Presented by The Foundation of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation
Hilde Beretz Smissman
I was born in Cologne, Germany in 1920. My parents owned a small business. We went to synagogue regularly. Our city was a friendly mix of Jews, Catholics and Protestants. It was customary for all of us to go to Christmas mass together, regardless of our faith. That all changed two days after Kristallnacht on November 11, 1938. My mother and I quickly left the city and were on the run until the end of World War II. My father had left for South America in 1936 in the hopes of making a better life for all of us. I learned later that he had died in Bolivia in 1942 from a deadly disease.
Hilde Smissman with her crocheted dolls
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