David Neumann

David Neumann was born Helmut David Neumann on February 6, 1926 in Noerdlingen, Germany, where his family had lived for centuries. David’s father, Samuel, was a merchant dealing in animal hides. His mother, Betty, stayed home to take care of David and his older sister, Charlotte.

The family was observant and attended synagogue regularly. David received his education from a local Catholic school, which included a separate Jewish studies course, while the Catholic students studied their religion. Through private instruction, David learned to play the violin, and Charlotte learned the piano.

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, David watched from a window as Nazi Storm Troopers in brown shirts marched and sang on the main street. Antisemitic Nazi propaganda flowed through the radio in their home. Both David and his mother read Mein Kampf, Hitler’s autobiography that outlined his National Socialist views, including rabid antisemitism. Samuel and Betty began to worry for their family’s safety and assessed their options.

In early 1935, Samuel and Betty took a trip to Palestine, where Betty had two aunts. They made the decision to immigrate to Palestine to escape Nazi persecution. The family prepared for the trip by collecting goods in a lift van, which was to be shipped to Palestine as soon as the family was ready to depart. Later that year, the family left Germany. David’s aunt Tekla escorted the family to Triest, Italy where a boat was waiting to take them and other refugees to Palestine.

Approximately five days later, The Neumanns arrived in Palestine. David and Charlotte were immediately enrolled in school, which was challenging since neither of them spoke Hebrew. Luckily, both children had received private instruction in Germany and could therefore communicate in English. Samuel owned and operated a magazine lending company, distributing medical publications to doctor’s offices. Betty found work as an administrator.

The Neumanns received updates on their family in Germany occasionally by mail distributed by the Red Cross and learned about Nazi atrocities on the radio. Many attempts were made to help their family members immigrate to Palestine, but bureaucratic roadblocks prevented their success; the Neumanns were unable to obtain visas for their extended family. David’s two grandmothers, as well as an uncle and an aunt, were deported to Auschwitz and murdered.

While in Palestine, David served in the Jewish Settlement Police and as a member of the Haganah, a Zionist military organization representing the Jews in Palestine. In 1947, David left for the United States to study electrical engineering at the City College of New York. It was there that he met his wife, Johanna, who was also a Holocaust survivor. The couple had four children and settled in Boston, where David studied and worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In the late 1970’s David moved his family to Israel, where they lived for almost twenty years. The family relocated to the Washington, D.C. area in 1990 where David found work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and then the Federal Aviation Administration. David now volunteers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.