Holocaust Remembrance
“I am one of the lucky ones because I am here and can talk about it,” said Gertrud Kissiloff. “I have to do something – for my grandparents, my aunt, my uncle, my cousins and all others who were killed.”
Gertrud, née Gertrud Nachtigall, was born in Vienna on August 15, 1923. She and her two brothers – one older and one younger – grew up in a religious Jewish family. The family of five escaped Vienna in 1939, surviving the Holocaust.
Life was comfortable before 1938. “We lived in a beautiful Baroque architecture in Leopoldsgasse (Vienna). My father owned a business selling horse leather. He had clients from all over Austria. Merchants from Germany also visited his shop from time to time,” said Gertrud.
Gertrud loved the grammar school she attended and had fond memories of her family life. “My father was a very educated, noble man. He loved opera, the nature and soccer,” said Gertrud. Music and culture were the most important aspects of the Nachtigalls’ family life. In her 90s, Gertrud remains passionate about arts, culture and religion.
The End of a Carefree Childhood
When Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, the Jewish neighborhood Gertrud lived in was immediately flooded with a sea of Nazi flags and swastikas. The sufferings followed instantly. “There was no safekeeping,” Gertrud remembers. “We were plundered terribly. Even though we lived next door to the police, no one dared or was willing to help us.”
Gertrud’s father was made to wash the pavement and rub the loafers. He was humiliated, took into holdings, and suffered beatings. One day, neighbors came into the Nachtigalls’ apartment and demanded all men to be arrested, but neither Gertrud’s older brother nor dad was home.
Her then 17-year-old brother turned out to be hiding at a friend’s home, but her dad disappeared. A week later, a letter from her father arrived, he was arrested and taken to the Dachau concentration camp. “My mom went to the Gestapo Headquarters almost every day trying to free my father,” said Gertrud.
Meanwhile, Gertrud received news that a family in Scotland would take her in and she could leave Vienna on the Kindertransport. She decided to take things in her hands and sneak into the Gestapo when guards were away from the door.
“I found a man behind a large desk,” Gertrud recalled. “I fell to my knees and asked if he could help free my father in Dachau. I told him I should go to Scotland, but I did not want to if my father could not come home.” Her honesty and love for her father moved this man. Two weeks later, someone knocked on the door of her family at midnight – the man standing outside was her dad.
“I learned to persevere, to be self-reliant and to not give up hope,” said Gertrud.
All five members of the Nachtigall family eventually escaped Austria to Scotland by July 1939, where they stayed for a year before relocating to New York in 1940 with the help of a distant relative.
Revisiting the Past to Heal
Gertrud’s parents would never return to Vienna, but she did, eventually. She set foot in Vienna again in 1963 with her newly-wed husband. The Leopoldsgasse neighborhood had not changed much, but the house she grew up in was bombed during the war – it was never restored to its old glory.
She visited Vienna a few times after that and was eager to look for her long-lost friends. “I told my story in my synagogue and attended meetings of the Kindertransport Association. I was hoping to reconnect with someone from my past,” said Gertrud.
Kindertransport printed her story in the organization’s newsletter. She later received a letter from a lady living in Alexandria, Virginia. The communication led to a reunion of four school friends in New York. “It opened a part of my life that has stopped. We all shared similar experiences. My grandparents perished but I was lucky that my parents got out. Most suffered more than me, some never saw their parents again.” Gertrud reflects.
At 93, Gertrud outlived her friends and brothers. Despite her desire to attend the Synagogue, a series of falls and a small surgery decreased her mobility. “We learned her story in an assessment after her surgery in the hospital,” said Albert Eshoo, who owns a home care agency Right at Home in Manhattan. “She and her generation suffered unimaginable loss in the war. I feel honored to serve her, share her story and help advocate for Holocaust education.”
