Anna Lindeman

"It should never happen again. I always believed that G-d would help."

Name at birth

Anna Zydower

Date of birth

08/05/1931

Where were you born?

Furstenwalde, Germany

Where did you grow up?

Furstenwalde, Germany

Name of father, occupation

Hugo, De-furred goats

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Erna Placedj, Homemaker

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents, Alfred and I

How many in entire extended family?

Many

Who survived the Holocaust?

My parents, my brother Alfred, me, my father's three brothers and my father's parents. We all went to Shanghai, China.

After Kristallnacht, we were no longer able to attend regular school in Furstenwalde. I then went to a Jewish school in Frankfurt which was about a half an hour away.

With the help of the Joint (JDC), my family members were able to get an affidavit to go to Shanghai, China. In August, 1940, I left Germany for Shanghai. My parents, my brother Alfred and me did not look Jewish. I was 9 years old when we left.

We went by train through Russia on our way to China. The windows of the train were covered with paper and we could not see. We sent through Siberia to Harbin, China. We arrived in Shanghai in June or September, 1940.

In Shanghai, we lived in the ghetto. There were about 20,000 Jews in the ghetto. It was dirty, and there was no running water. We had no money because we sold everything we had to survive. We had to pay for hot water. I learned to sew and became a dressmaker. My brother, Alfred, became a baker. The Americans came into China in 1945.

Name of Ghetto(s)

Shanghai

Where were you in the Former Soviet Union?

We passed through by train on the way to China

When did you come to the United States?

We came to Detroit in 1948

Where did you settle?

Detroit, Michigan

How is it that you came to Michigan?

We were sent here because my brother and I both had trades, I was a seamstress and my brother was a baker. The resettlement agency thought Detroit would be a good place for us.

Occupation after the war

Seamstress

When and where were you married?

1955 in Detroit

Spouse

Gunther Lindeman, Baker

Children

Susan, real estate Deborah, nursery school teacher

Grandchildren

Six: Michael, Sarah, Robert, Jason, Heather and James

What do you think helped you to survive?

Hope.