Reminiscences of a Jewish girl
Title
Reminiscences of a Jewish girl
Subject
The life of Lea Fanarof
Description
The interview was conducted on 07/09/1997 in USC.
During the two-hour interview, Lea reminisced about the events leading to her escape from Germany, and her later life. Lea Fanarof arrived in New York on the night before Christmas eve of 1939. The trip from Amsterdam took around two weeks, however, her journey towards freedom began much earlier. Lea was born in Berlin, Germany on February 24th, 1920. She was the first child of the couple formed by Regina Winkler and Jacob Schabinski. Lea’s birth last name was Schabinski, derived from her father. Jacob was born in Vilna, Lithuania and owned a deli in downtown Berlin. Her mother Regina, born in Warsaw, Poland, helped Jacob to run the shop, which called Genzewinkler.
In 1924, Regina gave birth to Zigmund and two years later to Tea. They were a very united, close family and travelled regularly to enjoy holidays. During the weekends, before her siblings were born, her father would take her to explore Berlin. Lea considered her father not very religious, she recalled that their family only visited Synagogues during religious holidays. Nevertheless, they would celebrate Jewish holidays and follow religious traditions in a rigid manner.
Throughout the first part of the interview, she focused on the year 1932. She considered it to be a turning point for both Germany and her life. In 1932 Lea was 12 years old. Despite her young age, she remembers the first signs that Germany was not the place for the Jewish community. As time went on, the first marches and parades started lighting up the streets at night. During the marches, they would stay inside the house. Lea and her family peaked through the window, and she vividly remembers scenes of the “brown shirts” marching down the streets at night, singing their songs, including anti-Semitic chants, which greatly terrified the Schabinski residence. The songs described Jews as being “a threat for Germany,” and that they would soon “disappear.”
After Hitler was assumed the role of Chancellor in January 30th, 1933 the changes took off. Lea described anti-Jewish policies as being secretive at first. She studied in a public school, and was the only Jewish student. There were approximately 500 students who throughout the period of anti-Semitic policy changes were never disrespectful or treated her differently due to her religion. Around 1935, school students had to watch Hitler’s speeches (shouting “Zieg Heil” and “Heil Hitler”) and sing Nazi chants. She remembers one horrible chant that described “Jewish blood on our knifes,” which had to be sung by students.
The first time they had to sing it, her teacher stopped the class during the song, as she was shocked regarding the anti-Semitic content, and promptly apologized to Lea. She told the interviewer that during his first speeches, Hitler was less explicit regarding his hate for Jews, and that he simply labeled them as a problem or threat for Germany. Another reflection of the cultural change that Germany was underway was the widespread use of anti-Jewish propaganda. Lea still had memories of the awful images personifying Jews as subhuman that could be seen in newspaper covers and walls on the street.
Lea’s 5th floor neighbors had relatives who were members of the SS, and offered help them whenever they could. On the night of Kristallnacht Lea saw them on the street corner holding iron bars, and foreshadowed the horror that was about to happen. Her neighbors suggested them not to stay home. They offered to help by safeguarding valuable items that the family wanted to keep. After Kristallnacht, her father had to close her shop and they had nothing left. By then, the synagogues were destroyed, and started applying for foreign visas, starting with Cuba.
However, after paying for the processing of their visas, $350 each, Cuba closed their borders. The money was sent from her family in LA, and was consequently used as means of survival. Consequently, they applied for U.S. visas. At first, they were asked for more guarantees by the American Embassy and had their papers denied. Her family living in LA managed to get an important businessman, called Harvey to send the desired guarantees, but the embassy insisted they had to come from family members and were again denied entry. They were given an ultimatum to pay them $5000 dollars, however that was a tremendous quantity of money at the time, and a quantity they did not have.
Lea took a very tough decision and left Berlin in route to Brussels, Belgium. She hired the services of a smuggler (payed $250 dollars) to pass her through the border with no papers, no visas and no passport. At the day of the interview, Lea still vividly remembered the moment her father nervously took her to the train station. She was only 19 years old and was leaving her family behind in search for freedom. During the trip, they encountered a problem and went to Holland instead. There, she met two women, one Czech and one Polish. They had also hired the services of the smuggler, and accompanied Lea in her trip to Brussels. The trip entailed high risk moves, and she was almost caught several times. After safely arriving in Brussels, it was time for her family to flee. Weeks after she arrived, they were reunited and lived in the city for roughly 6 months.
During this time, their family maintained contact with the American Embassy in Berlin, and finally got the authorization. The expiration date on their visas was on the 31st of December, meaning they had to arrive there before the given date. She boarded the cruise ship in Amsterdam in early December 1939, and the trip took 2 weeks. She described most people aboard to be Jewish refugees, and that the trip took longer than it usually would (about 6 days). They payed $1200 dollars in total, and had a few suitcases sent to NYC. They finally arrived in NYC during the freezing cold winter on the night before Christmas eve.
They did not contact their relatives in NYC, and therefore had to wait until morning to finally be welcomed into their home. They stayed in the Walter’s residence for two weeks, the time it took for them to find bus tickets to Los Angeles. When they arrived in LA, her aunts and cousins picked them up in the bus station. They lived in an old house at a black neighborhood on central avenue, where they stayed for 6 months. They thought they would arrive wearing babushkas, and were impressed they had regular clothes on!
They finally settled down in LA, and for the first time in years were safe. She spoke a bit of English beforehand, but attended school to polish her reading and writing, and get used to her new language. Her father found a job as a house painter and earned $2 a day. 6 months after they arrived, they moved to Brooklyn avenue as her parents still had difficulties adapting to the new language. In her new neighborhood, they could speak Yiddish. Lea then found a jo as a house and baby sitter, and earned 4 dollars a week.
After her first job, she managed to get a real, formal job that payed her a good amount of money (roughly $80 per week), and had settled down with her girlfriend. She mentioned that they kept in contact with their family in Europe, and that some family members had been executed by the Nazi regime. They also kept up with what was going on in Europe, and described suffering prejudice when the U.S. engaged in war with Germany, causing them to lie and instead say they were from Poland.
Lea got married to her Heim, who she described as being “soldier boy,” and the couple had two kids, Sidney in 1944 and Michael in 1948. She had 4 great grandchildren and seemed to be very happy with her family. She described being very open regarding her childhood experiences, and that she would open up to “anyone who wanted to hear it.” She described her experiences to cause nightmares throughout her life. These nightmares only stopped occurring in 1989, when she visited Berlin and had a great experience. She felt that younger generations were aware of the atrocities that occurred, and that they were very supportive of her.
Reminiscing about her life, she considered herself to be a survivor. She seemed to be very pleased with the life she lived, and wanted to share her story. Lea believed that those events could not be forgotten, as they would increase the likelihood of a similar situation occurring in the future. Her message was for us to never forget the Holocaust. She was a survivor, a witness and a warrior. Lea passed away in 2006, but she will always live in our minds. Her story will not be forgotten, and her survivor instinct provides us all with reasons to be strong when facing challenges, and that we humans have successfully been through periods of struggle in the recent years.
During the two-hour interview, Lea reminisced about the events leading to her escape from Germany, and her later life. Lea Fanarof arrived in New York on the night before Christmas eve of 1939. The trip from Amsterdam took around two weeks, however, her journey towards freedom began much earlier. Lea was born in Berlin, Germany on February 24th, 1920. She was the first child of the couple formed by Regina Winkler and Jacob Schabinski. Lea’s birth last name was Schabinski, derived from her father. Jacob was born in Vilna, Lithuania and owned a deli in downtown Berlin. Her mother Regina, born in Warsaw, Poland, helped Jacob to run the shop, which called Genzewinkler.
In 1924, Regina gave birth to Zigmund and two years later to Tea. They were a very united, close family and travelled regularly to enjoy holidays. During the weekends, before her siblings were born, her father would take her to explore Berlin. Lea considered her father not very religious, she recalled that their family only visited Synagogues during religious holidays. Nevertheless, they would celebrate Jewish holidays and follow religious traditions in a rigid manner.
Throughout the first part of the interview, she focused on the year 1932. She considered it to be a turning point for both Germany and her life. In 1932 Lea was 12 years old. Despite her young age, she remembers the first signs that Germany was not the place for the Jewish community. As time went on, the first marches and parades started lighting up the streets at night. During the marches, they would stay inside the house. Lea and her family peaked through the window, and she vividly remembers scenes of the “brown shirts” marching down the streets at night, singing their songs, including anti-Semitic chants, which greatly terrified the Schabinski residence. The songs described Jews as being “a threat for Germany,” and that they would soon “disappear.”
After Hitler was assumed the role of Chancellor in January 30th, 1933 the changes took off. Lea described anti-Jewish policies as being secretive at first. She studied in a public school, and was the only Jewish student. There were approximately 500 students who throughout the period of anti-Semitic policy changes were never disrespectful or treated her differently due to her religion. Around 1935, school students had to watch Hitler’s speeches (shouting “Zieg Heil” and “Heil Hitler”) and sing Nazi chants. She remembers one horrible chant that described “Jewish blood on our knifes,” which had to be sung by students.
The first time they had to sing it, her teacher stopped the class during the song, as she was shocked regarding the anti-Semitic content, and promptly apologized to Lea. She told the interviewer that during his first speeches, Hitler was less explicit regarding his hate for Jews, and that he simply labeled them as a problem or threat for Germany. Another reflection of the cultural change that Germany was underway was the widespread use of anti-Jewish propaganda. Lea still had memories of the awful images personifying Jews as subhuman that could be seen in newspaper covers and walls on the street.
Lea’s 5th floor neighbors had relatives who were members of the SS, and offered help them whenever they could. On the night of Kristallnacht Lea saw them on the street corner holding iron bars, and foreshadowed the horror that was about to happen. Her neighbors suggested them not to stay home. They offered to help by safeguarding valuable items that the family wanted to keep. After Kristallnacht, her father had to close her shop and they had nothing left. By then, the synagogues were destroyed, and started applying for foreign visas, starting with Cuba.
However, after paying for the processing of their visas, $350 each, Cuba closed their borders. The money was sent from her family in LA, and was consequently used as means of survival. Consequently, they applied for U.S. visas. At first, they were asked for more guarantees by the American Embassy and had their papers denied. Her family living in LA managed to get an important businessman, called Harvey to send the desired guarantees, but the embassy insisted they had to come from family members and were again denied entry. They were given an ultimatum to pay them $5000 dollars, however that was a tremendous quantity of money at the time, and a quantity they did not have.
Lea took a very tough decision and left Berlin in route to Brussels, Belgium. She hired the services of a smuggler (payed $250 dollars) to pass her through the border with no papers, no visas and no passport. At the day of the interview, Lea still vividly remembered the moment her father nervously took her to the train station. She was only 19 years old and was leaving her family behind in search for freedom. During the trip, they encountered a problem and went to Holland instead. There, she met two women, one Czech and one Polish. They had also hired the services of the smuggler, and accompanied Lea in her trip to Brussels. The trip entailed high risk moves, and she was almost caught several times. After safely arriving in Brussels, it was time for her family to flee. Weeks after she arrived, they were reunited and lived in the city for roughly 6 months.
During this time, their family maintained contact with the American Embassy in Berlin, and finally got the authorization. The expiration date on their visas was on the 31st of December, meaning they had to arrive there before the given date. She boarded the cruise ship in Amsterdam in early December 1939, and the trip took 2 weeks. She described most people aboard to be Jewish refugees, and that the trip took longer than it usually would (about 6 days). They payed $1200 dollars in total, and had a few suitcases sent to NYC. They finally arrived in NYC during the freezing cold winter on the night before Christmas eve.
They did not contact their relatives in NYC, and therefore had to wait until morning to finally be welcomed into their home. They stayed in the Walter’s residence for two weeks, the time it took for them to find bus tickets to Los Angeles. When they arrived in LA, her aunts and cousins picked them up in the bus station. They lived in an old house at a black neighborhood on central avenue, where they stayed for 6 months. They thought they would arrive wearing babushkas, and were impressed they had regular clothes on!
They finally settled down in LA, and for the first time in years were safe. She spoke a bit of English beforehand, but attended school to polish her reading and writing, and get used to her new language. Her father found a job as a house painter and earned $2 a day. 6 months after they arrived, they moved to Brooklyn avenue as her parents still had difficulties adapting to the new language. In her new neighborhood, they could speak Yiddish. Lea then found a jo as a house and baby sitter, and earned 4 dollars a week.
After her first job, she managed to get a real, formal job that payed her a good amount of money (roughly $80 per week), and had settled down with her girlfriend. She mentioned that they kept in contact with their family in Europe, and that some family members had been executed by the Nazi regime. They also kept up with what was going on in Europe, and described suffering prejudice when the U.S. engaged in war with Germany, causing them to lie and instead say they were from Poland.
Lea got married to her Heim, who she described as being “soldier boy,” and the couple had two kids, Sidney in 1944 and Michael in 1948. She had 4 great grandchildren and seemed to be very happy with her family. She described being very open regarding her childhood experiences, and that she would open up to “anyone who wanted to hear it.” She described her experiences to cause nightmares throughout her life. These nightmares only stopped occurring in 1989, when she visited Berlin and had a great experience. She felt that younger generations were aware of the atrocities that occurred, and that they were very supportive of her.
Reminiscing about her life, she considered herself to be a survivor. She seemed to be very pleased with the life she lived, and wanted to share her story. Lea believed that those events could not be forgotten, as they would increase the likelihood of a similar situation occurring in the future. Her message was for us to never forget the Holocaust. She was a survivor, a witness and a warrior. Lea passed away in 2006, but she will always live in our minds. Her story will not be forgotten, and her survivor instinct provides us all with reasons to be strong when facing challenges, and that we humans have successfully been through periods of struggle in the recent years.
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Creator
Paulo Jakurski
Source
https://youtu.be/WwphdxmPEsU
Original Format
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https://coms591zhukblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/enabling-act21.jpg?w=1000
Citation
Paulo Jakurski, “Reminiscences of a Jewish girl,” HIST 1049, accessed March 13, 2026, https://hist1049-20.omeka.fas.harvard.edu/items/show/74.