Skip to main content

Fanny and George Borenstein interview and transcript, February 22, 1990

 File — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SJOH/1

Scope and contents note

From the Series:

Series is comprised of audiotapes and printed transcripts of the interviews.

Dates

  • February 22, 1990

Language of Materials

From the Collection:

Most of the interviews are in English but a number of them are in German.

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the administrative files is restricted and also to some of the interviews. Contact staff for further information.

Biographical note

George Borenstein was born in Warsaw and was a Polish soldier when the Germans invaded in 1939. He fled to Vilna in Lithuania and was able to get a transit visa through the Soviet Union from Sugihara, the Japanese Consul in Kovno, along with more than one thousand other Jewish refugees. After a brief stay in Japan, Borenstein and the others were sent to Shanghai.

Fanny Burstyn fled Vienna at age 17 with her boyfriend to Switzerland, where they were married. In late 1939 they took a French ship to Shanghai. Her husband was killed in the American bombing of Shanghai on July 17, 1945. Later she married George Borenstein and they went to France, Israel, and eventually the United States. George Borenstein died on September 15, 2003 and Fanny died on October 23, 2007.

Extent

2 audiocassette(s)

Creator

Repository Details

Part of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library Repository

Contact:
70 Campus Avenue
Lewiston Maine 04240 United States of America
207-786-6354