Random Stories Of People Who Hid From Nazis During World War II (12 items)

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  (#5) Selma Schwarzwald Didn't Even Know She Was Hiding From Nazis

  When the Germans entered the city of Lvov in southern Poland in 1941, Selma Schwarzwald's family was forced into a ghetto with other Jews. With the threat of deportation to a concentration camp looming, Selma's father, Daniel, acquired false papers for his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, Daniel was killed by the Nazis five days before his family made their escape on a train.

  Selma's name was changed to Zofia Tymejko, and she and her mother lived the life of good Christians in the town of Busko Zdroj. Selma forgot she was Jewish until her mother told her in 1948. After learning to hate Jews during the war, Selma suffered tremendous shock. She moved to New York City as an adult, became a radiation oncologist, and settled on the name Sophie Turner-Zaretsky. 
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  (#3) Anne Frank's Family Hid In An Attic For Two Years

  In July 1942, when the Nazis began to send Jews in Amsterdam to concentration camps, Anne Frank's family went into hiding in a secret attic apartment. The family lived with four Dutch Jews, also in hiding, for two years. Their benefactors, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Jan Gies, and Miep Gies, maintained the hiding place and smuggled the Franks food and clothing.

  In August 1944, the Gestapo discovered the Franks, and sent them to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister, Margot, were transferred to Bergen-Belson for labor. Everyone but Anne's father, Otto, died in 1945, before the camps were liberated.
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  (#1) Marie Jalowicz Simon Became A 'Submerged' Woman

  As the situation deteriorated in Nazi Germany for Jews, Marie Jalowicz decided to hide in plain sight. In 1941, she told a postman that her "neighbor" Marie was taken by the Nazis, then simply started walking around without a star on her jacket, living under a false identity.

  In the coming years, she took menial jobs and lived in several Berlin flats, at times with roommates who were fervent Nazis. While living this double life, Jalowicz sabotaged production at the arms factory where she worked. She went on to become a professor at Humboldt University after the war, where she worked until her passing in 1998.
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  (#4) The Stermer Family Hid In A Cave For More Than A Year

  When Germany invaded Ukraine in 1941, Esther Stermer's family, along with five other families, escaped Nazis by fleeing in the middle of the night to an underground cave. For 18 months, the 38 members of this group of families lived in total darkness during the day and scavenged for food at night.

  Eventually, German SS soldiers found the cave, and Esther came face-to-face with Nazis. With their guns pointed in her face, Esther said to the Germans, "What are you afraid of here? The Fuhrer is gonna lose the war because we live here?" The soldiers left and never returned. Soon after, Russians liberated the area and the families were able to leave. Their triumph was the longest uninterrupted underground survival situation in recorded history.
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  (#10) A Childhood Helped Hanni Levy Escape Concentration Camps

  In 1943, 19-year-old Hanni Levy mangled her finger in a machine at a factory where she was doing forced labor for the Nazis. When she returned home after a trip to the hospital, all the Jews in her neighborhood were being rounded up to be taken to concentration camps. Hanni fled and found non-Jewish friends to take her in and help her blend in as a non-Jew in Berlin. She cut her hair short, died it blond, and struck up a friendship with local movie theater employees, who helped keep her secret to the end of the war.

  After the Nazis surrendered, Hanni moved to Paris, where she met her future husband.
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  (#6) Mirjam Geismar's Parents Hid From The Nazis Behind A Church Organ

  In 1942, Nazis made Holland an increasingly dangerous place for Jews. Mirjam Geismar's family decided to go into hiding. Mirjam was sent to live with a single mother, Tante Nel, who kept many children hidden beneath the kitchen floor in a compartment accessible by trap door. Mirjam's parents hid in a church, behind the organ. They were almost caught when the Nazis raided the church. 

  The family was reunited at the end of the war. Mirjam's parents have hated organ music ever since.

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