Maurice Diamont - survivor testimony
When Maurice Diamont was ten he was frightened by a Nazi parade. He had grown up in Frankfurt, Germany, in a completely Jewish world. His family fled to Italy where he was safe until the Germans came in 1943. After that, it was a nightmare. . . . Here are his comment about arriving in New York.
New York, however, looked to us like a madhouse. On the one hand we were exhilarated by the freedom of going around without carrying papers, without worrying about being stopped and asked for working permits. On the other hand there were things that frightened and disappointed me. I was an avid reader of newspapers and went through The New York Times on my way to work. I quickly found out about McCarthy and was really horrified because I saw overtones of the things I thought I had left behind. I remember one morning noticing that the man sitting next to me had hidden his Daily Worker in the pages of a New York Times. Coming from Italy, where everything was out in the open and there was freedom to discuss every philosophy and political possibility, I was not prepared to see people in free America scared of believing in some things.
EXCERPTS FROM SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES - THE POSTWAR EXPERIENCE
Maurice Diamont - arrival in New York Bernard Brown - taking care of others Rochella Velt Meekcoms - do you like yourself? Claude Cassirer - abhors aggressiveness Stephan Ross - always irons in the fire