Evelyn Bergl / Evelyn Arzt (F / Austria, 1931-2020), Holocaust survivor

Evelyn Bergl / Evelyn Arzt (F / Austria, 1931-2020), Holocaust survivor

Henry Artz / Heinz Arzt (M / Austria, 1927-2001), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <Italy> <Ferramonti> <Hidden Children, Italy>

Biography

Evelyn Arzt was born Aug 4, 1931 in Vienna, Austria. Her father was a sales executive for a large fabric factory. Her mother was a homemaker. On Kristallnacht, 6-year-old Eveyn saw the synagogue burning. Her father was arrested and spent nearly one year in Dachau and Buchenwald. The entire family moved to Italy, to Milan and Genoa.

In 1940 Evelyn's father was sent to Campagna, while the mother and the two children went to KZ Potenza (loc. Viggiano). The entire family was reunited at Ferramonti. Later the family was transferred to KZ Grosseto (loc. Civitella Paganico, Pari). There, after Sept 8, 1943 the family survived with the help of the local population.

After the war, they were sent to DP Rome at Cinecittà. They came to the United States in 1947. Evelyn married Zdenko Bergl and lived in Kansas City, Missouri.

USHMM Oral Interview

Evelyn Arzt Bergl, born in 1931 in Vienna, Austria, discusses her childhood; her father's arrest and imprisonment in the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps; her father's release due to her mother's efforts; her father's escape to Milan, Italy with a passport her mother obtained for him; her, her mother, and her brother joining her father in Milan; traveling to Ventimiglia, Italy and paying guides to cross over to France; traveling to Genoa, Italy and being cared for by the Jewish community there; being sent with her mother and brother to Veggiano, Italy by the Italian government; being reunited with her father in the Ferramonti concentration camp; life in the camp; the closing of the camp and moving to Bari <sic! Pari>, Italy, where her father and brother worked as agricultural laborers; her apprenticeship to dressmakers in Bari <sic! Pari>; being informed that Germans were coming to Bari and fleeing into the forest; the help that they received from citizens in Bari <sic! Pari>; liberation by French and Moroccan soldiers and partisans; life in the Cinecittà displaced persons camp and meeting her future husband there; and immigrating to the United States and living in New York.

Midwest Center for Holocaust Education

Evelyn Arzt was born in Vienna in 1931. On Kristallnacht, her father was arrested. After nearly a year in Buchenwald and Dachau, he was released on condition that he leave Austria in 24 hours. He made his way to Milan, where Evelyn, her mother and her brother joined him. Unable to reach France, they were in Genoa when the war started. After a period of separation, the family was reunited in an Italian concentration camp and then hid in the Siena woods for a year. After liberation, they lived in the Cinecittá displaced persons camp in Rome. They came to the United States in 1947, settling in Brooklyn, where Evelyn married Zdenko (John) Bergl whom she had met in Rome and who had settled in Kansas City.