Sonja Geismar

Born in Boden, Germany, in 1935, she was an only child before the war, with her sister being born later in America. At just four years old, she remembers the terror of Kristallnacht. In May-June 1939, she and her family boarded the St. Louis, a ship carrying Jewish refugees, but they were not allowed to disembark in Cuba and had to return to Europe, where the passengers were divided among four countries.