Philip Hellreich and Miriam Hellreich
Recorded
July 1, 2022
Archived
July 1, 2022
29:08 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
ddv001851
Description
Philip Hellreich [no age given] shares a conversation with his spouse, Miriam Hellreich [no age given], about his parents and his father’s side of the family escaping Austria during the Holocaust. He talks about the miracles that helped them escape, and he also talks about what happened to his mother’s side of the family.Subject Log / Time Code
PH discusses why it's important that he shares his family’s history during the Holocaust at this time.
PH describes his parents' background and talks about how they met.
PH talks about when Hitler invaded Austria. He says that everyone on his father’s side of the family escaped the Nazis, while many members of his mother’s family did not.
PH talks about his father escaping first mobs and then the police.
PH talks about his father going to work the next day and finding all of his colleagues wearing swastikas as members of the Nazi party.
PH talks about his parents and grandparents meeting an American couple in Switzerland who agreed to sponsor them to come to the United States.
PH talks about his parents traveling on the Îl de France to the United States.
PH remembers his mother's account of seeing the Statue of Liberty. She told PH that for the first time in her life, she truly felt safe.
PH talks about his parents arriving in New York and about his father later volunteering as a civilian to treat military personnel.
PH talks about his mother’s side of the family. He says that his grandfather was arrested and then beaten before being sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp and tortured.
PH talks about the Chinese Consulate General who made it possible for 20,000 Jewish people to escape to Shanghai, including his grandfather.
PH talks about anti-Semitism in Austria at that time.
PH talks about why the Holocaust happened in the time and place that it did.
PH talks about the importance of keeping the ideals and values of the United States alive.
Participants
- Philip Hellreich
- Miriam Hellreich