Shirley Mark was born in Portland on July 4, 1923 to Max and Florence Casler Berenson, Polish and Russian immigrants, respectively. She had three older brothers, Milton, Bernard, and Norman. who were all grown and out of the house for most of her childhood. The family kept a religious home, on SW 15th Street and …
Read MoreGayle Breslow Marger was born on April 4, 1944 in Portland, Oregon to Max and Gertie Levin Breslow. Max was a professional jazz musician, who came to Portland from Lincoln, Nebraska. He died when Gayle was quite young. Because both of her aunts married Sephardic men, Gayle grew up with both Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions. Her …
Read MoreLotte Goldschmidt Magnus was born on March 17, 1920 in Frankfurt, Germany to Lily and Adolf Goldschmidt. She had an older brother, Hans. In 1926 she began attending a liberal Jewish school in Frankfurt and was a student there until she had the opportunity to emigrate to the United States via the Kindertransport in 1934. She was …
Read MorePaul Walter Lavender (born Lewandowski) was born on February 10, 1911 in Kassel, Germany. His parents, Jacob and Lina Lewandowski had three other children: Herbert, Irma, and Paul’s fraternal twin brother, Hans. His sister died when he was five years old, and his father died in 1936. Paul’s mother and his brother, Hans, died in …
Read MoreEdith Rosenthal Lavender was born in Wiesbaden, Germany on November 24, 1913 to Emilia and Leon Rosenthal. She had one younger brother, Frank. Edith grew up in a comfortable household, was able to attend public school through graduation. Following graduation, Edith found work as a typist and held that job until 1934 when the business …
Read MoreLore Labby was born on January 19, 1926 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the only child to Paula and George Caro. Her mother died when she was 11, and her father was frequently hiding from Nazi authorities, so Lore lived for several months at a time with family friends. The day after she turned 14, on January …
Read MoreEva Lamfromm Labby was born on June 25, 1929 in Augsburg, Germany to Paul and Marie Lamfromm. Eva had two older sisters, Gertrude Lamfromm Boyle and Hildegard Lamfromm. The family fled Nazi Germany in 1937 and came to Portland, Oregon, where Paul’s older brother Max had immigrated in 1903. Paul purchased the Rosenfeld Hat Company, …
Read MoreJakob Kryszek was born in 1918 in the tiny town of Podebbitz, Poland. He was the fourth of six children, three boys and three girls. He moved to Lodz, Poland when he was a young man and began working. When he was 21 years old, the Nazis invaded Poland and his entire family – brothers …
Read MoreSuse Katz was born on August 23, 1926 to Adolf and Betty Grombacher in Ludwigshafen, Germany. She had one brother, Gerd, who was three years older than her. In 1935 her parents obtained affidavits from relatives living in Chicago that allowed the family to travel to the States. They boarded a ship in December of …
Read MoreEva Erica Aigner (nee Speigel), one of two daughters, was born in 1937 in Košice, Czechoslovakia. Eva’s mother stayed at home with her and her younger sister while her father ran his own hat-making business until his business license was revoked in 1939 because he was Jewish. Soon the family moved to Budapest, Hungary, joining other …
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