Stars Among Us

The Nazi's quest to dominate Europe reached Greece in 1941. After many months of hiding in one place after another, Louiza Halfon Weintraub’s mother placed Louiza and her older sister, Liana, in a Catholic orphanage. The danger of discovery was constant, ultimately tested one Christmas Eve when Liana was selected to perform Ave Maria for an audience of Nazi officers. The complete story of Louiza Halfon Weintraub’s Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Louiza — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

In 1942 as a young bride living in Paris, Janine May Levine refused to wear the mandatory yellow star ordered by the Nazis. Shedding her Jewish identity, she was able to find employment as a bookkeeper with a business secretly working against the Nazis. Her employer, who worked with the resistance, also had something to hide, and she assisted him with his mission to pass information to the Allies until she was nearly arrested. The complete story of Janine May Levine’s Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Janine — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

Betrayed by a Catholic priest in his hometown of Pisek, Czechoslovakia, 13-year-old Jan Frolich and his four younger siblings were suddenly imprisoned by the Gestapo in Prague. His gruesome ordeal continued as he boarded a train all alone bound for Theresienstadt and later Auschwitz. After miraculously surviving these camps, he immigrated to Israel and fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The complete story of Jan Frohlich’s Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Jan — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

Having grown up in the resort town of Zakopane, Poland, Anna Duklauer Perl’s comfortable life was quickly upended when the Nazis invaded and remanded her and her family to the Krakow Ghetto. She was eventually sent to the Plaszow concentration camp when a miracle struck, and Anna’s name was added to Oskar Schindler’s list of 1200 Jews who served as slave labor in his factories. The only person in her immediate family to survive the Holocaust, Anna eventually made her way from Poland to Czechoslovakia to Israel and eventually the United States. The complete story of Anna Duklauer Perl’s Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Anna — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

Having grown up in the resort town of Zakopane, Poland, Anna Duklauer Perl’s comfortable life was quickly upended when the Nazis invaded and remanded her and her family to the Krakow Ghetto. She was eventually sent to the Plaszow concentration camp when a miracle struck, and Anna’s name was added to Oskar Schindler’s list of 1200 Jews who served as slave labor in his factories. The only person in her immediate family to survive the Holocaust, Anna eventually made her way from Poland to Czechoslovakia to Israel and eventually the United States. The complete story of Anna Duklauer Perl’s Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Anna — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

For Israel Bornstein, growing up in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Orthodox rituals of Judaism were a central part of his family’s life. Unlike many in Europe, Danish Jewry lived peacefully shoulder to shoulder with non-Jewish neighbors. In the autumn of 1943, Israel’s fellow Danes helped to save the lives of Israel and his family in a daring escape to Sweden that kept nearly 8,000 Jews out of the hands of their Nazi occupiers. The complete story of Israel Bornstein’s Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Israel — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

Hiding in plain sight was sometimes the only option. Devorah Gutterman, with her baby in toe, was faced with the insurmountable question of how to survive as a Jew in Poland in 1942. Devorah moved desperately from place to place with forged Polish identity papers for protection. She and her daughter were dependent on the assistance of individuals in her community to survive, unable to completely trust anyone as she assimilated into her Catholic surroundings. The complete story of Devorah Gutterman’s Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Devorah — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

Displaced by their German occupiers from their home in Vienna, six-year-old Kitty Friedenbach Saks and her parents fled Austria and made a daring escape into Belgium. As the Germans advanced across Europe, both Kitty and her parents were forced into hiding, but could not be together. A young child alone, Kitty had to assume a new persona that protected her true Jewish identity as she survived the war as a Catholic orphan. The complete story of Kitty Friedenbach Saks’ Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Kitty — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

Esther Wondolowicz Goldman was a young teenager when the Germans invaded her small Polish town. She learned quickly to depend upon herself. Separated from her large, loving family, she survived the Bialystok ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and a death march to Ravensbrück before being liberated by the Russian Army. Esther and her family remained in Europe for a decade before immigrating to the United States. The complete story of Esther Wondolowicz Goldman’s Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Esther — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

Escape. As the Nazis rose to power in Germany, the only option to survive for Hanns Loewenbach became escape. In his early twenties, with his future plans suddenly erased, Hanns became a wanted man on the streets of Berlin. His extraordinary story includes a desperate swim to Denmark, unexpected help from an SS officer, and living in the Shanghai ghetto while enduring the Japanese occupation of China. The complete story of Hanns Lowenbach's Holocaust journey can be found in To Life: The Past Is Present, Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Rescuers, and Liberators. For information about Hanns — and to bookmark the webpage where future episodes of this podcast AND behind-the-scenes content will live, please visit https://holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/stars-among-us. Distributed by WHRO Public Media

"First they made us wear the star, and that was the beginning of the end." Incredible, true stories of survival, rescue, and liberation.