Charles Stein

Born November 28, 1919, in Vienna, Austria

Charles was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria. In 1937, Charles was admitted to the Medical School of the University of Vienna. When the Germans marched onto Austria and arrived in Vienna on March 13, 1938, Jews were no longer permitted to study at the University, and Charles began to search for a way to get out of Austria, now a part of Germany. By August 1938, he had found a way to leave, and on August 12 he said his last goodbye to his parents and fled to Luxembourg.

1. What do you know about the Holocaust? Kristallnacht?

Oh, the Kristallnacht was a bad day for me too. I was in Luxemburg, and I had already fled but my parents were there and I was worried about them. So, we found out that Hitler had let loose all of his storm troopers and even children your age and had destroyed all the synagogues and every Jewish store. About 30,000 people arrested and a 1000 killed.

2. Why do you think the Kristallnacht happened (From your viewpoint)?

Hitler wanted to destroy the Jews completely. Hitler let loose all his forces and told the Nazis to kill them. 1,000 people killed, 1000 synagogues destroyed, and 30,000 arrested and dragged off the street to concentration camps for no reasons but that they had a different religion.

3. Do you think it was fair for it to happen or do you think the death of Vom Rath helped achieve the German's goals of wiping out the Jewish race?
People get killed everywhere and it may be fair or not, but the death of 6 million people just for one lousy German I would absolutely say no. The fact that the Polish boy went to kill the man was wrong, but I can see what happened to him. They killed his family and he went crazy and did what he did.

4. Were you or someone close to you alive during the Kristallnacht? If you were, what are your experiences during the Holocaust and or Kristallnacht?
All of the Jews in Vienna including my entire family were deported to the large ghetto in Poland. There, in 1941 or 1942 they were all killed. My parents were in fact in the first group to get killed. Auschwitz wasn't eve finished yet but then in the summer they started taking people there to kill them. My entire family died during this.

5. Where exactly were you during the Kristallnacht/Holocaust? If you were there, when people were breaking into your home did you try to hide or escape?
I was in Luxemburg and i had already left. My family was still there though.

6. If you were alive during the Holocaust, did you know anything about Hitler or why the Kristallnacht was happening during the time?
Hitler wanted to kill the Jews. The man was crazy. That is not even a question.

7. Once Hitler killed himself and the Nazis left all the concentration camps, did you try to escape? Did anybody know what was going on?
I was never in a concentration camp. The Nazis were looking for me so I was in hiding for a long time.

8. What were you told to do once they first captured?

I was never in a concentration camp.

9. Were you captured or assaulted during the Kristallnacht/Holocaust? If so, were you taken to a concentration camp and which one?
No, i wasn't.

10.If you were in a concentration camp, what happened once you got there? Did they take people to death row such as gas chambers?
My entire family was taken to gas chambers and was killed in February of 1942. They started taking people to specially made vans which would gas people. Then they took them to a place called Helmno and dumped all the dead bodies there.

11.Did you have to live in any ghettos? If so were you in the good part or bad part of the ghetto?

12.What did you have to do in the concentration camp? Did you or any of your family try to escape?
My family never escaped and not many people did either. Most died right there.

13.Was your family also taken? If so, what happened to them once you got there?

My family was taken and they were killed at the concentration camps almost immediately and dumped in a mass grave of about 1000 people.

14.What are your most vivid memories?

My most vivid memories are saying goodbye to my parents at the railway station in Vienna. That was very hard. I was hoping to make it out of Germany alive and i was not thinking of my family at the time i left.

15.Do you think the Kristallnacht or Holocaust was a major turning point in history?
Yes, it was the beginning of the mass killing and by 1942 it started speeding up and they finally gave the order to kill them all. For example, my uncle died in a concentration camp in 1938 before it started speeding up.

16.How do you think the Nazis felt about the Holocaust?

I think the Nazis felt really good about the Holocaust. They felt like it was having fun.

17.Did this experience change your life?

It changed my life, location, job which I was going to become a doctor but never did. My family died and i was in a lot of pain.

18.What do you think that the world thought about the Kristallnacht?
The world didn't care about the Kristallnacht. They just watched it happen. For example, the ship, St. Louis full of people escaping an when they tried to enter, everyone said no. They had to go back and most of them died then.