Centropa Stories

Judit Kinszki was born in Budapest in 1927. In 1944 her brother Gabor was sent to a concentration camp, her father was herded onto a death march. Judit and her mother spent nearly five months in the infamous Budapest Ghetto and the day they were liberated by the Soviet Army, they went to the train station every day, hoping to find Judit’s brother and father. Judit’s story is read for us by Jeni Barnet and Judit was interviewed for Centropa by Dora Sardi in 2005.

Zsuzsa Diamantstein grew up in a middle class home in Targu Mures, Romania. Northern Transylvania was ceded to Hungary in 1940 and it was the Hungarian army that deported over 150,000 Jews to Auschwitz and other death camps. Zsuzsa managed to survive but found she had nothing in common with young people who had not gone through hell. Then she met Imre Diamantstein, who had just returned from the camps. Sara Kestelman reads Zsuzsa’s story for us and it is based on the interview conducted in 2005 in Targu Mures by Julia Negrea and Vera Badic.

Roza Kamhi came from the town of Bitola in what is now North Macedonia. She and her boyfriend Beno Ruso joined the partisans when the Bulgarians occupied their region in 1941. Roza was jailed in 1943, Beno took to the hills. On the day of liberation, Roza saw Beno running up the street to embrace her. But why, she wondered, was 24-year-old Beno wearing the uniform of a general?Roza Kamhi was interviewed for Centropa by Rachel Chanin in Skopje in 2005. Her story is read for us by Shelly Blonde.

Leo Luster grew up in Vienna speaking German and Yiddish. He and his parents were deported to Terezin in 1942. While his mother remained there, Leo and his father were sent on to Auschwitz, then a series of work camps. One morning Leo saw that the German guards had fled. He stepped outside to see a Soviet soldier pointing a rifle at him. Leo blurted out, in Yiddish, “I’m a Jew!” The soldier lowered his rifle and replied in Yiddish, “So am I.”The actor Steve Furst read’s Leo’s story for us. Leo was interviewed in Tel Aviv and Vienna by Tanja Eckstein in 2010.

Lisa Lukinskaya was born in a Lithuanian shtetl and survived the war when nuns in a nearby convent took her in. At war’s end she went home to find that her 23-year-old husband had been killed but at least the rest of her family had survived. Lisa tells us of starting over when the family moved to Vilnius and that’s where she met a dashing Soviet officer.Lisa Lukinskaya’s story was read for us by Tina Grey in London. Lisa was interviewed in Vilnius in 2005 by Zhanna Litinskaya. 

Psychiatrist Irena Wojdyslawska was 83-years old when Marek Czekalski came to her apartment in Lodz in 2004. Irena tells the harrowing tale of being deported from the Lodz Ghetto to Auschwitz, and then what it was like being liberated after losing just about everyone.Irena Wojdyslawska’s story is read for us by Jilly Bond in London.

Arnold Fabrikant came from Odesa, where both his parents were doctors. Arnold’s father Yefim and his unit tried to hold off the Germans when they surrounded Kyiv. Yefim killed himself rather than fall into German hands. Arnold, then 20 years old, spent the next four years on the front and ended the war shooting his way into Berlin.David Horovitch reads Arnold’s story, which is based on an interview conducted in Odesa by Natalia Rezanova in 2004.

Eva R. was born in 1919 in a village not far from Dnipro. She studied medicine and found herself drafted into the Soviet Army in 1941. Eva served at Stalingrad and by 1945 she had been promoted to the rank of major. She ended the war in Berlin walking through Adolf Hitler’s chancellery.Jane Bertish in London reads Eva’s story, which is based on an interview conducted by Ella Levitskaya in 2004.

Semyon Nezynsky was born in a Ukrainian shtetl near Kyiv but from the time he was a teenager, he had dreams of a military career. By the time he was 21 he was a major in the Soviet Army commanding a Katyusha rocket brigade. In May 1945 his unit fought their way into Berlin and Semyon strode up the steps of the Reichstag in Berlin to write his name on the wall.Allan Corduner reads Semyon’s story for us, and it is based on an interview conducted by Ella Levitskaya in Kyiv in 2003.

By the spring of 1945, the Soviet Army was closing in on Berlin from the east, the Allies had entered Germany from the west, and Adolf Hitler committed suicide on 30 April. From the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, some 20 million military personnel had been killed along with 40 million civilians. Of those, 6 million were Jews and that included 1.5 million children.This podcast season takes you into the personal stories of nine elderly Jews we interviewed between 2001 and 2010. In the first episode three Ukrainian Jews will tell you about fighting their way into Berlin. In episode two, we’ll hear from a young Jewish man freed from a German work camp, a teenager in Budapest who went to the train station hoping her father would be coming back, and from someone who stumbled back in Lodz, hoping to find someone in her family might still be alive.The third episode is all about starting over: in Vilnius in Lithuania, in Bitola in today’s North Macedonia, and in Targu Mures in Romania.All these stories were told to us by Jews who had been born in Europe—and who remained in Europe. Their stories were recorded in each of their languages. We have translated and edited them and they are read for us by actors in London.This podcast season was co-funded by the European Union. 

On New Year’s Day, 1950, in a synagogue in Abbey Road in North London, Paul and Anitta began their life together. In the 1960s, Paul insisted on visiting Vienna. But why, asked his wife Anitta. “To kill a ghost,” Paul said.

A few months later, Anitta’s parents took her to the train station and sent her on a Kindertransport to England. But would her parents find a way out?

We begin this episode in Vienna’s second district in 1938, and it was from an apartment on Springergasse that a 15-year old Jewish boy sent a letter to England, begging for help.

Zhanna Litinskaya, from our Kyiv office, spent three weeks in Chisinau in 2004 interviewing elderly Holocaust survivors. Zhanna spent three afternoons with the head of the community, Theodor Magder, who spoke of surviving the war, working as a journalist during the Communist years, and how he joined the government once Moldova became independent. Read by Steve Furst in London.

Still teaching school at the age of 79, Polina Leibovich shares with us her story of a happy childhood and how she managed to survive hell in the camps of Transnistria.  Interviewed for Centrpa by Natalia Fomina in 2004, Polina also tells us about finding a husband, raising a family and devoting her life to teaching.  Read by Sara Kestelman in London.

Narrated by Edward Serotta Moldova became an independent country when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Well more than 65,000 Jews were registered then and over the next two decades, the overwhelming majority emigrated to Israel. The community stands at less than 5,000 today but provides its members with kindergartens, youth clubs, sports teams and care for seniors. Centropa conducted two dozen interviews in Moldova and we have chosen two of those stories for this podcast season.

Episode 2: They were 13 and 14-year-old boys imprisoned in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) Ghetto and only a handful would survive the Holocaust. But these teenagers fought back with everything they had: determination, ethics, and moral courage. Every Friday night, they would take turns reading from their own secret magazine, Vedem (Czech for In The Lead) which was filled with poetry, essays, and humor. Petr Ginz (1928-1944) was Vedem’s driving force and in this documentary, you’ll hear six actors tell the story of Vedem, and how Petr and his friends have left us with a legacy of life.

Episode 1: They were 13 and 14-year-old boys imprisoned in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) Ghetto and only a handful would survive the Holocaust. But these teenagers fought back with everything they had: determination, ethics, and moral courage. Every Friday night, they would take turns reading from their own secret magazine, Vedem (Czech for In The Lead) which was filled with poetry, essays, and humor. Petr Ginz (1928-1944) was Vedem’s driving force and in this documentary, you’ll hear six actors tell the story of Vedem, and how Petr and his friends have left us with a legacy of life.

Ludmila Weinerova grew up in Prague and was deported to Terezin with her parents and brothers when she was 22 years old. Ludmila paints a vivid picture of what life was like in the ghetto: grim and frightening on the one hand, but on the other, she performed in operas and in choirs that the prisoners performed. Lubmila Rutarova was interviewed by Daniela Greslova in Prague in 2007.

Born into a completely assimilated home in Prague, Alena Synkova didn’t understand what it meant to be Jewish until Germany’s invasion and occupation. Her mother died young, her father was sent off to his death, Alena was called up for a transport to Terezin and her brother fled to the resistance. Alena spent three years in Terezin and after the war became a well known poet, journalist and screenwriter. Alena Munkova was interviewed by Zuzana Strouhova in Prague in 2005 and 2006 narrated by Shelley Blond