, Hungary

Agnes, the daughter of Eugene and Ilona (Roth) Ringwald, lived in the town of Pestszenterzsebet, a suburb of Budapest, Hungary. Agnes's father was a medical doctor. The town's 4,522 Jewish citizens were mostly laborers, but some were businessmen, lawyers, and doctors. A Jewish school had been established in 1922.

When Hungary allied itself with Germany, antisemitic measures were enacted, but the majority of the Jewish citizens were only vaguely aware of the large-scale destruction of the Jews elsewhere in Europe. Jews were considered important to Hungary's economic stability. Many Jewish men, however, were forced to join hard labor battalions and were treated harshly.

In March 1944, when Agnes was an eight year-old schoolgirl, the Germans invaded Hungary and immediately set into action their plan for the destruction of all Hungarian Jewry. Forced to wear the yellow star and herded into sealed-off ghettos, the Jews of Hungary refused to believe that they would be sent to concentration camps and to their deaths.

In July 1944, the 3,000 Jews remaining in Agnes's town were among the last to be deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.

Eight and a half year-old Agnes and her mother were immediately taken to the gas chambers and murdered.

Agnes was one of 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.



Frida Scheps

Born October 1936 in Paris, France

Frida Scheps was born in 1936 to a Russian-Jewish immigrant family living in Paris, France. Frida's father, an engineer by profession, wanted to move the family to Palestine. Shortly before the war, Mr. Scheps travelled to Jerusalem to pave the way for the move. While he was making the necessary arrangements, war broke out in Europe, and Frida and her mother were trapped in France.

In 1940, the Nazis invaded France and the persecution of the Jews of France began. At first, various laws restricting the rights of the French Jewish community were enacted. But by 1942, the Germans began rounding up Jews and shipping them to various death camps in Poland.

Seeking somehow to save her six year-old daughter, Mrs. Scheps placed Frida in a Catholic convent school at the Chateau de Beaujeu. Isolated from her past, Frida soon began to forget her Jewish roots. She soon became the best student in her class at catechism and asked to be baptized as a Catholic. Mrs. Scheps wrote to her daughter, begging her not to abandon her faith.

Frida received packages from her mother on a regular basis. One day, however, the packages stopped coming. Frida understood that the Germans had taken her mother away. In the middle of the night, Frida was haunted by dreams reminding her of her Jewish heritage. At the end of the war, nine year-old Frida left the convent school. Two years later, she was reunited with her father in Jerusalem.