Leaving Europe

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"After Kristallnacht, which was November of ’38, my father had already talked about leaving, I think, and when that happened, he said, 'I’ve got an idea. My wife is an American citizen. We might be able to get out through her.' And he was right. 

We left in February of 1939. I forget the name of the ship. I think it was The America, but I’m not sure.

We arrived in New York, of course, where most of the ships were going, but we didn’t have to go through immigration since my mother had an American passport. We just came right in with everybody else, the non-Jews.

I remember we moved to a little suburb in New York called Cedarhurst, which is near what they call now Kennedy Airport. It was called Idlewild Airport at the time. That’s all I remember."