Survivor Speaker

During my visit, I had the honor to meet with and interview a Holocaust survivor. Her name is Betty Cohen. She was born and raised in Holland, Netherlands, not far from Amsterdam. In 1943, her and her family went into hiding when news broke out that German forces were heading towards Holland. A friend of the family was able to hide her family in a small two room apartment. However, more people were invited to live in the same apartment with a total of 17 people. She remembers there being a lot of fighting between the people; but then again with 17 people crowded into one place, there is bound to be conflict. Unfortunately, all of them were caught by the Gestapo and taken to a holding facility prior to deportation (does this sound familiar? Hint Hint Anne Frank). Her eldest brother was killed before they hid. He was a resistance fighter.

Cohen and her sister-in-law, Elizabeth, were taken to Birkenau. She recalls watching people being separated either to the left or the right and being on the left was a death sentence. Also, she remembers wearing the wooden shoes that made her feet swollen (Elie Wiesel – Night) to the point that she was taken to the hospital block. During her time in the “hospital” she was told that she would be “experimented” on. That is when she met Dr. Yosef Mengele and he performed “surgery” on her and six other women. Turns out, he was sterilizing the women to prevent anymore Jewish children (However, this surgery was unsuccessfully as she had two children later in life). Closer the end of the war, Russian troops were advancing, so the women in Birkenau were forced into the Death March to another camp. Her sister-in-law, Elizabeth, was killed in the march because she was to weak to walk.

Cohen and the six other women were saved by a Russian soldier and given a place to stay. But, Cohen left to find her family in Holland. She was able to find a friend of a friend to take her to her aunt’s house. It was there she found some surviving family members, including her fiancé. However, her parents and parents-in-law did not make it nor her youngest brother. After the war, they waited a year and then moved to the United States. First, they settled in Tennessee then Georgia and then LA, California.