Masha Loen

Masha Loen / Masha Supporzhnikov (F / Lithuania, 1930), Holocaust survivor.

• <Kovno Ghetto> <Stutthof> <Death March> -- <United States>

USHMM Oral Interviews

Masha Loen, born in July 1930 in Kaunas, Lithuania, describes growing up in a religious family with three sisters; her father hiding her family and other Kaunas Jews under the wooden floor planks in his home; being separated from her family in 1941 and taken to the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland; performing forced labor in Stutthof until 1945, when she was taken on a death march as Russian troops approached the camp; making it to a Russian hospital after the German soldiers abandoned the death march; traveling to Łódź, where she found her father who had been liberated from Dachau; taking a transport to Austria; and immigrating to New Orleans, LA in 1949.

Masha Supporzhnikov Loen, born in July 28, 1930 in Kaunas, Lithuania, discusses her liberation from Stutthof by Russian forces; her life while working for the Russian forces in Regenwald; reuniting with her father in Łódź, Poland; getting engaged to a Russian soldier; moving to Austria; meeting her future husband; working for Bricha; how she helped to smuggle people out Poland; getting married; attending art school; immigrating to the United States; arriving in New Orleans, LA; moving to Los Angeles, CA; her experiences working in the fashion industry; starting a family; her views on Simon Wiesenthal; her work with the Holocaust museum in Los Angeles; her views on religion; American politics; helping to establish the Gateway of Mental Health Hospital; her work with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; her opinions on the personalities of Holocaust survivors; her poetry; going back to Europe; her view of Israel; and the importance of remembering the Holocaust.