How I Survived the Holocaust: Rita Teper Schwartz's Story

Rita Teper Schwartz was just 10 years old when Hitler’s Nazi troops marched into her hometown of Vienna, Austria. Immediately, her life changed and this young girl repeatedly found herself confronting adult, life-threatening situations. The story of her family’s escape from the Nazis’ murderous clutches has more twist and turns than a modern-day soap opera. This narrative describes her harrowing journey smuggling across the Belgian border, where her family’s 18-month wait for papers to immigrate to the United States ended just as Hitler was to invade Belgium. This book not only talks about Rita Teper Schwartz’s immediate family, but discusses her extended family as well. Some traveled to safety to the United States, while the Nazis murdered others, and one managed to survive internment in two concentration camps. Pictures and a family tree of her extended family are included, as well as government issued documents: such as a work permit, passport, several identification cards, a U. S. immigration identification card and citizenship papers. This book is not only a glimpse of one family’s terror and suffering inflicted by the cruelty of Nazi oppression, but is also an inspiring story of escape and survival.