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Susanne Goldfarb: Oral History Transcript Susanne Goldfarb: Oral History Transcript www.wisconsinhistory.org/HolocaustSurvivors/Goldfarb.asp Name: Susanne Hafner Goldfarb (1933–1987) Birth Place: Vienna, Austria Arrived in Wisconsin: 1969, Madison Project Name: Oral Histories: Wisconsin Survivors Susanne Goldfarb of the Holocaust Biography: Susanne Hafner Goldfarb was born in Vienna, Austria, on February 17, 1933. She was the only child of a middle-class Jewish family. Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March 1938. Rising anti-Semitism and the threat of war prompted her family to flee their homeland in early 1939. Six-year-old Susanne and her family left Europe on a luxury liner bound for Shanghai, China. They found refuge with more than 20,000 other European Jewish exiles in the Japanese-occupied sector of that city. The refugees were able to create a multifaceted Jewish community in Shanghai. It included commercial, religious, cultural, and educational institutions. Susanne attended synagogue, studied in Jewish schools, and belonged to a Zionist social club. The Hafners eked out a living by delivering bread in their neighborhood, the Hongkew district. In May 1943, Japanese authorities introduced anti-Semitic measures. The Hongkew district turned into a Jewish ghetto and all Shanghai Jews were restricted to this area. As World War II unfolded, Shanghai came under increased assault from U.S. warplanes. Susanne's family worked as air raid wardens and suffered the terror of heavy bombing attacks. In August 1945, the U.S. liberated the Hongkew Ghetto. Soon after, China descended into civil war. In 1949 the Chinese Communists came to power. The Hafners, fearing persecution under the communist regime, immigrated to Israel in January 1949. In 1953, the Hafners immigrated to New York City. They lived in an insulated community of Jewish refugees until 1969. In New York Susanne met Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, whom she married in 1963. The Goldfarbs moved to Madison, Wisconsin, in 1969. Susanne worked with the University of Wisconsin's Office of Foreign Students and Faculty until her death in June 1987. Oral Histories: Wisconsin Survivors of the Holocaust Page 1 of 108 Wisconsin Historical Society Susanne Goldfarb: Oral History Transcript www.wisconsinhistory.org/HolocaustSurvivors/Goldfarb.asp Audio Summary: Below are the highlights of each tape. This is not a complete list of all topics discussed. Tape 1, Side 1 • Susanne's family and childhood in Vienna • German Anschluss, March 1938 • Decision to go to China • The voyage to Shanghai Tape 1, Side 2 • The Shanghai Jewish community • Difficult living conditions • Relations with Japanese occupiers • School life Tape 2, Side 1 • Synagogues in Shanghai • Secular education • A typical morning routine • Involvement in Betar (Zionist youth group) Tape 2, Side 2 • Refugee life in Shanghai • Poverty, crime, and black market activities • Emotional life as a child living through these conditions • Japanese authorities and Nazi propaganda Tape 3, Side 1 • Her family in Austria, memories of Vienna • Arriving in Shanghai • Establishment of the Shanghai Ghetto, 1943 • Typical day in the Shanghai Ghetto Tape 3, Side 2 • Life under Allied bombings, 1945 • The end of the war • Arrival of U.S. troops, August 1945 • Postwar conditions Tape 4, Side 1 • Her last years in China • Voyage to Israel, Jan-Feb 1949 • Life in the new state of Israel • Decision to leave Israel for the U.S. Tape 4, Side 2 • Immigrating to New York, 1953 • Side trip to Vienna • Life in New York and marriage • Moving to Wisconsin, 1969, working with foreign students in Madison Oral Histories: Wisconsin Survivors of the Holocaust Page 2 of 108 Wisconsin Historical Society Susanne Goldfarb: Oral History Transcript www.wisconsinhistory.org/HolocaustSurvivors/Goldfarb.asp Tape 5, Side 1 • Reflections on immigrating to the U.S. • Relations among American Jews • The role of religion in her life in 1980 • Reading habits and social life in Madison Tape 5, Side 2 • Public attitudes toward the Holocaust • American politics and government • Anti-Semitism in Wisconsin and the U.S. • Her sense of ethnic and national identity About the Interview Process: The recordings were made during two sessions on February 7 and October 8, 1980. The first conversation was held in Susanne’s Madison home, where she was visibly shaken by the memories evoked in telling her story. The second took place at the Wisconsin Historical Society. The researcher noted Susanne’s conscious effort to make the second session less emotional than the first. Susanne describes her Holocaust experience through a child’s eyes. She has clear memories of Jewish life as a child in Vienna and the anti-Semitism that followed the German Anschluss in March 1938. Susanne’s interview is valuable because it reveals the fate of thousands of European Jews who fled to China in the face of Nazi persecution. Audio and Transcript Details: Interview Dates • Feb 7, 1980; Oct 8, 1980 Interview Location • Goldfarb home and Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin Interviewer • Archivist Jean Loeb Lettofsky Original Sound Recording Format • 5 qty. 60-minute audio cassette tapes Length of Interviews • 2 interviews, total approximately 5 hours Transcript Length • 108 pages Rights and Permissions • Any document may be printed or downloaded to a computer or portable device at no cost for nonprofit educational use by teachers, students and researchers. Nothing may be reproduced in any format for commercial purposes without prior permission. Oral Histories: Wisconsin Survivors of the Holocaust Page 3 of 108 Wisconsin Historical Society Susanne Goldfarb: Oral History Transcript www.wisconsinhistory.org/HolocaustSurvivors/Goldfarb.asp Pictures: WHI Image ID 58292 WHI Image ID 56760 WHI Image ID 56621 WHI Image ID 56764 WHI Image ID 56768 WHI Image ID 56767 WHI Image ID 56766 WHI Image ID 56762 WHI Image ID 56769 Oral Histories: Wisconsin Survivors of the Holocaust Page 4 of 108 Wisconsin Historical Society Susanne Goldfarb: Oral History Transcript www.wisconsinhistory.org/HolocaustSurvivors/Goldfarb.asp Transcript The following transcript is from the collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. It is an unedited, firsthand account of the Nazi persecution of the Jews before and during World War II. Portions of this interview may not be suitable for younger or more sensitive audiences. It is unlawful to republish this text without written permission from the Wisconsin Historical Society, except for nonprofit educational use. Key JL Jean Loeb Lettofsky, Wisconsin Historical Society archivist SG Susanne Goldfarb, Holocaust survivor TAPE 1, SIDE 1 JL: Okay Susanne would you tell me something about your family background, your date and place of birth, and the names of your parents and grandparents and if possible their dates and places of birth? SG: Well, I was an only child in a middle-class family in Vienna, Austria, and both my parents and grandparents came from Poland. I only knew my maternal grandparents. We lived very close to them in adjoining apartments in Vienna. Their names were Meisel1 and I practically grew up with them, second parents, up until the age of five. That's when we left Vienna. JL: Do you know any dates, birthdates? SG: I think my grandmother was born in 1879, or at least that's what they thought she was born in. I don't know about my grandfather, no. JL: And for your parents? SG: My father was born in 1891 and my mother 1901. JL: Do you have any special recollections of your grandparents, any special things that might have happened with them, could you tell me a little…? SG: Close relationship, close relationship. My close relationship with my grandparents and my parents' close relation. It was very close, my family. We lived next door to each other. Actually, all my recollections 1 Before the war, the family name was Meiseles. Mrs. Goldfarb refers to all members of the family by the shortened form, Meisel, which some adopted after the war. Oral Histories: Wisconsin Survivors of the Holocaust Page 5 of 108 Wisconsin Historical Society Susanne Goldfarb: Oral History Transcript www.wisconsinhistory.org/HolocaustSurvivors/Goldfarb.asp start at the age of three or four, and that's when Hitler was in Austria already, so I just don't remember all the — I remember them, but I don't remember that much interaction with them in Vienna. Later on my grandmother came to Shanghai alone and that's where I was old already and where the interaction was, yeah. JL: Is there anything special that you can remember, any nice things that might have happened with your father and mother? What type of people they were? SG: They were very hard working and very devoted, very family-loving and very giving. But again, my earliest recollections all were in Hitler's time. The anxieties. It seems very difficult to remember anything playful in Vienna. There were more the traumatic things that I remember. Although I'm sure there were other things, it's hard to think of them now. Because my first recollections were when I was four, three or four. They were very loving and very good and very wonderful. They are the true heroes of all of this. JL: Would you care to tell me why? SG: Well, because when I was three or four, and when we gave up, when we left Vienna and went to another place, I wasn't giving up anything personally. There were no deprivations as far as I was concerned. But they are the ones who — for them it was the second time that they were leaving things behind and my mother left her parents behind. And they were older of course, and they knew what they were losing. JL: What were your father's and mother's occupations? SG: My father was a baker, my mother was a housewife in Vienna.
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