Frieda Kliger was born in Warsaw into a religious - orthodox family in 1921. She had a younger brother who passed away suddenly in the early 1930’s and two older sisters. One of her sisters was married and had a young son (Lutek).
With the outbreak of WWII and the occupation of Warsaw by the Germans, schools closed down. The persecution of the Jews intensified.
In Nov. 1940, the ghetto was created and the living conditions deteriorated. Frieda and her sisters survived the “Great Deportation” from Warsaw in the summer of 1942. Her father was deported to Treblinka and murdered there.
In April 1943, with the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto revolt, Frieda and her sisters found refuge in one of the bunkers. In May 1943, they were caught by the Germans and sent to the Majdanek death camp where her married sister and son were murdered. In the summer of 1943 Frieda and her surviving sister were transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. In Dec. 1944 they were sent on a ”death march” to Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany. In Jan. 1945 Frieda and her sister were transferred to Bergen Belsen. They were liberated by the British Army on April 15, 1945.
Frieda met another Holocaust survivor (Romek) at the DP camp of Bergen Belsen and together they had the first Jewish wedding in this camp on Dec. 18, 1945. They came on Aliyah to Israel in 1948 and both served in the War of Independence. Frieda has 2 children, 4 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren.
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