Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with Helene Ejbuszyc Diamant
Date:
2005
Interviewer:
Tannenbaum, Karen
Interviewee:
Diamant, Helene Ejbuszyc
Description:
Helene Ejbuszyc Diamant, born in Warsaw, Poland, immigrated to Paris, France, as an infant with her parents, grandparents, and brother. She was in high school when the Germans invaded France in May 1940. Her father fled with an uncle and was never heard from again. Helene describes how she and her mother were arrested by the local police and detained at the internment camp in Drancy, near Paris, and released once she showed her work papers. Her brother was also detained at Drancy; during the interview, Helene reads a postcard he sent from the camp to inform them that he was leaving soon “for an unknown destination.” Sometime in late 1943 or early 1944, Helene and her mother fled with her grandparents, an aunt and uncle, and two cousins to Aix-les-Bains in France’s so-called free zone, where they spent nearly a year before escaping to Lugano, Switzerland. She met and married her husband, Maurice Diamant, in Lugano, and they immigrated to the United States in 1948.
Helene Ejbuszyc Diamant, audio interview by Karen Tannenbaum, 12 May 2005, Mss 1035-296, Special Collections, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA.
