Lottie Hirsch Goodwin was born Lieselotte Veronika Hirsch in Karlsruhe Baden, Germany, on November 20, 1916. She was the third and youngest child of Heinrich and Jenny Hirsch. Heinrich, later Henry Higdon, owned a factory that made military uniforms for the First World War and, after war ended with demilitarization, for the railroad and postal service. Prior …
Read MoreDiana’s large Sephardic family included her father, a merchant who owned a dry goods store, her mother, two sisters, one brother, her grandmother, and an aunt, who was blind. They were part of a Sephardic Jewish community of about 10,000 living in one section of Rhodes. Diana’s older sister and brother lived in Morocco. In …
Read MoreHilde Geisen was born to Robert and Frieda Geisenheimer on May 28, 1924 in Cologne, Germany. She lost most of her family when they were scattered and murdered in various concentration camps. Hilde herself was imprisoned as a teenager in Terezin, in Czechoslovakia. She made lifelong friends with an “adoptive mother” there, and traveled with her …
Read MoreJack Fruchtengarten was born on August 28th, 1924 in Opole Lubaelski, Poland. He was one of five children in an observant family in a small town. He was educated through seventh grade there, and also sent to cheder for a Jewish education. But after the Nazis invaded Poland Jack and his brother were told to run. …
Read MoreHarry Friedman, the youngest of four children, was born in Warsaw, Poland on August 7, 1918. He attended Jewish school and then gymnasium in Warsaw, eventually working in his parents’ wholesale hat business when he graduated. He describes his family as averagely Jewish, observing all holidays and keeping kosher at home. When the war started …
Read MoreJoseph Findling was born in Cologne, Germany on June 21, 1928 to Etla and Wolf David Findling. He and his four siblings was raised in an observant family, each attending a Jewish school until 1938 when all the Jewish children in his school were expelled. In October 1938, Joseph’s father was deported to Poland and Joseph …
Read MoreLeon Feldstein was born on February 26, 1901 in Bucharest, Romania. He immigrated to America in 1908 with his mother, grandmother, and sister to join his father Adolf in Portland. Adolf had come six months earlier because, as a Jew in Romania, he was unable to support his family. He took a job in Portland where …
Read MoreIn 1916, Bernice met Henry Feldman in New York when she was 19. They subsequently married and moved to Portland. Henry’s parents were born in Germany and settled in Portland when they immigrated to the United States. He had four siblings, all of whom lived in Portland: Joseph, Henry, Gus and Elise (who married Herbert …
Read MoreSylvia Feld was born on May 25, 1923, the fifth of ten children. Her parents were Avrom and Sarah Lipcyc, and they ran a leather shop in Zloczew, a small town outside of Lodz. The family lived a very comfortable, observant life, and her father even built a small synagogue in the town, as well …
Read MoreLeonard Farr was born in Coquille, Oregon on October 16, 1921. His family owned a feed, seed, and farm supply store in Coquille until after the Second World War, at which time they expanded operations to Coos Bay. Leonard went to the University of Oregon business school where he met his wife, Joyce. Leonard was drafted …
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