Survivor Testimony

Edith Coliver was born to Headwig and Fritz on July 26^, 1922 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Edith was part of a middle class Jewish family. She had two younger brothers and a grandmother.  She enjoyed doing arts and craft such as knitting, making dolls out of clay and making carpets. Edith enjoyed climbing trees and playing pranks with her friends. She lived in a large three story house where her family lived on the bottom floor and her gym teacher lived on the top. The gym teacher would always complain about people writing anti-sematic papers and would always say they are wrong. Edith was best friends with the family cook and would always play with her hands. In 1937, Edith was no long allowed to go to school with non-Jews.  When she was ten Hitler got power and ruled Germany.  After Edith got kicked out of school she went off to England to continue her schooling. While she was in England, her father called her and told her that they were going to American because there was a war coming. When they got to American they started in New York then moved to San Francisco. When they moved to San Francisco Edith finally finished high school. After high school Edith went off to Berkeley.  She went for a Senator Job in Washington where she was told that they didn’t have that job available, but she would work for him which she did for 6 weeks. After working for the Senator she became an interpreter. While being an interpreter she was given the chance to go to Nuremberg, Germany for the Nuremberg Trials. Edith got married in her father’s house. She then joined the Asian Foundation and was with them from 1952 till 1992 and then she retired. While with this foundation, she worked towards establishing contact with national and international organizations and matching them up with organizations in Asia.

“don’t rob us of our revolution”

“When are you going to lift you martial law?” “Now”

Kurt Messerschmidt was born on January 2, 1915, in Werneuchen, Germany,(just outside of Berlin) and was raised by just his mother. When he was asked about his father, he said that he had no information. He has one half-brother by the name of Henry Oertelt. Kurt was considered an outstanding student when he entered the public school system in 1921 at the age of six. He was offered a scholarship to go to a university but he had a feeling that because he was a Jew, he would not be admitted to the school. With low hopes of being accepted, Kurt became an interpreter for a year in the Far East. He then became a teacher at a local Jewish school as well as a coach there. One day he showed up to school and it had been vandalized by the Hitler Youth. Eventually the school was eventually closed and with nowhere to work, Kurt sought employment for a furniture moving company. His family stayed in Berlin until 1943 when they were deported to Auschwitz and put to work at Golleschau.  They remained there until the advancement of the Soviet troops forced the Germans to evacuate the camp. Both Kurt and his brother survived the march and after fighting illness, Kurt managed to survive through it all. After the war, Kurt went back to work at a school teaching and translating. Kurt and his fiancée were separated when he was deported but were reunited when the war was over. The two lived in Munich where Kurt worked for a radio station. In 1950, they left Germany and settled down in Portland, Maine where Kurt yet again worked for another school district.

“That night I listened to the radio, forbidden, BBC”

“ I have only one request, my fiancée has been living underground and I didn’t have to finish my sentence”