Without her, this story would not have been written. Since we would surely have perished in Hitler's Death Camps. And in Rotterdam, Holland, the four of us boarded the S. Statendam sailing for America and New York. The four of us, mother Betty, brother Albert, little brother Ralph, and myself Fritz.
Father Leo had to stay behind, on the pier in Rotterdam, because he was born in the wrongCountry. With America's immigration laws at that time he had to wait until his German "quota" came up to his number. So the "four of us" crossed the English channel and sailed into the Atlantic ocean dodging German U-boats out for the kill and it did not matter to them whether the ship was loaded with refugees and ordinary tourists, retribution was the watchword of the day and so the Statendam sailed on, full steam ahead, under the Dutch flag, thru a turbulent September Atlantic ocean, towards new York harbour.
When we finally sighted the statue of liberty ten days later, we knew that we were liberated from oppression and that we had made it to freedom the S.
Early in the morning of that fine day and after disembarking we were met by the American cousin, Anita Loew, who welcomed us to these shores and drove us to our first apartment on Broadway and 86th street. Anita was just wonderful and immediately tried to make us feel at home she also added a few dollars to our non-existent pocket money. The next thing I remember is that after "lunch", that first day, I went down-stairs to Broadway and watched in wonder.
All the finery being worn and paraded on the centre mall of Broadway between 79th and 96th street, it dawned on me then, that this was the first day of Rosh-Hashanah and all the Jewish families had just attended services at their synagogues.
