HERZOG HISTORY
"We survived and we are here. And the Nazis are not" - Godofredo Herzog
How we went about it all
THE JOURNEY
Growing up Jewish, you learn about the holidays and history of the Jews. Part of that history is World War II and the Holocaust. Learning about the history of how six million Jews and other minorities were persecuted in a classroom is interesting and knowing that it happened to my ancestors made it more worthy of attention during class. Throughout my schooling I learned about many Holocaust stories through reading the book Night by Elie Wiesel and the Diary of Anne Frank, going to different Holocaust museums and hearing survivors speak about their times in concentration camps.
All of those stories intrigued me, but the one in particular was closest to my heart and that was the story of how my family escaped. I had been told the stories of my grandma and grandpa many times and every time I would listen with curiosity and intent as I sat on the floor in front of them.
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My grandparents survived by escaping Europe before they were brought to the ghettos or concentration camps. They went to Bolivia because Latin America was accepting more Jewish immigrants than the United States. Most countries either stopped accepting immigrants or limited their acceptance during the war. Bolivia had one of the higher acceptance rates of Jews, which is part of the reason they went there. Many Jews immigrated to Bolivia and other Latin American countries because they were accepting many more Jews and immigrants during World War II than other countries.
This project started because my family wanted to record our history before the storytellers couldn’t tell the story anymore. My grandpa and I planned a two-week trip to the last detail, following his Holocaust escape. We went to his childhood home in Chemnitz, Germany, where his parents and grandparents lived in Munich and where my grandma’s sister passed away in Bratislava, Slovakia. My grandpa took me back in time and although many places don’t exist anymore because they were destroyed during World War II, it brought back so many memories for him. This is the Herzog history.
Godofredo Herzog tells the story of how his life changed during the Holocaust and how he and his family escaped.
Map of the History
CONTACT ME
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The memorial remembering where the old synagogue once was.
Wide shot of where the synagogue was.
The memorial looks like barbed wire, but also people. It symbolizes the prisoners' bodies who died of disease and starvation in the camp.
The memorial remembering where the old synagogue once was.