Holocaust Survivor

Testimony #1

Kristine Keren

In October 28, 1935 Kristine Keren was born in the town of Lwow, Poland. She had one other sibling that was her brother. When she was a child, whenever she wasn’t playing in her parents shop she was out at the park playing with all the other children like normal kids are supposed to. When the reporter asked if the friends she was playing was Jewish Kristine respond with a little confusion. It’s seems as if her parents hadn’t really informed her that she was Jewish at the time because she really couldn’t remember why she was getting pointed out. Life started to change for Kristine in 1941 when the German came to Lwow in there grey greenish outfits and here high black boots. Kristine remembers this day vividly because when they came in to their town her parents had a mixture of emotions, angry and scared. When the Germans invaded Lwow she and the other Jewish families had to leave their homes and move to the ghetto. For her family to stay safe and together they had to go into hiding in the sewer under the city. She mentions that’s she got a lot of help from a sewer worker named Socha who visited daily, bringing food and newspapers to the families that where hiding down in the sewers. Socha was their savior for the 14 months that they were in the sewer system. The family started worrying about Socha because they heard a lot of bombing above ground and didn’t see Socha for a number of days until the day when Socha came one last time and for them that was the best time. Socha had signaled to them that it was safe to come above ground. The town was rid of all German soldiers.

Quotes-

“Those are my Jews, I saved them” – Socha

The Priest told her, “pretend that she was Christian not Jewish