Allan Holocaust Survivor Testimony
Allan Hall was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1935 into a well-to-do Jewish family. His early childhood was filled with warmth and stability. His father, who had studied in Vienna and was fluent in German, worked for an Italian insurance company, while his mother was a talented violinist.
Allan was just four and a half years old when the war broke out. Hoping to avoid the worst, his family chose not to leave Poland but instead undertook a 220-mile journey on foot to Lviv. Their hope for safety was short-lived. In June 1941, the Nazis invaded the city, and Allan and his family were forced into the Lviv ghetto.
They managed to escape and return to Warsaw, but were soon arrested and sent to the Warsaw ghetto. In 1943, the ghetto was destroyed. Of the 380,000 Jews who had been confined there, only 40,000 survived. Allan was among them—along with his parents and his younger brother, who was miraculously born during the war.
Bound together by what they had endured, the family emerged from the war more united than ever. Shortly after its end, they left Poland and began a new life in the United States, carrying with them both the weight of their past and the strength of their survival.
