The Diary of a Survivor

The memoir details the separate lives of Herbert R. Ert and that of his father, Samson Reichstein. In addition to describing Ert's life in the United States, the memoir also describes Reichstein's simultaneous experiences in Nazi-occupied Europe. The author has indicated that, contrary to the text of the memoir, his mother died in Belzec, and not Bergen-Belsen, and that the Anne Frank which he mentions in his memoir was not the diarist. He mistook her for an adolescent of the same name. Samson Reichstein (1884, Russia – 1955, USA) was raised Jewish. In 1938, his son, Herbert, was able to immigrate to the United States. On 1 September 1939, Samson was in Ternopol, Poland with his wife, Kathe. After the Germans invaded Poland, Reichstein was held in the Ternopol ghetto. He was separated from his wife, who is believed to have died in Belzec. Samson was interned in a concentration camp, but later escaped. In 1946, he immigrated to the United States