Ann Erlich speaks about her life as a child of Holocaust survivors. Born in a DP camp in Mittenwald, Germany, Ann is the oldest child of a young couple whose large Polish Jewish families were destroyed by the Nazis.
Ann explains how, when she was young, her parents did not talk about their past and focused all their energy on making a new life in America. Their luck in being sponsored by an American soldier, who almost forgot about them when they got off the boat, shows the complete trust that the young refugees had in a kind stranger who eventually became a friend. Ann tells stories of the network of relationships that were needed just to find a place to live, and the reliance her parents had on her as a young girl who could translate English to Yiddish when they struggled to get settled. Her story describes the close-knit community of refugee friends that helped each other with every aspect of life in a new country. It is fascinating to hear how similar her family’s concerns were to new immigrants coming to the U.S. today.
