Elisabeth Kaufmann (nonfiction)
Elisabeth Kaufmann (later Elizabeth Koenig) was an Austrian citizen who kept a diary of her experiences during the Second World War.
Biography
Elisabeth Kaufmann was born on March 7, 1924, to a cultured and established family. She spent her early childhood years in Vienna with her parents and her older brother Peter. After the German takeover of Austria in 1938, Jews were stripped of their rights. As a result, Elisabeth's family fled from Austria to Paris, living like thousands of others as refugees.
With the start of World War II in September 1939, xenophobia grew across Europe, and the Germans and Austrians who had originally fled to northern France and Paris to escape Nazi occupation were now declared enemy aliens, rounded up by French police, and sent to internment camps. Among them were Elisabeth's father and brother.
By May 1940, with the German occupation of France imminent, Elisabeth and her mother, along with thousands of other refugees and French citizens, headed south. Elisabeth and her parents found safety in the town of Saint Sauveur par Bellac, in an area ruled by the Vichy government. Several months later, with the assistance of a family friend, Elisabeth worked in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, the Protestant village in southern France where thousands of Jews, especially children, were given refuge during the war.
By the fall of 1941, Elisabeth's parents had obtained visas to travel to America. The family arrived in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in early 1942. Her extended family—grandparents, aunts, and uncles—were equally fortunate and escaped occupied Europe and survived the Holocaust.