Phelps2007 - Barbara Ledermann Rodbell

Barbara Ledermann Rodbell
Roxanne Light

*Survivor of the Holocaust*
Family Background

emigrated to the U.S. in Nov. 1943
continued dancing, acting, and modeling
joined Ringling Brothers Circus
quit circus b/c of travel and got job in Baltimore, Maryland selling cosemetics
met Martin Rodbell and had four children..."two for me and two for my sister ."
found out parents and sister died in the ovens of Auswitzch on November 19
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1994/rodbell-autobio.html
http://www.texnews.com/1998/religion/frank1114.html

Quotes

"I had always been willful and very much my own person. If I believed in something, I treid to follow up on it."

"My father just didn't want to believe like that [genocide of the Jews] was possible-its very understandable. He just couldn't believe the humanistic Germans he knew would do such a thing."

I was exactly the right age to be on my own. If I had been younger, like my sister, I would have stayed with my parents. If I were older with children, I just don't know how I could have done it."

"If somebody would stop you, you could show the papers and a big smile, with the make-up still on, and it worked. I know I was scared and worried about it, but it never stopped me."

"All the Jews just cane down the stairs and climbed on trucks. Its very tempting to follow suit if everybody does what they are told."

"The big thing was 'the Americans will come,the Americans will come, the Americans will come."

Barbara's Message for Teenagers Today