Bernstein, Margit Edith Erna (née Oppenheimer)

Jewish orphanage. Educated there, felt at home. After school: Hausmädchen in Neuffen.

Before moving to Bad Cannstatt c. 1938. Letter: "we moved from Wuppertal half a year ago."

Margit's 1939 letter: 'we moved from Wuppertal half a year ago, and of course I like it much better here than in Wuppertal.'

Visiting orphanage during Kristallnacht, orphanage attacked. Fled to mother in Stuttgart (mother's 2nd husband Christian).

Memoir: Was visiting the orphanage. 'The organized herd charged and with a deafening noise broke and crushed everything.' Head of house Theodore Rothschild collapsed — 40 years' life work destroyed in under 2 hours. Rothschild later died in Theresienstadt.

Plan failed due to war outbreak. Went to uncle in Hannover, apprentice in Jewish nursery. Returned to Stuttgart, lived at Hospitalstr. 36, worked in Feuerbach nursery. Classified as 'Halbjüdin'.

Age 17. Wrote to cousin Mina Kaufmann in Baltimore requesting affidavit for America. Living c/o Frau Marie, Geellbergstr. 1, Bad Cannstatt. Plan to follow Änne to Denmark had failed. Mentions Uncle Simon. Josef was at Großbreesen.

Transport Nr. XIII/2 (Gestapo Württemberg-Baden). Camp address: Ws. Logstr. 4/12. Met brother Josef. Worked: disinfection station, then carpentry (coffin lids). Ill: typhus, scarlet fever, encephalitis. Met Siegfried Michelbacher – 'große Liebe'.

Camp address: Ws. Logstr. 4/12. Pre-printed form postcard sent to Karl Maier, Baker, Solnstitting bei Landsberg/Bavaria. Addressed to 'Dear Uncle Karl!' Confirming package receipt. Postcard routed via Prague (German censorship stamp, postmark: PRAG/PRAHA). All camp mail censored and processed through Prague.

Transport Em 1214. Volunteered to follow Siegfried. Encountered Dr. Mengele. Siegfried sent to Dachau, did not survive. Margit volunteered for work transport to Bad Kudowa-Sakisch (near Czech border).

Memoir: From Auschwitz, sent to factory near Czech border (Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke). Prisoner number 86092. Produced aircraft engines. 400-500 female prisoners. 12-hour factory shifts. Later assigned to camp garden.

Memoir: 'The SS told us to let us go. It was the day before the end of the war.' Led to Czech border at Náchod. Czech authorities received them. 'In Nachod they welcomed us as winners. Along all the streets people stood and cheered.'

SS handed prisoners to Czechs one day before war's end. Taken to Nachod (Czech town), housed with local families. Returned to Stuttgart, reunited with mother & brother. ITS post-war path: 31 Dec 1945 Belgium; Jan 1946 Stuttgart-Lederberg, Heumadenerstr. 235; then Palestine.

Disembarked in Haifa after journey from Belgium via Jewish Brigade. Found sister Änne already in Israel. Sister's husband had died. Stayed 3 months with sister.

Living in Haifa from 1946. Philip was childhood friend from Esslinger Waisenhaus.

ITS Certificate of Incarceration No. 450750 (signed J. Nowey). Category: 'Jüdin', profession: 'Hilfsarbeiterin', last address: Hospitalstr. 36, Stuttgart. Confirms: Theresienstadt (Transport XIII/2), Auschwitz (Transport Em 1214), Bad Kudowa-Sakisch. Remark: 'befreit jetzt Palästina'. ITS sources: Brussels, CLI NY, Stuttgart, AJDC Paris.

Dr. Wilmersdorfer recommended the trip. Traveled at expense of cousin in Baltimore. Also saw a doctor who suggested leaving the kibbutz.

Wrote autobiographical memoir in Hebrew and English. Covers childhood, Holocaust experiences (Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Silesia factory camp), liberation, emigration to Israel, and post-war struggles with mental health. Ends with 'I Accuse.'

From consequences of camp illnesses