102-year-old Orchard Cove resident remembers life under Nazi rule
By GuestBy Brad Cole
“I had what you might call a happy childhood, up until March 1938 when Hitler marched into Austria,” Orchard Cove resident Edith Bard said. “I was 14 years old at the time, and two months later, I was no longer allowed to attend public schools with Christian children.”
Edith Bard (Hebrew SeniorLife photo)
Bard described the months that followed as “bearable,” but that all changed on Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, on November 9, 1938. She recalled the Nazi party coming to her house and searching for her father, Leo Eisencher.
“When they came to our door, they couldn’t find him,” Bard recalled. “They looked at me and said, ‘You, come with us.’ My mother, Amalia, started to cry, saying, ‘Take me, take me,’ and I was very scared. I had no idea what they had in mind for me. Luckily, they only handed me a can of paint and a brush and forced me to paint antisemitic words and swastikas on all the Jewish stores in the neighborhood.”
Once finished, they poured the leftover paint over her clothes and let her go home.
While this was happening, her uncle, who lived in the United States, sent affidavits for her family. Her brother Harry immigrated to the United States in 1939, but Edith did not. Despite having a visa, her parents were uneasy about her traveling so far by herself.
“They were hoping their number would come up soon and all three of us could leave together. It was not to be,” she said.
After England and France declared war on Germany in 1939, her parents put her on a train to Italy to wait for a ship to the United States.
“Little did I know that I would never see them again,” Bard said.
She arrived in New York on November 17, 1939, where she reunited with her brother. “We were able to correspond with our parents until 1941, when the United States joined the war in Europe,” Bard said. “After the war, we tried to find out what happened to our parents. It took years before we found out. The Germans kept lists of all the Jewish people they killed in the concentration camps, and we found their names on such a list.
Her parents died in May 1942 in a concentration camp in Chelmno, Poland.
Now 102, Bard continues to be an active member of the Orchard Cove community. She has volunteered with Hadassah, knit blankets and other items for Project Linus, plays ping-pong with fellow resident Jackie Topus, and frequents the fitness center.
“I believe that if you want to get old, you have to keep busy,” she said. “You can’t just stay home and wait for something to happen. You have to do things, like go for a walk or go to the gym.”
Bard shared her story during a recent meeting of the Shalom Club. Residents have shared their stories of growing up Jewish in foreign countries, including several who fled Nazi Germany during their childhood. Members of the Shalom Club believe in sharing these stories, as we can all learn from our history together.
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