Oral History Interview with Margaret Bowman

Margaret Bowman, nee Harnik, was born in Dresden, Germany in 1914. Her family had a dry goods store in Dresden and later moved to Hanover where they bought a shoe store. She very briefly talks about her life in Germany and her relationship with German and East European Jews. Margaret experienced no antisemitism until 1937.

She immigrated to Peru in 1938, later moved to Bolivia where she met and married her husband. In 1939, with help from HIAS, she got her family out of Germany into Bolivia, but many of her relatives were deported and perished. She describes how Jewish refugees lived and established a sense of community in Bolivia aided by the Hilfsverein, a welfare agency. Margaret and her husband moved to America in 1946 and later managed to get some of her relatives into the United States.

Date: 03/05/1984
Interviewer: Nora Levin
Interviewee: Margaret Bowman
Language: English
Subject: World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany
Jewish refugees--Peru
Jewish refugees--Bolivia
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
Hilfsverein Der Deutschen Juden
Location: Dresden, Germany
Hanover, Germany
Peru
Bolivia
USA
Permalink: https://hoha.digitalcollections.gratzcollege.edu/item/oral-history-interview-with-margaret-bowman/
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