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On September 4th, 1925 I was born in Berlin.
Hi, my name is Barbara Ledermann. I was born on September 4th, 1925 in Berlin. I have two parents, Frank and Ilse Ledermann. -
This is my sister, Susanne Ledermann.
This is my sister Susanne. Susanne is younger than me and loves to play with kids in the neighborhood, and dolls. -
We've Moved!
In 1933 we picked up and moved to a small apartment in Amsterdam, Neatherlands. -
The Neighborhood Kids.
I met Margot Frank, a German girl whose family story was similar to hers. We became best friends. Margots' sister Anne was very curious, quirky, funny, and interested in absolutely everything. We would talk about the arts, and dancing. -
Deportation-Lets Go!
I remember a German voice on the loud-speakers that mumbled through Amsterdam. It ordered Jews to prepare themselves for transfer to the Nazis Westerbork collection camp in the cold northeastern corner of the Neatherlands. Luckily I escaped by leaving home months earlier with my parents support. I eventually got a false ID. The manordered that, "All of the Jews just come down the stairs and clim on the trucks." And they did.... -
News of My Family.
My family was shipped by rail out of Westerbork to their final destination. My mother managed to write me a letter, "My darling, we are about to depart on our first long journey in a long time. My little Barbara, we will see each other again." I later found out that my family was killed on November 19th, 1943 the day that they arrived at the gas chambers at Auschwitz. -
My Life in Hiding..
My name was Barabara Waartsetter when I was in hiding. I had blonde hair and blue eyes which made me look Aryan. Because of this I was able to help other Jews in hiding. -
Friends from the past.
I met with Otto Frank in Amsterdam 1945. He too, still hoped his family had survived the death camps as he had survived. When Anne's diary was published in 1947, Otto brought me a copy of the 1st edition. I visited Otto several times in Basil, Switzerland in the late 1960's and kept up with him until he died in 1980 at the age of 91. -
After the War..
I left Amsterdam in November 1947, and resettled with family friends in Long Island Ny. I later relocated to Baltimore, where I met a brilliant student named Martin Rodwell. We were married in 1950, and he later won a Noble Prize for Medicine of Physiology in 1944. We had 4 children and moved to Chapel Hill in 1985, so that Martin could work with the National Institute of Enviromental Health Science.
