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Personal Narratives

PERNAR_042
Source

The individuals represented here sent these personal narratives to the Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey to preserve their stories.

Collection Description

Draw near and visit the past as these 12 individuals draw upon their recollections, stories, anecdotal reviews of past years, decades and in some cases tales of relatives sometimes almost of a century ago.  How they came to America; what they faced; bringing up families and earning a living.  Each story (narrative) is different and tells us of a unique period in our nation’s history.

Collection Representative Resources

High resolution scans are kept on our digital archive platform and the original materals are all stored at our offices.

PERNAR_042

The Goldberg-Sundelsohn Family Tree: Chiz Goldberg

Resource Description

family tree cover page 

certificate of copyright registration 

TITLE PAGE

Year
1985
Asset Type
document
Sylvia Firschein

letter to Sylvia Firschein from Howard L. Green

Resource Description

Sylvia Firschein; interview with a Lithuanian man; Rabbi; Paterson; before 1910; WPA; Federal Writers Project Ethnic Survey; 1930s; Howard L. Green, Research Director, New Jersey Historical Commission

Year
1987
Asset Type
document
Joe Krause memoir

Joe Krause

Resource Description
 

This document consists of eleven typed pages and a handwritten page of family names and businesses.

Year
1982
Asset Type
document
Image Caption
page 1; Life in NJ; December 3, 1982; Paterson; liberal Jewish community; textile trade union movement; Workmen's Circle; "The Silk City"; pogroms against the Jews by Czarist Russia; textile center
Escape From Nazi Europe by Jeanette Berman

Jeanette Berman, Escape From Nazi Europe

Resource Description

Jeanette Berman's Memoir recounting her escape form Nazi Europe. Contributed to the Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey in 2011.

Asset Type
document
Image Caption
Holocaust memoir, page 1; Berlin; Germany; 1921; 1933; Hitler; Chancellor of Germany; father lost job as bookkeeper for public utility; 1933 father went to Brussels, Belgium to look for a job; mother and I followed August 1933; operated small business 1933 to 1940; 1940 Germans invaded Belgium; Ostende; May 10-police announcing any man of German descent should register at Police Station; father withdrew money in bank before registering; father detained at police station; kept him there without telling us what they intended to do; cars with Belgisns and Dutch on their way to France; May 15 mother and I hitched a ride to France to find father; freedom fighters driving to France; stopped at farmhouse on outskirts of Dunkirk, France; heavy bombing of Dunkirk; British landed ; Germans bombarded British; bombs falled around us; stand under door frame durig bombing as safest place; second night stopped on a farm in Normandy; fresh cows milk; Brie and Bamembert cheese; Limoges; Vichy; suitcases left at railroad station; police station; need permit to go to Vichy; new law; every woman and child made detainees; closed porcelain factory; there met 50 women and children.
Bernard Gola Memoir, pg 1

Bernard Gola

Resource Description

This is a typewritten account of an interview with Bernard Gola. He was interviewed by Sally Whitmore.

Year
2002
Date
2002-11-17
Asset Type
document
Image Caption
Holocaust memoir, page 1; Bernard Gola; 63 Northgate Rd.; Washington Twp; Kielce; Poland; 27,000 Jews; September 1, 1939 war started; September 5, 1939, Nazis took over city of Kielce; 13 years old; beat up Jews; mens beards cut off; age 12 and up made to do very hard work; cleaning Germans' barracks, digging ditches, work on railroads, work in stone mines, breaking up rock; Jewish businesses closed; stole Jews' property; food shortage; radios not allowed; if caught with radio, Jews were shot