Oral History Interview with Liesl Loeb

Liesl Joseph Loeb, born on June 17, 1928 in Rheydt, Rhineland, Germany, describes being a passenger on the St. Louis along with her father, Josef Joseph, an attorney, and her mother, Lilly Salmon Joseph; sailing on May 13, 1939 from Hamburg toward Havana, Cuba with 937 Jewish refugees on board; her family background and life leading up to Kristallnacht, during which she hid in her own home while Nazis were vandalizing it; the months leading up to embarkation and conditions which had to be met before leaving Germany and immigrating to Cuba; her family’s plan to be in Cuba until their quota number was called for the United States; the trip and its complications from a child’s perspective; her father’s sense of duty as the chairman of the passenger committee and the commitment and devotion of all its members; the desperate situation of the hapless passengers to whom no country offered a haven; spending 40 days at sea and the rescue efforts of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the countries that offered refuge to the passengers; her family landing in England and their life as World War II began; the destiny of most of the passengers; attending school as an “evacuee” and the internment of her father on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien; arriving in New York, NY on September 10, 1940; and her graduation from high school and her immediate marriage after.

Date: 11/17/1998
Interviewer: Self-taped Memoir
Interviewee: Liesl Loeb
Language: English
Subject: Holocaust survivors.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Personal narratives.
Jewish children in the Holocaust.
Jewish refugees--England.
Jewish refugees--Germany.
Jews, German--England.
Jews--Education--England.
Jews--Germany--Migrations.
Jews--Persecutions--Germany.
Kristallnacht, 1938.
World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Isle of Man.
World War, 1939-1945--German Americans.
Women--Personal narratives.
Location: Rheydt, Germany
Bonn, Germany
York, United Kingdom
London, United Kingdom
Clifton, United Kingdom
USA
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