Names Not Numbers

Marlit Berger Wandel

Recklinghausen, Germany

Auschwitz Concentration Camp

1930

Marlit Berger Wandel

Recklinghausen, Germany

1930

Marlit was born on December 22, 1930, in Recklinghausen (Uhr Gebiet), Germany. In 1933, her family moved back to Stettin, Germany, Ander Oder. Her father, Ephraim Berger, was a successful textile merchant, while her mother, Pepi Lieder, was a housewife. Marlit grew up with four siblings: Felix, Judi, Edu, and Yoachim.

In October 1938, the Gestapo came to their home seeking to incarcerate men, forcing Marlit’s father to flee, never to be seen again. That same month, the family was forcibly shipped to Bydgoszcz, Poland, and by 1939, they were in Radom, Poland.

From 1940 to 1942, they were confined to the Radom ("Shoppen") Ghetto, where the Jewish population drastically reduced from 300,000 to 30,000. Life in the ghetto was harsh, with random arrests and deportations being common. To survive, Marlit’s mother became the official corsetière in the ghetto, using her fluent German to custom-fit German women.

In 1942, the Radom Ghetto was liquidated, and30,000 people were sent to concentration camps. In 1943, Marlit and her family were sent to Majdanek, a concentration camp near Lublin, where she was separated from her brothers but remained with her mother and sisters.

‍

In March 1944, they were transferred to Plaszow, a forced labor camp near Krakow, Poland.

By June 1944, they were shipped to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Marlit endured a death march while wearing two left shoes.

After liberation, Marlit, her mother, and sisters made their way to Leipzig and discovered that two cousins had survived in Buchenwald. Eventually, they found refuge in Switzerland and arrived in the USA on April 8, 1946, settling in Brooklyn. Marlit met her future husband, Arnold Wandel, in 1950.

‍