Jolanda Bass (F / Poland / Italy, 1943), Holocaust survivor
Jolanda Bass (F / Poland / Italy, 1943), Holocaust survivor
Joachim Bass (M / Poland / Switzerland, 1932), Holocaust survivor
Susanna Bass (F / Poland / United States, 1945), Holocaust survivor
- KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <Genoa> <Potenza> / <Fort Ontario> <United States>
Biography
Joachim (Enrico, Jack) Bass (Bern, Switzerland Jan 11, 1932), Jolanda (Gloria) Bass (May 14, 1943), and Susanna (Feb 10, 1945) were the children of Eva Ebel Bass. Joachim was born in Bern, Switzerland, but raised in France (in 1934-37) and in Genoa, Italy (after 1937). During the war they were sent to internment camps (Potenza (Aug 1940), Ferramonti and Corleto Perticara (Apr 1943), where Yolanda was born. Somehow during the war, the family was separated from the father and would never see him again. Mother and children were liberated in September 1943, with the arrival of the Allies. They went to Fort Ontario. Mother was pregnant again and Susanna was born in the refugee center. Officials there believed mother was not mentally or physically strong enough to care for a newborn baby. Susanna was given in adoption and the family has never heard from her again.
USHMM Oral History Collection
Gloria Fredkove (née Yolanda Bass), born in Italy in May 1943, describes growing up on the lower East Side of New York; her mother dying in 1971; moving to Colorado at age 29; getting married; moving to Minnesota in 1975; her mother’s upbringing as an ultra-orthodox Jew in Poland before World War II; her mother making a living as a singer in France during the war and escaping to Italy during the German occupation of France; her mother’s siblings perishing in concentration camps; how she, her grandparents, mother, and brother are the only survivors of her family; her mother’s imprisonment in Italy; blocking a lot of the information her mother told her; having a sister who had been adopted; her mother giving birth in 1945 in a shelter in Oswego, NY; life after coming to the United States; feeling isolated and ostracized; her mother being a rebellious youth but retaining her faith; her reluctance to talk about the Holocaust; experiencing survivor’s guilt; attending a meeting of children of survivors; writing about the Holocaust; what her mother told her about her father; being in contact with Ruth Gruber, who wrote a book (Haven) that includes a picture of herself with her mother and brother; her mother’s love for the US; changing her name when she became a citizen; trying to locate her sister Susanah; feeling that she missed out on her childhood; antisemitism; and not telling her children much about the Holocaust.
Article by Jamie Jenson (18 May 2018)
After more than 70 years, 2 World War II refugees return to their safe haven in Oswego
70th Anniversary Reunion of WWII Jewish Refugee Haven at Fort Ontario, Oswego, NY
Gloria Fredkove sits outside Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum in Oswego on Friday, May 18, 2018. Fredkove and her family arrived in Oswego as refugees fleeing Europe during World War II.
In August 1944, Gloria Fredkove arrived in Oswego with her mother, brother, grandmother and other Jewish refugees fleeing war-ravaged Europe and Nazi death camps.
For 18 months during World War II, Oswego's Fort Ontario would be home for her and more than 980 other refugees from the war.
On Friday, Fredkove, now 75, returned to Oswego for the first time.
"Oh my God," she whispered as she walked into Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum, which is dedicated to remembering the refugees who stayed in Oswego during World War II.
Coming back to Oswego and seeing the museum was something she said she always wanted to do.
"I wish my mom could have been around to see how momentous and historic this was, and how her struggles wound up in victory over the Nazis, and that we're here to tell our stories and to tell the future generations what happened," Fredkove said through tears.
Fredkove and her brother, Jake Bass, returned to Oswego Friday for the Oswego Sunrise Rotary Club and the Safe Haven museum's fourth annual fundraiser. They both planned to speak at the event this evening.
Kevin Hill, president of the board of directors at Safe Haven, said Oswego played a vital role in American history during the war.
"We lose sight of the history, the importance of Oswego, and I think when we have refugees come back to the area, it reminds us of the humanity and the good that comes out of people," he said.
The shelter, officially called the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, was the first and only refugee center established during World War II in the United States for Jewish refugees fleeing World War II.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered its establishment in June 1944, and two months later, the refugees left Italy and arrived in ships at Fort Ontario.
Because Roosevelt had circumvented the strict immigration laws, the refugees had no legal standing in the country. They were kept behind fence and barbed wire at Fort Ontario, forbidden from leaving. They were "guests" expected to return to Europe after the war.
Back in 1944, Fredkove -- then Yolanda Bass, 15 months old, who would later be renamed Gloria -- was waiting in an internment camp in Italy trying to survive along with thousands of other refugees. Her maternal grandfather would die in the camp. Somehow during the war, her family was separated from her father and would never see him again.
The fate of the surviving family - Fredkove, her mother, Eva Bass; her brother, Joachim Bass, 12; and her grandmother - was determined by a lottery: The winners got to come to the United States.
They were the few lucky ones: It is estimated that around six million Jews were killed in World War II during the Holocaust.
Fredkove and her family made the trip by ship, arriving in Oswego with the other refugees to the new home, the refugee center.
Her mother was pregnant when the family fled Italy, and her sister, Susanna, was born in the refugee center.
Officials there believed her mother was not mentally or physically strong enough to care for a newborn baby, Fredkove said. Her sister was given to a childless family in Buffalo and the family has never heard from her again.
When the shelter closed in February 1946, President Harry S. Truman permitted them legal entry into the United States; the refugees could choose to return to Europe or stay in the U.S. Fredkove and her family moved to New York City.
Her grandmother died a few years later, and her mother, who suffered from heart problems for most of her life, died in the 1970s.
After her mother's death, Fredkove met her husband, Joe Fredkove, and moved with him to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where her brother also lives. She and Joe have identical sons, Jonathan and David, and three grandchildren.
On Friday Fredkove said she was excited and nervous to speak at the museum event, but she thinks it's necessary to tell her story.
"It's an opportunity to thank the city of Oswego. It's an opportunity to remind people of their own history here in the 1940s and for what they did for us and what we went through," she said.