Frieda Ostreicher was born during the First World War, on 21 March 1917, in the village of Strabičovo in Subcarpathian Rus, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She had five brothers and two sisters. Her dad Herman Gross and mom Relia were observant Jews, observing all traditions.
She was supposed to apprentice as a seamstress in Brno, but in the end she decided to become a milliner. Her studies were interrupted by the occupation. In October 1939, she married the son of the famous Brno synagogue cantor, Izidor Mann. The former director of one of Brno's large textile factories, at that time worked as a weaver. They had a daughter, Juditka.
The family was first deported from Brno to the Terezín ghetto, where Izidor Mann died of pneumonia. Frieda and her daughter were then deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. She also survived the Stutthof camp.
After the liberation she returned briefly to Brno, remarried, and before the communists came to power she emigrated to the USA via France.
The interview was filmed on 14 December 1997 in Forest Hills, New York, U.S.A.