Stories

Deniz Machmais was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1924. She was raised in a prominent Sephardic Jewish family.

Elvira Kohn was born in 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, into a middle-class Sephardic Jewish family. The next year family moved to Vinkovci, Croatia.

Emilia Leibel, nee Grossbart, was born in 1911 in Łagiewniki, a village that later became a district of Kraków. The family from her father’s side was large and lived in Kraków and in the area for many generations.

Erna Goldmann was born on December 22, 1917 in Frankfurt am Main as the youngest child of Theodor Guggenheim and his wife Rosa, née Rapp. She lived with her parents Theodor and older brothers Karl and Paul on the second floor of her parents' house at Eschenheimer Anlage 30, near...

Erzsebet Barsony was born in 1909 in Budapest. Both of her parents were born in Hungary, and observed the Jewish religion, as the family had a kosher kitchen and observed Sabbath.

Fania Joheles (maiden name) was born in 1922. Fania had a sister Riva who was 5 years younger.

Judit Kinszki was born in 1934 in Budapest. Her father came from an upper-middle class background, and her mother a working class background.

Masha Rolnikaite was born in 1927 into a Jewish family in Plungė, in northern Lithuania. Her native language was Yiddish, although she also learned Lithuanian at school.

Matilda Cerge was born in 1929 in Belgrade, to the Kalef family, among Belgrade's oldest Sephardic Jewish families. She lived in the Dorćol neighborhood which was culturally diverse and predominantly Jewish.

Renee Molho was born in 1918 in Thessaloniki, Greece, to a prominent Sephardic Jewish family. Her childhood in Thessaloniki was filled with the warmth of her family.

Rifka Vostrel was born in 1929 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rifka's family history is deeply rooted in Sarajevo.

Rosa Rosenstein was born to a Galician-Jewish immigrant family in Berlin in the year 1907. Her father was a tailor and worked from home, and in later years, owned a menswear wholesale and several retail stores in Berlin.

Teofila Silberring, nee Nussbaum, was born in 1925 Kraków, to a well-off Jewish family. She had one brother – Henryk Nussbaum, born in 1921.

Vera Amar was born in 1923 in Belgrade into a family of mixed heritage. Her father Nikola Mikloša Vajda was a financial expert of Hungarian origin.