Surviving to smile
She is among the last generation of Holocaust survivors, the last living witnesses of the most harrowing atrocities of the 20th century.
Between the age of 10 to 15, Rita Braun lived in constant fear of death, whether she was in the punishing conditions of the ghetto, in prison or in hiding.
Speaking on the phone from Brazil, where she emigrated after the war, with her grandson Eduardo as an interpreter, she tells me why she has revisited such painful memories to write a book. ‘I was getting old and felt it was important to leave a record for future generations. People forget over time. Who would do this after I’m gone? What other weapon could I give people to defend themselves against prejudice? This, and seeing that racism is still happening today, sparked me to write my memoirs.’
Fragments Of My Life, published in English translation last year, is a moving account of her remarkable life – the horrors she witnessed and the heartbreakingly diffi cult choices she had to make. The memoir is striking for its warmth and absence of bitterness: Rita comes across as a luminous, loving woman, devoted to her family and to her cause. At 83, when most people are taking it easy, her diary is packed with public speaking engagements, including a recent visit to the Brazilian parliament.
After her parents divorced, eight-year-old Rita moved to Katowice with her mother, where she had a happy childhood, spent with her extended family
‘There is an emotional drive,’ she says. ‘Recently I spoke in front of 250 people at a school in São Paulo. Afterwards some were in tears, many were asking questions. Every time this happens, I think: “mission accomplished” for those who were not lucky enough to live.’ With each act of remembrance, Rita is honouring the memory of more than six million victims – the voiceless, those whose stories remain untold.
Born in Poland to an affl uent family, Rita had a happy childhood in 1930s Katowice. Her parents divorced and her mother remarried, but they had an amicable relationship and Rita spent time with both. She remembers idyllic holidays on her stepfather’s estate. Although she recalls some problems: ‘There was a lot of anti-Semitism already,’ she says of the pre-war years. In 1939, the Soviets arrived and life changed signifi cantly. But then the Nazis came, and the world she knew was shattered.
After a gruelling journey by cart with the few possessions they could carry, Rita, her mother Mina and their extended family, arrived in Stanislavov. They were eventually rounded up into a cramped and squalid ghetto, often raided by mounted Nazi offi cers. ‘They were shooting as they came in, very fast. By instinct I ran into some bushes and hid there for an hour. Another time a girl came into the house, [the Nazis] were asking for her mother but she pointed to my grandmother instead.
All family members, pictured here, died in the Holocaust, apart from Mina, her brother, Rita, her stepfather and her stepsister, Kora. 1 Mother. 2 Stepfather. 3 Grandfather. 4 Kora
‘My grandmother was taken to the central square. My uncle Edward ran out and saluted the Germans – he had been in the Polish Army, but Jews were not allowed to do this. He explained to the German offi cer what had happened, and by a miracle he accepted the explanation. My grandmother was allowed to return home.’
An incredible act of courage coupled with a miraculous stroke of luck is a recurring feature in Rita’s story. But for some, luck eventually ran out: later in the war, Edward escaped the ghetto but was denounced as a Jew and shot in the back while at work. Many other relatives were also killed.
Forbidden from bringing anything into the ghetto, Rita and her mother were reduced to scavenging. ‘I remember picking up things from the Germans’ rubbish… chicken bones, leftovers. We mixed them with grass – my mother persuaded me that it was spinach – and made soup.’ When the ghetto was emptied and most residents were killed or taken to concentration camps, Rita and her mother escaped by hiding in a wall cavity behind a heavy armoire.
Fluent in German and Russian, Rita’s blonde, blue-eyed mother managed to pass for an Aryan, and obtained the forged papers to prove it. But even then, they were not safe. When a Gestapo raid confi scated her documents, knowing that there was no chance of survival without them, Mina took the huge risk of calling into the Gestapo offi ces to retrieve them.
Left: Rita's mother Mina (left) with her parents and brother, Edward. Right: Rita and Grandson Eduardo (1982)
‘She would not take me because she had no idea if she would come back, so she told me to sit on a suitcase on the steps of a church across the road and said, “If I don’t come back in an hour, go to the convent and tell them you want to be a nun.’”
After a terrifying hour, Rita saw her mother emerge from the doors of the Gestapo building. Against all odds, she had succeeded.
Rita’s is a story of resilience, quick thinking – and luck. Other survivors are often plagued with confl icting feelings of guilt. How does she feel about those who were not so lucky?
‘I did feel ashamed when I saw people being taken on trains and I could do nothing about it. But I have dealt with it by telling their story.’
As our conversation draws to a close, it strikes me that the most remarkable aspect of her survival is how she has emerged psychologically intact: now the matriarch of a huge and happy family, she has built a new life, is loved and respected, and works tirelessly to spread a message of peace. That is more than surviving: it is truly living.
Fragments Of My Life, by Rita Braun, is published by iUniverse, priced £11.80.
Between the age of 10 to 15, Rita Braun lived in constant fear of death, whether she was in the punishing conditions of the ghetto, in prison or in hiding.
Speaking on the phone from Brazil, where she emigrated after the war, with her grandson Eduardo as an interpreter, she tells me why she has revisited such painful memories to write a book. ‘I was getting old and felt it was important to leave a record for future generations. People forget over time. Who would do this after I’m gone? What other weapon could I give people to defend themselves against prejudice? This, and seeing that racism is still happening today, sparked me to write my memoirs.’
Fragments Of My Life, published in English translation last year, is a moving account of her remarkable life – the horrors she witnessed and the heartbreakingly diffi cult choices she had to make. The memoir is striking for its warmth and absence of bitterness: Rita comes across as a luminous, loving woman, devoted to her family and to her cause. At 83, when most people are taking it easy, her diary is packed with public speaking engagements, including a recent visit to the Brazilian parliament.
After her parents divorced, eight-year-old Rita moved to Katowice with her mother, where she had a happy childhood, spent with her extended family‘There is an emotional drive,’ she says. ‘Recently I spoke in front of 250 people at a school in São Paulo. Afterwards some were in tears, many were asking questions. Every time this happens, I think: “mission accomplished” for those who were not lucky enough to live.’ With each act of remembrance, Rita is honouring the memory of more than six million victims – the voiceless, those whose stories remain untold.
Born in Poland to an affl uent family, Rita had a happy childhood in 1930s Katowice. Her parents divorced and her mother remarried, but they had an amicable relationship and Rita spent time with both. She remembers idyllic holidays on her stepfather’s estate. Although she recalls some problems: ‘There was a lot of anti-Semitism already,’ she says of the pre-war years. In 1939, the Soviets arrived and life changed signifi cantly. But then the Nazis came, and the world she knew was shattered.
After a gruelling journey by cart with the few possessions they could carry, Rita, her mother Mina and their extended family, arrived in Stanislavov. They were eventually rounded up into a cramped and squalid ghetto, often raided by mounted Nazi offi cers. ‘They were shooting as they came in, very fast. By instinct I ran into some bushes and hid there for an hour. Another time a girl came into the house, [the Nazis] were asking for her mother but she pointed to my grandmother instead.
All family members, pictured here, died in the Holocaust, apart from Mina, her brother, Rita, her stepfather and her stepsister, Kora. 1 Mother. 2 Stepfather. 3 Grandfather. 4 Kora‘My grandmother was taken to the central square. My uncle Edward ran out and saluted the Germans – he had been in the Polish Army, but Jews were not allowed to do this. He explained to the German offi cer what had happened, and by a miracle he accepted the explanation. My grandmother was allowed to return home.’
An incredible act of courage coupled with a miraculous stroke of luck is a recurring feature in Rita’s story. But for some, luck eventually ran out: later in the war, Edward escaped the ghetto but was denounced as a Jew and shot in the back while at work. Many other relatives were also killed.
Forbidden from bringing anything into the ghetto, Rita and her mother were reduced to scavenging. ‘I remember picking up things from the Germans’ rubbish… chicken bones, leftovers. We mixed them with grass – my mother persuaded me that it was spinach – and made soup.’ When the ghetto was emptied and most residents were killed or taken to concentration camps, Rita and her mother escaped by hiding in a wall cavity behind a heavy armoire.
Fluent in German and Russian, Rita’s blonde, blue-eyed mother managed to pass for an Aryan, and obtained the forged papers to prove it. But even then, they were not safe. When a Gestapo raid confi scated her documents, knowing that there was no chance of survival without them, Mina took the huge risk of calling into the Gestapo offi ces to retrieve them.
Left: Rita's mother Mina (left) with her parents and brother, Edward. Right: Rita and Grandson Eduardo (1982)‘She would not take me because she had no idea if she would come back, so she told me to sit on a suitcase on the steps of a church across the road and said, “If I don’t come back in an hour, go to the convent and tell them you want to be a nun.’”
After a terrifying hour, Rita saw her mother emerge from the doors of the Gestapo building. Against all odds, she had succeeded.
Rita’s is a story of resilience, quick thinking – and luck. Other survivors are often plagued with confl icting feelings of guilt. How does she feel about those who were not so lucky?
‘I did feel ashamed when I saw people being taken on trains and I could do nothing about it. But I have dealt with it by telling their story.’
As our conversation draws to a close, it strikes me that the most remarkable aspect of her survival is how she has emerged psychologically intact: now the matriarch of a huge and happy family, she has built a new life, is loved and respected, and works tirelessly to spread a message of peace. That is more than surviving: it is truly living.
Fragments Of My Life, by Rita Braun, is published by iUniverse, priced £11.80.