Anita Etzyon (F / Poland, 1941), Holocaust survivor

Anita Etzyon (F / Poland, 1941), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Hidden Children>

Biography

Anita Etzyon was born October 4, 1941 in Boryslav, Poland (now Ukraine). She survived in hiding, hosted by a Christian family. Was reunited with her father after the war. Emigrated to Israel and then the United States.

USHMM Oral History Collection

Anita Etzyon, born on October 4, 1941 in Boryslav, Poland (present day Ukraine), describes her family and childhood; being one year old when her mother died from tuberculosis; having few direct memories of the war but being told about her family’s life during that time; being taken away to live with a Christian family and getting baptized to better fit into her surroundings; returning to live with her father, who had remarried, after the war; living in a Jewish neighborhood and attending a Jewish school; moving to various cities around Poland with her father and step-mother; being the only Jew in her school in Swidnica, Poland; adjusting to life as a Jew after she had spent four years as a Christian; immigrating to Israel in 1951; learning Hebrew and adjusting to life in Israel; getting married to avoid serving in the Israeli Army; having a daughter; immigrating to the United States with her husband and daughter 1963; settling in Washington, DC and working for a Jewish Day School; and her reflections on being a Jew in the modern world.