This photo was taken in Austria, just after Germany took power. It shows my grandmother, Dorothy (in the stroller), her brother Peter, and her mom Ilse. Not shown in the photo is my great-grandfather Paul. In March of 1938, when Hitler took over Austria, Paul, a doctor, lost his job at the hospital. He was Jewish and Ilse was not. Over the next few months, Nazis came to search the family house and at one point Paul even had to go into hiding, for his own safety. Because of this, the family decided to try to escape the country. They received immigration papers, along with boat departure tickets. However, to legally exit the country, the immigration papers needed to have a later date than the dates on the boat departure tickets, which they did not. They could not afford any more delays, so Paul made the very risky decision to forge one of the document dates by matching a date stamp to the one used on the document. They then attempted to leave the country in December of 1938. The plan was to escape to France, where they would then take a boat to the US. Luckily, they safely exited Austria, without getting caught, and arrived in the United States, a place that soon became their new home. This photo means a lot to my family because it provides us with a deeper understanding and connection to what our family went through when immigrating to America. This photo also shows the contrast of the normal life my grandmother’s family had before everything they knew drastically changed.

– KS

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant