Edith Loeb was born December 31, 1927 in Bruchsal, Germany, not too far from the border with France. From her accounts and memories, Edith was living a good life; her father had a store, and she and her brother went to school and the family was doing well. As the 1930s and the Nazi ideology and Hitler became entrenched the situation deteriorated: Edith was no longer allowed to attend school, and she began to deal with ever-mounting restrictions. Her father had managed to go to the U.S. and was hoping to bring the family over, but they got caught up in the unfolding events. Edith witnessed Kristallnacht, and in short order she was deported along with her remaining family to France, where they ended up in the Gurs internment camp. Edith’s mother arranged to surrender Edith to the OSE, an organization that protected Jewish children, and Edith was consequently able to survive the war. Her mother – suffering from a hernia – was deported to Drancy and then Auschwitz, and she died in uncertain circumstances during that ordeal. Edith’s brother Heinz had been left with family in Germany, and he was deported to and murdered in Auschwitz. After the war, Edith was able to make her way to the United States in early 1946, where she met Kurt and built a new life. Edith was joined in this conversation by her daughter Deborah Stueber, who offers a second-generation explanation of her parents’ trauma. Crestwood students were able to zoom with Edith and her husband Kurt Leuchter in December 2023.
