Jeanette Holocaust Survivor Testimony
Jeanette was born in Vienna in 1923 and grew up there with her sister, Irma. During Kristallnacht, her family’s fabric shop—half wood, half glass—stayed dark and silent after a warning to keep the door shut; the children were told not to go near it. Soon after, her parents sent her to an aunt in Belgium for safety.
At sixteen in Brussels, she repeatedly slipped past the Gestapo—once by asking to take her kitten downstairs, then jumping onto a crowded trolley as strangers urged the driver not to stop.
On April 1 she was denounced, arrested, and deported to Auschwitz, where she was tattooed and assigned to the Kanada Commando, bundling coats and sorting stolen belongings. She found small ways to resist: damaging good garments so they wouldn’t be reused and disposing of jewelry so the Nazis wouldn’t profit. Food was meager—a scrap of bread, a dab of margarine, thin soup.
When the camp emptied, she layered blouse, sweater, and jacket despite orders, slipped away during the death march, and, with fluent German and fair features, passed as non-Jewish to reach safety. After the war she learned her parents and sister were gone. A cousin helped her immigrate to the United States, where she built a family whose names now fill her home. At 101 in New York City, she shares her story so the world remembers.
Video Transcript
Who Is Going to Tell?
An Interview with Jeanette
A Visit with Jeanette
Leslie: Today I’m in New York City to visit a young centenarian named Jeanette. She was born in Austria in 1923.
Leslie: Hi. Are you Jeanette?
Jeanette: Hi.
Leslie: You’re Jeanette.
Jeanette: Yes.
Leslie: I’m Leslie.
Jeanette: Hi, Leslie.
Leslie: Very nice to meet you. Very, very nice. I brought you a little something cuz I don’t like to go to people’s house without anything. That’s a babka.
Jeanette: Oh, you shouldn’t. That’s very sweet of you. Thank you so much.
Childhood in Vienna
Leslie: Jeanette and her sister Irma live happily in Vienna among the other children.
Jeanette: I had Jewish friends or non-Jewish friends. In fact, the [friend’s name unclear in captions] was not Jewish, was one of my best friends.
Kristallnacht and Separation
Leslie: The family’s life changes in 1938 during Kristallnacht when Jewish shops and people are attacked. They own a [type of shop unclear in captions] store and are warned just in time about the attacks to come.
Jeanette: He
Jeanette: told my mother, “Don’t open the door.” You know how how the door was half was wood, the other half was only half foot, heavy glass and steel things going.
Leslie: Mhm. So they could see, you can see from inside.
Jeanette: I could They couldn’t see inside.
Leslie: Okay. Okay.
Jeanette: We had like little flowers but in the glass. So my mother told us we all had to be very quiet and not go even near the door
Leslie: to protect her. Jeanette’s parents decide to send her to an aunt in Belgium.
Jeanette: My father would bring me to the train, but my mother was home crying, and that’s how I remember her.
Escape and Arrest in Brussels
Leslie: Jeanette is 16 years old when she arrives in Brussels. She escapes the Gestapo several times.
Jeanette: The Gestapo came. He was going upstairs to get more Jews and I asked him, “Can I bring my cat down to the I had a kitten to the super?” He said, “Naturally, we don’t want the cat to to die. I should die for the cat.”
Leslie: Okay. So, they they were nice with the cat. You can die, but not the cat.
Jeanette: Yeah. Not the cat. For the cat. So I took the cat and I brought it down. The super wasn’t there. I set the cat down. So I jumped on the trolley and I just said the Gestapo is after me. There was a lot of people in it and they all said do not stop. Go to the last stop.
Leslie: On April 1st, Jeanette is denounced and this time she’s arrested.
Jeanette: The Gestapo came together with a civilian and I even said I said, “Are you Belgian and you helping them?” I scream and that that got me a good crack from the German.
Leslie: They slapped you
Jeanette: one.
Deportation to Auschwitz
Leslie: She is deported to Auschwitz in a cattle car.
Jeanette: They opened the train and then he screamed, “Get out you lazy people. Everybody didn’t know what was going on to the older people.” They were very friendly. He said, “Uh, well, older people can going to go on a bus, but if you young, you can walk and you will meet your mother things in the camp.” Like, oh, you little girl, you going to ride. That was the people who were gone.
Leslie: Those who are loaded onto the trucks are immediately taken to the gas chambers. Jeanette is selected to enter the camp and a number is tattooed on her arm.
Jeanette: [Tattoo number unclear in captions: “76655 765.”]
Jeanette: I wouldn’t forget the number. They didn’t shave the head because there was the Red Cross was there. They they were saying to them, “Yeah, you see so many with the head. They are have lice when they don’t have that’s the kids who don’t have we don’t shave their head which was a lie but that’s how [unclear in captions: reference to keeping her hair]
Jeanette: 4:00 in the morning out—you stood for [term unclear in captions] Dr. Mengele was and I was in the first 30 and I he said once to me you with the long hair that was a catastrophe but he wasn’t mad at me.
Leslie: He let you go.
Jeanette: I Yeah. So the people who had hair usually besides my transport were the people who had higher jobs.
The Kanada Work Detail
Leslie: Jeanette is assigned to the Kanada Commando, the intake unit responsible for sorting and recovering the belongings stolen from Jews upon their arrival.
Jeanette: When I was in the Kanada, then I worked by by putting five coats and making a bundle and the bad ones were thrown out and we had the good ones, but when the German didn’t look, I tore the coat. You shouldn’t see underneath and then make make the bundle and they were giving it away in Germany.
Jeanette: Good. If we could, we took the jewelry and we threw it in the toilet when we got to the bathroom. If you could take it. Yeah. There were Polish people. They came to clean the toilets, you know, when they emptied it out. And they knew that they going to find nice things there. But that was good. I don’t care. Let them have it. As long as the Germans didn’t have it. I wouldn’t have probably lived had I not worked in the Kanada.
Leslie: What about the food?
Jeanette: What food? There was barely We got a piece of bread and little square of margarine. Mhm. for the day at a soup.
Leaving Auschwitz and Escaping the Death March
Leslie: Can you tell me the day when you had to leave Auschwitz?
Jeanette: The Kanada was one of the last to leave. So what I did is I took a very warm jacket and they were screaming no more than one jacket, no more. But I had a sweater underneath. I had a blouse, a sweater, and the jacket was behind me. But you know, they screamed, but already they were very nervous because you heard the the shooting from the from the Russians. They were so close.
Leslie: During the death marches, Jeanette manages to escape. Her blonde hair and blue eyes allow her to pass as a non-Jew.
Jeanette: To the German who is the head of the thing [unclear in captions]. “Heil Hitler.”. I said I come from [place-name unclear in captions] and my train was my train was bombed and now I can’t find my mother and I’m so upset. He said, “Oh kids, what are we going to do with them with you?” I said, “My father is stationed in Vienna.” He says, “I sent you to Vienna.” I said, “Thank you.” He calls over some Hitler Youth. Get the girls on the train to Vienna. Thank you, Hitler. My German was perfect.
Searching for Her Family
Leslie: Did you eventually learn what happened to your family? Do you now know what happened to them?
Jeanette: You Well, I tried, but Wherever I could inquire, I I didn’t hope for my parents, but I hoped for my sister. I think they told me my parents was shot, but my sister, I don’t remember, but I found out that she’s not alive.
Leslie: After the war, Jeanette finds herself completely alone with no surviving family. A cousin of her mother eventually arranges for her to come to the United States.
A New Life and Marriage
Jeanette: Everybody went there to find a a rich husband. Why are you laughing? It’s true.
Leslie: I believe you. It’s just funny.
Jeanette: And that’s how I met him.
Leslie: And it was what? Love at first sight.
Jeanette: No, he asked me for my phone number. So I gave him my phone. First I had to find out who he was.
Leslie: Mhm.
Jeanette: I was very thorough. I found out about his father’s business and he never knew. No.
Who Would Tell the Story?
Leslie: So I have a question for you cuz I’ve been sitting in front of you for this whole time. This is all the name of your grandkids and great grandkids.
Jeanette: Of my grandchildren. Exactly.
Leslie: Cuz I’m seeing this. When you were in Auschwitz, do you did you think you were going to make it?
Jeanette: Important is I must make it because who’s going to tell? It was something that will do good.
Leslie: Yeah.
Jeanette: That’s important.
Leslie: Yeah.
Jeanette: Never happened again. But you don’t know.
Leslie: I’m going to give you a hug. Thank you. Thank you very much for everything. And you be well and take good care of yourself.
Jeanette: I’m only 100.
Leslie: Only 100. You’re right. We say uh till 120.
Speaker unconfirmed: So we have So I have a lot of Here we go. a lot of years to go. Exactly. Okay, there.
