Gertrude Schweitzer was born in Vienna, Austria on August 15, 1914 to Leah and Isaac Burger. She had one brother, Yosef, who was three years older. After the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938, she was walking to get a pastry with her brother when Nazi soldiers appeared and arrested him. He was sent to a labor camp and then to Auschwitz. He left behind a son, Herbert, who was nine years old, and his wife, Elsa. Gertrude’s parents were taken to the Lodz ghetto, but she escaped being sent there with them. The people in charge of the apartment where she lived saved her life. They told the arresting soldiers that Gertrude was sick and in the hospital. When a soldier returned after she came home from the hospital, he did not take her because she was still recovering from surgery. Gertrude attempted to find Elsa and Herbert, but, as she later found out, they were also taken to the Lodz ghetto and murdered.
Gertrude had an influential relative who was able to get her to England, where she lived for three years. She then immigrated to New York on a Greek ship that took six weeks to arrive. There were only six passengers and no beds. Gertrude slept on a couch with a life preserver. She arrived in New York on her birthday. She was reunited with Lee Schweitzer, whom she had known in Vienna, and who helped secure her arrival in the United States. They were married on August 29, 1942.
Gertrude and Lee lived in New York for eight years and had their son, Jeffrey, there. They moved to Amarillo, Texas and then eventually to El Paso. Gertrude died on June 24, 2006.
Connecting Stories: Lee Schweitzer