St. Louis’ remarkable stories from the Holocaust: Fryda Bierman

Fryda Bierman

ST. LOUIS KAPLAN FELDMAN HOLOCAUST MUSEUM
Published June 29, 2021

Since 1979, Vida “Sister” Goldman Prince has been Chairman of the Oral Histories Project, at the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum. The project is dedicated to recording and preserving audio interviews of not only Holocaust Survivors, but also liberators of Nazi concentration camps and other non-Jewish witnesses living in Europe during World War II.

The museum was one of the first to begin gathering oral history projects so these voices and photographs will be displayed and future generations will continue to be witnesses to this catastrophic period of world history. In partnership with the Jewish Light, The St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is allowing us to republish a portion of these Oral Histories project as a celebration of life and a crucial part of honoring and remembering the past. Please follow the provided links to additional recordings.

A Brief Bio

Fryda Bierman was born December 15, 1929 in Lodz, Poland. She was an only child and says she was “spoiled.” She grew up in an Orthodox home, but she and her father were less observant about keeping Kosher. Together they went out and ate other food but could not bring it home.

Fryda had a good life till the Germans came. Her non-Jewish friends stopped playing with her. She lived in the Lodz ghetto, and when she was at least ten years old, she was taken to a camp and then shipped on a train to Auschwitz for a short time. She was not tattooed. She was sent to Frankfurt, Germany where she worked as a child slave laborer until the end of the war in 1945. She was liberated by American soldiers.