“There were good Christian people who helped us—and they would have put their life on the line had they been found out by the Nazis.” -Anneliese Yosafat
In this episode, Holocaust survivor Anneliese Yosafat shares her journey of surviving in hiding, resilience, and her parents’ struggle over when and how it was safe for them to reveal their Jewish identity.
Anneliese was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1937, as the Nazi party ascended to total power over the country. Her family was notified of their impending deportation in 1942 and her parents made the choice to go into hiding. They hid with 13 different families until her father, Walter, invented a story that they were Christians from Mannheim who had lost all their identification papers in a bombing. He obtained false identification papers and was employed in a government position in Blundez, Austria, through the end of the war.
The trauma of war gave way to Anneliese building a new life in the United States. She was married for 66 years to her husband Matt, a fellow survivor, who shared her commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education.
This episode is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling. Subscribe here https://www.youtube.com/@holocaustandhumanity
Our gratitude to Margaret & Michael Valentine for their ongoing support of this series.
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Episode Resources
Visit us in person in Cincinnati’s historic Union Terminal or online
https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/
Learn about John & Michelle Otten, winners of the Anneliese & Matt Yosafat Award for Love at the 2025 Upstander Awards
https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/podcast-episode/hear-my-story-john-otten/
