Ursula Levy: Holocaust Survivor Testimony by Levi Thurman

Ursula Levy was born May 11, 1935 in Auslaberg, Germany. Her immediate family included her parents Max and Lucia and her brother George. Her father and her Uncle Ludby, which lived with them, were put the Zuxenhausen concentration camp. Her father died a few months after getting out of the concentration camp and her Uncle Ludby only made it a few days after getting out. Ursula’s father owned a textile business before the war, which had been in the family for generations. The earliest memory that Ursula had was of her father; she remembered him being in the hospital with gang – green of the legs. She also had memories of her mother after her father was gone. One of those memories was of her being frightened of a dog barking outside and her mother comforting her. Ursula said that she has always been afraid of dogs and that this was probably due to the fact that police dogs were prevalent in Germany at that time. Her mother was very worried about her children. She contacted her sister and brother – in – law that lived in the United States to see if they knew of any way to get Jewish children out of Germany. Her brother – in – law (Ursula’s Uncle Joseph) said that you could send Jewish children to safe places Holland. Ursula’s mother ended up sending them to Holland by a train. They stayed in a convent in Holland from April of 1939 until April of 1943 when they were sent to a concentration camp. They lived in concentration camps for two years. Ursula and her brother were part of a group of five out of two hundred children living at the convent to be put in concentration camps. This was because they had Jewish parents on both sides. Out of the five children sent to concentration camps Ursula and her brother were the only ones that lived. They survived because the Priest from the convent lied told their Gustavo that they had a Catholic father from America. He also pointed out that they had fair skin and blue eyes, which was uncharacteristic of most Jews. The lie convinced the Gustavo and they were put into a special group of children. Ursula also pointed out that the Jews in the concentration camps with her watched after her while she was little. She said that they could have easily taken her food, but a starved as everybody was they never did. Ursula was eventually freed by Russian soldiers when they overtook that part of Germany from the Germans.

Quotations
Ursula said, “I mean, I never thought to myself that I am Jewish or that I had any reason to believe that I am Jewish.”

Ursula said, “What my aunt told me was, that um, my mother’s side of the family was much more liberal, not religious at all. Um, my father’s side of the family was more religious. I remember eating matza, I’ve always loved to eat matza and I think it stems from the fact that we ate it at home.”