Holocaust Survivors Oral History Project
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Interviewer
Carolyn Ellis
Publication Date
3-23-2011
Date
2010-07-02
Abstract
Oral history interview with Holocaust survivors Herta Pila and Salomon Pila. Mrs. Pila was born in Munich in 1932. During the war, she and her mother remained in Munich until 1944 and moved from bunker to bunker, claiming that their identification had been destroyed in air raids so that no one could tell they were Jewish. Mrs. Pila spent eight months hidden on a farm owned by a German family until the war ended and her brother, who had been hiding in the mountains, tracked her down and brought her back to Munich, where she was reunited with her mother and sister. Mr. Pila was born in Miechow, Poland, in 1925. After the Nazis began deportations from his town in 1942, he was sent to several labor camps in Poland before ending up in Oskar Schindler's factory, along with his brother Izack. They were with Schindler for about a year, until 1944, when Izack fell asleep and was caught by the Nazi commander. Mr. Pila ended the war in Linz at a Mauthausen sub-camp, where he was liberated in 1945. After the war, Mr. and Mrs. Pila both spent time in displaced persons camps, he in Italy, she in Germany. They were introduced by Izack and got married in 1952. The first third of this interview is with Mrs. Pila, the middle with the two of them together, and the final third with Mr. Pila.
Keywords
Concentration camps--Poland, Concentration camps--Austria, Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Personal narratives, Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Personal narratives, Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives, World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation, World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue, Holocaust survivors--Florida, Holocaust survivors--Interviews, Genocide, Crimes against humanity
Extent
03:04:48; 70 page transcript
Subject: geographic
Munich (Germany); Dachau (Germany); Ichenhausen (Germany); Plauen (Germany)
Language
English
Digital Date
2022
Media Type
Oral histories
Format
Digital Only
Identifier
F60-00033
Recommended Citation
Pila, Herta and Plia, Salomon, "Herta Pila and Salomon Pila Oral History Interview" (2011). Holocaust Survivors Oral History Project. 27.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/holocaust_OH/27
Rights Statement
