Watch the clips of testimony from Erica Van Adelsberg and Anneliese Nossbaum. Erica was born in Germany and, after surviving the Holocaust, moved to Philadelphia. Anneliese, also a survivor, moved to Jenkintown.
About the Interviewees
Erica van Adelsberg (née Herz), daughter of Walter and Margot, was born on October 2, 1928, in Munich, Germany. Erica had one brother, Ernest. Erica grew up in a secular Jewish family, however, after the Nazi rise to power in 1933, her family moved to the Netherlands. The family lived in Aerdenhout, until the German invasion of the Netherlands; in September 1940, the family was forced to move to Hilversum. In January 1942, the family was sent to Westerbork, a transit camp in the Netherlands. The Herz family was at Westerbork until February 15, 1944, when they were deported to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in Germany.
In April 1945, while being deported further west, Erica was liberated by two Russian soldiers. Miraculously, everyone in Erica’s immediate family survived the Holocaust. Erica immigrated to the United States in 1946, and she became a teacher. In 1955, Erica married Martin van Adelsberg, and the couple had two children. This interview took place on November 27, 1995, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Anneliese Nossbaum (née Winterberg), daughter of Siegfried and Irmgard, was born on January 8, 1929, in Guben, Germany. In 1932, the family moved to Bonn, Germany, where Siegfried was employed as a cantor. In 1941, the family was forced to move to a monastery complex in Bonn that the Nazis had confiscated from the nuns who lived there. In July 1942, Anneliese and her parents were deported to Theresienstadt, a camp-ghetto in Czechoslovakia. In October 1944, they were deported to the Auschwitz camp complex in Nazi-occupied Poland. Anneliese and Irmgard were later deported to Freiberg, a labor camp in Germany, and to Mauthausen, a concentration camp in Austria.
They were liberated at Mauthausen in May 1945; Irmgard died from tuberculosis in December 1945. After living and working at a displaced persons’ camp for over a year, Anneliese immigrated to the United States. She married Martin Nossbaum in 1953, and they had two children and two grandchildren. This interview took place on November 12, 1996, in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Anneliese also gave testimony to USC Shoah Foundation’s Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony (CATT) program on March 9, 2017.