My name is Albert
Linder, I was born in 1936 in Chernowitz where
my parents lived on Steingasse street. My father, Samuel Linder
comes from
Kiselev and my mother Fannie Schaier comes from Banila. In June
1941 my
grandparents in Banila were killed by their neighbors in a Pogrom that
saw over
100 Jews killed in this village. In October, 1941 our family
(my
parents, 15 month old sister Yehudith and my father's parents)
was deported to a
camp in Bershad, Transnistria. We arrived in the Camp at end of
December 1941.
Within the first few weeks my sister and grandparents died of
typhus and hunger.
My parents and I returned to Chernowitz in June 1944 and soon
decided to leave
again to go to Palestine.
We spend 10 months in Bucharest waiting for our turn with the Jewish
Underground to get out of Romania to a western country for our trip
to Palestine. In April 1945 the Bricha got us into Padua, Italy
our first DP Camp. We spend 4 years in Italian DP Camps
(Padua,
Cremona and Trani) run by UNRWA.
In June 1949 We immigrated to America, where my parents had their only
surviving siblings, who came to America in the 1920's. In Italy the
Camp schools were run by Chayalim form Palestine and our
curriculum
was identical to that in Palestine and Hebrew became my daily language.
I came to America one week before my Bar Mitzvah and started High
School in the fall at Yeshiva University's Talmudical Academy High.
After High
School I went to City College of New York, where I received my
Bachelors in
Mechanical and Masters in Electrical Engineering. I spend my
professional career
with companies like ITT, RCA and IBM.
I have two daughters, both artists. My younger daughter and I went back
to Bukovina 5 years ago, where we visited Chernowitz, Kiselev, Banila
and
Bershad.
It was a memorable experience for both of us and we have many
photographs and video from this trip. This past April I shared my
experience
on Yom Hashoah with the Jewish community of Stamford, New Canaan
and
Darienin Connecticut where we live, using photographs from our
family
and the trip.