Interview
Miriam Ferenbach Bruderman was born in 1930, in the small town of Shleiden, which is located between Germany and Belgium.
Her father, Moshe Ferenbach, was born and grew up in Germany. He was a solider in the First World War. After the war, he studied in Korn, a big fishing town, and became a teacher there.
Miriam's mother was born in Poland and at the age of four moved to Germany.
After the war, there was a lot of inflation in Germany and Moshe was unemployed. When he couldn't find a job in Korn, he and his wife moved to Shleiden. In Shleiden, Miriam and her sister were born.
Shleiden was a little seaside town, whose residents were Catholic. In Shleiden, Moshe was a rabbi (although he wasn't ordained), and also taught Hebrew. Miriam's mother cooked kosher food, which she sold to the Jews that came to Shleiden for a vacation. The Ferenbach family was one of the only Jewish families who lived in Shleiden. Miriam and her sister were the only Jewish girls there. They studied in a Catholic school, and after school they were under the supervision of their aunt, Ester Bergstien, who was a deaf - mute. Miriam's family kept a traditional way of life, and every Saturday they walked 5 km to the synagogue.
In November 1938, after the Crystal Night, things started changing. Ester, their aunt, was sent over the border, and there she was murdered. Moshe was sent to a concentration camp, but his friends luckily got him out of there. Miriam and her sister were expelled from school because they were Jewish. They started learning in a special class that their father opened, with another 20 kids of all ages. Moshe taught the kids several subjects by age groups. That's how, Miriam learned Yiddish.
In 1939, after the Second World War had started, Moshe was told that he needed to leave Shleiden. His friends, who had contacts with the Nazis, advised him to move to Berlin. At the same time, Miriam's uncle sent a certificate to Miriam's sister, and she went to Israel in a youth transport in 1940. When Miriam was ten years old, she and her parents moved to Berlin. In Berlin, Miriam studied for one year in a Jewish school. In 1941, when all the Jewish schools had been closed, she stopped learning and started to work in a public kitchen, which made food for the Jews in the work camps. Moshe stopped working as a teacher and started working in mechanics. Her mother sewed buttons on German uniforms.
When the Nazis started sending Jews to concentration camps, Moshe Ferenbach decided that his family needed to go underground and hide because he knew what it was like in the camps. For Miriam and her parents it wasn't complicated because they weren’t known in Berlin. After going underground, Miriam's father sent her and her mother to two German houses, thanks to his contacts with some Germans. Miriam, who was 13 years old, was sent to Kaltztor, and she lived on a German farm. Her parents paid the German family 250 marks every month to pay for Miriam's expenses. Miriam spent her days there working in the pigsty and collecting food with the house owner. During this period of time, Berlin was heavily bombed, Miriam didn't meet with her parents for two years. After a while, Miriam's parents decided to move her to another family outside of Berlin. In this family, the house owner was a German officer and his daughter was an S.S driver. Despite that, they agreed to hide Miriam.
They made her work very hard and they abused her. But the important thing was they didn't hand her over. Miriam stayed with this family until the war ended. At the end of the war, she contacted her family again.
In October 1947, Miriam and her parents came to Israel with the certificate that her uncle had sent them. They arrived to Tel- Aviv and there they lived in Miriam's sister apartment. The conditions were bad and they didn't get any help.
Miriam wanted to learn Hebrew but it didn't work out and she joined the army, where she served in Golani. She did a military medic's course. When she left the army, she was a nurse in an immigrant's camp, and there she met her husband. After a year they got married.
Schleiden
The city of Schleiden includes 18 areas and most of them have German names. It belongs to the Eifel region, a manifold landscape of low mountains with isolated forests and volcanoes, extensive hill countries. It is situated in the triangle where three countries meet: Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg.
In October 1795, Schleiden was transferred to the French state and became part of ourthe-Department.
In 1816, Schleiden was given back to Mecklenburg-Strelitz war and Schleiden was accepted as a city in 1856.
The Jewish Community received its first synagogue in 1874, which was destroyed in 1938.
During the Second World War, many buildings were destroyed in Schleiden and Gemünd, and especially in the area of Wollseifen. The Nazis decided to build their "Ordensburg" Bird Song in that area. In 1946, The British Army decided to build a military training area and therefore, the 550 inhabitants of the village of Wollseifen had to leave their homeland. In 1950, the Belgian Army took over the 42 sqkm area, which makes up a third of the Schleiden city area. At the end of 2005, this area is given over to Germany and today, Germany plans to add it to the Eifel National Park.
In 1972, Schleiden was annexed to Gemünd, Dreiborn and Harperscheid vergrößert. Today, new perspectives are being opened for Schleiden as this entire area is going to be a national park.
