Jamie Hall Mr. Neuberger Comp 101-130 26 March 2012 A Survivors Story Ursula Levy Summary Ms.

Ursula Levy was born in 1935 to a small family in the town of Auenwald, Germany. The family consisted of her, her brother, mother and her father. Her father owned a textile business where they made clothing and household linens. Both her uncle and her father had been captured and sent to concentration camps. While they were there they had been exposed to harsh elements and both had gotten wounds on their legs. Both men contracted gangrene from the wounds on their legs and both died. Her mothers family was more liberal and did not have a religion and her fathers family was more religious. However she did not believe herself to be Jewish. Her mother found out through a family member that the children could be sent to Holland for safety. This was a dreadful decision for her to make such a dreadful decision. She and her brother were sent on a train to Holland by their mother. When they first got to Holland they were in a large home for children and then sent to a convent for malnourished children. The Dutch children would stay in the convent for six weeks and then they would leave. Hidden among the Dutch children were fifty Jewish children. There were five full Jewish children among the two hundred children, only two of them survived the war. She and her brother spent four years in the convent before going to a camp. They attended school and mass every day. With so many children at the convent they

were not allowed to speak during meal times. While in the convent they had a very structured life. A priest would send letters to their mother and she would write letters back to them. While in the convent she and her brother were baptized Catholic. In 1940 the Germans took over Holland and put a Nazi mayor in charge of all the small towns. The Germans ordered all the Jewish children to be turned over for deportation. Ms. Levy and her brother were sent to another convent however that move did not work out so they were sent back to the original convent. She was sent to a family home and that did not work out either. In 1943 her and her brother were deported and sent to a concentration camp. A friend was able to visit them and was able to raise a question about the childrens heritage by saying, Those children do not look Jewish they have blue eyes. Their father is Catholic and lives in America. After that they were placed in the privileged barracks with the diamond cutters. They were sent to an orphanage ran by Orthodox Jews inside the concentration camp. She and her brother were sent to another camp. Instead of being killed they lived in a concentration camp for six months. The Russians seized the train that they were being transported on.