Countries through which people fled: Switzerland

George Czuczka was born in Vienna in 1925. He lived with his parents in Karl-Marx-Hof, where he experienced the bombardment of the building during the February Uprising in 1934. After the Anschluss, Czuczka’s father was imprisoned for several months in Dachau and Buchenwald. The family fled to the US after his release in March 1939. Czuczka would return to Europe as a soldier in the US Army and later served in Germany, Austria and India for the US Foreign Service. He lived in Washington, D.C. at the time of his interview. 

Peter Elmer was born in Vienna as Peter Epstein in 1923 and grew up in Vienna’s 13th district, where he went to primary school. At the end of 1937 he was sent to a boarding school in England and stayed there until his family emigrated at the end of 1938. They then fled to the USA via Switzerland and London, arriving in New York in January 1939. Elmer visited a private school and then the University of Wisconsin for a short time before military service with the US Army in Europe. He was later active in the textile industry in New York City where he continues to live today.

Trudy Jeremias was born Trude Epstein in 1925 and grew up and went to school in Vienna’s 13th district. She emigrated to the USA with her parents and her brother Peter in December 1938 via Switzerland and London. After working as a ground stewardess and in several other jobs, Jeremias became a jewelry designer like her mother, who was a well-known interior designer and artist. She returned to Vienna for a short period in the late 1950s before returning to New York, where she lives today. 

Peter B. Neubauer was born in Krems an der Donau in 1913. In his youth, he was active in both socialist and Zionist youth movements. Neubauer began studying medicine at Vienna University, but emigrated to Switzerland after the February Uprising in 1934 where he completed his studies at the University of Bern. He worked as an assistant physician in Switzerland before emigrating in 1941 via France, Spain, and Portugal to the USA. Neubauer became an internationally established psychiatrist and university professor. At the time of his interview, he was living in New York City.

Robert Perels was born in Vienna in 1937. In 1939, he and his mother fled from Vienna. They got as far as Marseille. Mother and son were interned in various camps before being deported to Auschwitz by train in 1942. During a layover, his mother threw him out of the train. Perels hid in French woods together with a fourteen-year-old girl until they arrived at a monastery. Perels subsequently lived with a family of farmers before managing to flee to Switzerland in 1944 with the help of a Jewish children’s aid organisation. He was adopted there and lived in Zurich. In 1947, he emigrated to Palestine, where he lived with his aunt. At the time of his interview, Perels lived in Israel.