AHC interview with Dina Kupferstein.

Abstract

April 24, 2018.0:00:24-0:12:34, 0:19:33-0:21:03, 1:06:06-1:09:51 Childhood, especially schooling and how it changed in 1938 with the “Anschluss”0:12:47-0:19:28 Hillel Tauber’s (nephew) experience and attitude towards Germans (and Austrians) as a child of Holocaust survivors0:21:03-0:26:12, 0:32:25-0:34:41 Kristallnacht0:26:12-0:32:25, 0:34:42-0:36:10 Preparing for the escape0:36:10-0:47:35 Arrival and first years in the United States0:47:57-0:50:38 Contacts with Nazis and humiliation by the Hitler youth in Vienna0:50:38-0:51:44 Faith in God0:52:15-0:58:40, 1:00:12-1:05:32 Parental home0:58:40-01:00:02 Visiting Vienna and connections to Austria1:09:51-1:16:34 Discussing family photos and documents1:16:36-1:18:29 Effect of the escape on the parents1:18:29-1:19:44 Maternal grandfather, Rabbi Josef BaumgartenMalvine (née Lederer) Spitzer was born on Dec. 16, 1929, in Vienna, Austria, the younger sister of Dina (née Lederer) Kupferstein (born Sep. 15, 1928). They grew up in a middle-class Ashkenazi- orthodox family with seven more siblings in Vienna’s 2nd district. They went to the Jewish kindergarten and elementary school “Jesod Hatora”. Dina continued school after the “Anschluss” in a so called “Judenschule” (Jew-school) on Vorgartenstraße. Their father Leopold Lederer had a bakery and was an active member at the Kultusgemeinde(Jewish congregation) and charitable Jewish organizations. Their mother Esther (née Baumgarten) Lederer was the daughter of Josef Baumgarten, who was a rabbi at the synagogue Wiener Schiffschul. She also worked in the bakery, which was closed after “Kristallnacht”. When the family tried to get papers to leave the country, a stranger from the United States, Benjamin Königsberg, who worked for the same organization as Leopold Lederer (Kollel Shomrei HaChomos Reb Meir Baal Haness), signed affidavits for the whole family. They left Vienna on Nov. 26, 1939 for Genoa, where they boarded the ship “Vulcania”, arriving in New York on Dec. 6, 1939. The family settled on the Lower East Side where they started a bakery again. Malvine and Dina had to work there every day after school. In later years, Dina became a substitute teacher and a bookkeeper. Malvine became a bookkeeper too, running a custom jewelry-business with her husband Joseph. They both settled in Brooklyn.Austrian Heritage Collectio