My great grandmother was one of the 132 children survivors of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. This week at the Yeshivat Noam Living Museum Program, I shared her story of survival. 

My Oma, Hilde Bodenheimer- Simon, was born September 27, 1927 in Neuwied Am Rhein, Germany. After her family’s clothing store was destroyed the night of Kristallnacht, her mother arranged for her, her sister and brother to travel to Holland via the Kindertransport. They were fortunate enough to have made it on the very last train out of Germany. In Holland, my Oma was constantly hiding in different homes. Some treated her with kindness and gave her food, whereas others treated her poorly. After three years, a Nazi took her away and brought her to Theresienstadt. In Theresienstadt, miraculously, she reunited with her siblings and parents, after three years of separation and no communication. While in Theresienstadt, she worked hard and had very little food to eat. When I interviewed my Oma, she told me that she had to share a bed with four other people and eat plants. In 1945, the Russians came and liberated the camp and my Oma immigrated to the United States with her sister and mother. Sadly, her father and brother were killed in Auschwitz. I am blessed that my Oma is alive today and came to hear me share her story.

By Ariella Vogel, Yeshivat Noam Eighth Grade