The daughter of two survivors, Naomi tells the stories of her parents from primary source documents and historical records. 

Naomi is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors.   She tells the stories of both of her parents with details from primary source documents and historical records.  Their survival is truly remarkable.

In 1938, Naomi’s father Eric Weiss, attended a rally in Vienna after the Germans occupied Austria.  He sensed that he had to get his parents out of Vienna and escape himself.  He arranged for his parents to take an Eastern escape route through Russia to Yokahama, Japan and finall y to Portland, Oregon.  Eric’s acceptance to the Hebrew University allowed him to leave Germany for what was then Palestine under British rule (now Israel).  While in Palestine, Eric was recruited to work for as a spy for the British and traveled to Egypt, Algiers, Tunisia, Libya, and Italy in that capacity. He served from 1939-1944.

Naomi’s mother, Gerda Feldmann, was born in 1923 in a small town in what is now the Czech Republic.  The Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 when Gerda was 16.  She was sent to a series of slave labor camps in Poland and was finally liberated by British forces at Bergen-Belsen.  Gerda, ill with typhus, was sent by the Red Cross to Sweden to recuperate, and eventually she too arrived in Palestine.

Gerda and Eric met in Israel, but Eric left in 1950, traveling to Portland to reunite with his parents.  Gerda followed and they were married in 1950.  Naomi grew up in Portland hearing parts of these stories.  Her mother died when Naomi was 17, but her father lived to be 100.

Naomi calls her story, “Resilience: My Family Story.”  She gathered all the documents and pictures she could find, consulted with relatives, and researched many details of this story.  Her hope, as one of the Holocaust Center’s Legacy Speakers, is to reach young people and help them to understand the way our lives can be threatened, and what each one of us can do to make a difference.