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Bronia Sonnenschein often quoted Elie Wiesel's saying: "Not every German was a Nazi but every Jew was a victim."
Having been born into a Jewish family on July 12, 1915, in Zloczow, Poland (now Ukraine), Bronia Sonnenschein grew up in Vienna where her father worked in the family textile business. A sister was born in 1919. After Austria was annexed by Germany on March 13, 1938, their family was evicted from their home and they were forced to live in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland for five years. With her German-language and office skills, Bronia worked as a secretary in the ghetto's Jewish administration and she was married to Erich Strauss by Chaim Rumkowski, the head of the Council of Elders in the Lodz Ghetto. From 1940 to 1944, more than 180,000 Jews and 5,000 Roma and Sinti lived in the ghetto's cramped quarters, mostly forced to work in factories. Lodz was renamed Litzmannstadt.
Before the Lodz Ghetto was destroyed in August of 1944, Sonnenschein and her family were transported in cattle cars to Auschwitz where the family members were separated from her father. After only six days in Auschwitz, they were sent onto the Stutthof concentration camp where she was re-united with her sister, Paula. Her father and her husband Erich died in Stutthof. Along with her mother and sister, she was then forced to work in a munitions factory in Dresden where she was recognized from the Lodz Ghetto by director Hans Biebow and appointed to work in the factory office. All three women survived the infamous fire-bombing of the city by the Allies on February 13, 1945. In response to the advance of Russian troops, they were sent on a twelve-day "death march" in April to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Terezin, Czechoslovakia (near Prague).
In order to persuade Jews that liveable conditions would be provided for their "resettlement," Theresienstadt was a Nazi "show camp" cynically described as a "spa town" in Nazi propaganda. In reality, nearly 90,000 people were transported from Theresienstadt to the extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka. Approximately, 33,000 died in Theresienstadt itself, mostly from starvation or disease.
In June of 1944, visiting dignitaries and representatives of the International Red Cross were permitted to visit Theresienstadt for an elaborate charade. After houses were painted and gardens planted, visitors were entertained by the ghetto's resident orchestra. Outstanding Jewish artists from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were permitted to provide a facade of civility. In reality, the unintentional death rate in Theresienstadt was so high that Nazis had built a crematorium there in 1942 that could process 200 corpses per day. The "camp-ghetto" collected approximately 15,000 children; approximately 90% of those did not survive. Children were nonetheless encouraged to undertake works of art a Drawing Office and an Art Workshop, resulting in thousands of works of art that could demonstrate that detainees were housed in livable conditions. The ruse was successful; the delegation left impressed; and mass deportations resumed until October of 1944.
Theresienstadt maintained its bizarre character until Soviet troops cut off the main road and rail connections to the main killing grounds of Auschwitz. Thereafter, SS chief Heinrich Himmler and Security Chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner agreed to release 1,200 detainees from Theresienstadt after Jewish organizations placed five million francs into an escrowed account in Switzerland. These German, Dutch, Austrian and Protectorate Jews arrived in Switzerland on February 5, 1945. The Swedish Red Cross was permitted to take 423 Danish Jews out of Theresienstadt on trucks headed to Denmark on April 14-15.
Bronia Sonnenschein did not arrive Theresienstadt until April 24th. The Red Cross officially took over administrative control of Theresienstadt from SS Commandant Rahn on May 2, 1945. She recalled she never felt officially liberated until May 8, 1945. On that day a young Russian soldier on horseback greeted them saying, "You are free, you can go home again." Describing this scene ("but we had no home to go to") was an essential part of her talks to students and teachers from 1987 until 2008.
She made her way to Prague where she worked for the Joint Distribution Committee and met her second husband, Kurt Sonnenschein. After managing to leave communist Czechoslovakia with very few belongings, the couple relocated to Israel briefly in 1949, where a son was born, but they immigrated to Canada in 1950. Her second husband died in an automobile accident in 1952, leaving her with two infants to raise. With ongoing help from her mother and her married sister in order to raise her children, Dan and Vivian (Herman), she became her family's chief breadwinner, working for the Alaska Pine Company. She was known for her cheerful, upbeat attitude. As a Holocaust educator, she spoke to thousands of people throughout British Columbia and received the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for volunteer service.
First published in 1998, Bronia Sonnenschein's Victory over Nazism: The Journey of a Holocaust Survivor (Vancouver: Memory Press) was compiled and re-edited for a third edition by her son Dan Sonnenschein in 2013. An audio interview with her and her sister is available from the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia. Bronia Sonnenschein died in Vancouver on January 26, 2011. Dan Sonnenschein also recorded an audio interview about his mother after her death. VHEC also has video interview material.
BOOKS:
Victory over Nazism: The Journey of a Holocaust Survivor (Vancouver: Memory Press, 1998, 2013) 978-0973651713
[BCBW 2020] Alan Twigg / HolocaustLit
Photo: Czech News Agency image shows a prisoner of Theresienstadt being liberated in May of 1945, when Bronia Sonnenschein also gained her freedom--but had nowhere to go.
Photo: Bronia and Kurt Sonnenschein in Prague.
Having been born into a Jewish family on July 12, 1915, in Zloczow, Poland (now Ukraine), Bronia Sonnenschein grew up in Vienna where her father worked in the family textile business. A sister was born in 1919. After Austria was annexed by Germany on March 13, 1938, their family was evicted from their home and they were forced to live in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland for five years. With her German-language and office skills, Bronia worked as a secretary in the ghetto's Jewish administration and she was married to Erich Strauss by Chaim Rumkowski, the head of the Council of Elders in the Lodz Ghetto. From 1940 to 1944, more than 180,000 Jews and 5,000 Roma and Sinti lived in the ghetto's cramped quarters, mostly forced to work in factories. Lodz was renamed Litzmannstadt.
Before the Lodz Ghetto was destroyed in August of 1944, Sonnenschein and her family were transported in cattle cars to Auschwitz where the family members were separated from her father. After only six days in Auschwitz, they were sent onto the Stutthof concentration camp where she was re-united with her sister, Paula. Her father and her husband Erich died in Stutthof. Along with her mother and sister, she was then forced to work in a munitions factory in Dresden where she was recognized from the Lodz Ghetto by director Hans Biebow and appointed to work in the factory office. All three women survived the infamous fire-bombing of the city by the Allies on February 13, 1945. In response to the advance of Russian troops, they were sent on a twelve-day "death march" in April to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Terezin, Czechoslovakia (near Prague).
In order to persuade Jews that liveable conditions would be provided for their "resettlement," Theresienstadt was a Nazi "show camp" cynically described as a "spa town" in Nazi propaganda. In reality, nearly 90,000 people were transported from Theresienstadt to the extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka. Approximately, 33,000 died in Theresienstadt itself, mostly from starvation or disease.
In June of 1944, visiting dignitaries and representatives of the International Red Cross were permitted to visit Theresienstadt for an elaborate charade. After houses were painted and gardens planted, visitors were entertained by the ghetto's resident orchestra. Outstanding Jewish artists from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were permitted to provide a facade of civility. In reality, the unintentional death rate in Theresienstadt was so high that Nazis had built a crematorium there in 1942 that could process 200 corpses per day. The "camp-ghetto" collected approximately 15,000 children; approximately 90% of those did not survive. Children were nonetheless encouraged to undertake works of art a Drawing Office and an Art Workshop, resulting in thousands of works of art that could demonstrate that detainees were housed in livable conditions. The ruse was successful; the delegation left impressed; and mass deportations resumed until October of 1944.
Theresienstadt maintained its bizarre character until Soviet troops cut off the main road and rail connections to the main killing grounds of Auschwitz. Thereafter, SS chief Heinrich Himmler and Security Chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner agreed to release 1,200 detainees from Theresienstadt after Jewish organizations placed five million francs into an escrowed account in Switzerland. These German, Dutch, Austrian and Protectorate Jews arrived in Switzerland on February 5, 1945. The Swedish Red Cross was permitted to take 423 Danish Jews out of Theresienstadt on trucks headed to Denmark on April 14-15.
Bronia Sonnenschein did not arrive Theresienstadt until April 24th. The Red Cross officially took over administrative control of Theresienstadt from SS Commandant Rahn on May 2, 1945. She recalled she never felt officially liberated until May 8, 1945. On that day a young Russian soldier on horseback greeted them saying, "You are free, you can go home again." Describing this scene ("but we had no home to go to") was an essential part of her talks to students and teachers from 1987 until 2008.
She made her way to Prague where she worked for the Joint Distribution Committee and met her second husband, Kurt Sonnenschein. After managing to leave communist Czechoslovakia with very few belongings, the couple relocated to Israel briefly in 1949, where a son was born, but they immigrated to Canada in 1950. Her second husband died in an automobile accident in 1952, leaving her with two infants to raise. With ongoing help from her mother and her married sister in order to raise her children, Dan and Vivian (Herman), she became her family's chief breadwinner, working for the Alaska Pine Company. She was known for her cheerful, upbeat attitude. As a Holocaust educator, she spoke to thousands of people throughout British Columbia and received the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for volunteer service.
First published in 1998, Bronia Sonnenschein's Victory over Nazism: The Journey of a Holocaust Survivor (Vancouver: Memory Press) was compiled and re-edited for a third edition by her son Dan Sonnenschein in 2013. An audio interview with her and her sister is available from the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia. Bronia Sonnenschein died in Vancouver on January 26, 2011. Dan Sonnenschein also recorded an audio interview about his mother after her death. VHEC also has video interview material.
BOOKS:
Victory over Nazism: The Journey of a Holocaust Survivor (Vancouver: Memory Press, 1998, 2013) 978-0973651713
[BCBW 2020] Alan Twigg / HolocaustLit
Photo: Czech News Agency image shows a prisoner of Theresienstadt being liberated in May of 1945, when Bronia Sonnenschein also gained her freedom--but had nowhere to go.
Photo: Bronia and Kurt Sonnenschein in Prague.
