Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Regina Fleischer (1928- ) oral history

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CD 3 Track 2: CD 3 Track 2
Transcription: CD 3 TRACK 2 RF: So then when a year later, I started on June 1, and a year later in May 1 was graduating. She came to me. I didn't go to her. We had a very funny relationship [Laughter] because we were, I mean, from the very time that we met, we just hit it off and it was a kind of a relationship that we respected each other a great deal. She respected what I was doing and I respected what she was doing. RA: Well, she was a great administrator in that she picked people and then she relied on them to function the way se expected them to function. RF: So she came to me then, oh, maybe like again in April and she said, "I know that you are going to graduate soon. When are you graduating?" And I said, "I am finishing up this semester in May and then I will get my degree." She said, "Would you be interested in a full time position at the library?" I said, "Yes, I would. I haven't really looked around any place, but I like it here and I like the people I am working with and I would be interested." Then she said to me, "You know there is no position here at this time, but I am sufficiently pleased with your performance here and I would like to keep you." And she said, "I would talk with the Board and see if they can't create a position for a while so that you could stay on." And she said, "I'll let you know how it goes." Well, she Regina Fleischer, cont. 74 went back to the Board and I guess explained to them, because at that time it was Sue Osmotherly who was doing the cataloging. Miss Siniff thought that she was going to retire and when she retires that Sue would not stay on and so at that point Sue's position would be open and that's where she felt that she wanted me to go in. So although this was all still in the making, but she was more or less planning for the future, and really felt that she did not want me to leave. She wanted me to stay on. So then she came back to me and said, "Okay that the Board said it's okay and that as soon as you graduate you are going to become part of the professional staff. You will be in reference." So... RA: This is where you.... RF: This is how we started it. And then, of course, she did retire and Sue thought that she would not. stay on with anybody else because this was a personal friend of hers and she was more or less doing her a favor and she only worked a couple of days a week so it was a mutual agreement kind of thing and once Helen left there was really nothing left to keep Sue at the Wilmette Library. RA: What happened to Sue?
Creators: Fleischer, Regina, Interviewee; Adler, Rhea Saul
, Interviewer
Media Type: Audio; Image; Text
Item Type: Audiocassettes
Description: ABSTRACT
Interviewee: Regina Fleischer
Interviewer: Rhea Adler
Date of interview: Spring, 1981

• Length of time in Wilmette
• Birth in Bydgoszcz (Poland) - Germany - Life 1928-1933 – An only child - Father in wholesale leather business – Anti-Semitism forced move to Warsaw
• Explanation of Hasidic Jews -- Mother's background vs. Father's background (more worldly)
• Life in Warsaw compared to the Depression years in U.S.A.(through Joseph Fleischer's experience)
• Childhood reaction to anti-Semitism - Wish to come to States began early - Conflicts within parents at thoughts of leaving friends and family to reestablish themselves in a new country kept them in Warsaw
• German occupation - Formation of "Judenrat" and Ghetto – Life in the Ghetto - Concentration camps
• Move to factory apartment for safety - Mother picked up by police. Father obtains her release - Move from factory- Father walks out and never returns
• Maid arranges for Regina to live with a Polish Catholic family Unsuccessful - Returns to Ghetto and Mother - Leaves Ghetto shortly before its burning - Lived with Catholic family - Not familiar with religious ritual practiced in family so eventually returned to hiding place with Mother, complete wiping out of the Ghetto, people in hiding "turned in" when money ran out - Polish uprising against Germans -Becomes courier for Polish Resistance - Poles overcome by Germans - Decision to be caught
• Caught and placed on a cattle train with 150 people to a car - Taken to Ravensbruck, Germany in N.E.
• Worked as slave labor for Siemen's Electrical - Describes life in concentration camp, "life was hell," kept hair at great cost
• Decide to be taken on transport and were put under Red Cross care - Used as camouflage for movement of German troops
• Arrival in Copenhagen after much delay and illness from food from American Red Cross packages - To Malmo* - Lived in Sweden for a year and a half waiting to come on Polish quota
• Came to U.S.A. at age of 18 years- Expression of strong emotional pull then and now - Present philosophy
• Came to New York City on "Gripsholm" - Met by uncle – First impressions of New York and Chicago - Mother employed in garment district, lived in small apartment, begins school with no English at Roosevelt High School, dropped out, starts business college, finished and goes to work for chemical jobbers
• Meets Joseph Fleischer, marries and goes to New York as he goes into Navy in Korean War - Returns to Chicago, pregnant with daughter Janice while husband still in service - Baby born at Great Lakes Naval Hospital - Mother has remarried so she and baby take a furnished apartment at 6106 University on the Midway - Joe returns, gets employment and they move to a larger southside apartment with very good friends across hall - Baby-sat for each other - They also sensed her potential and encouraged her to go to night school
• Becomes pregnant second time - Has a son and remains a homemaker 20 years
• Return to college after Janice entered New Trier and Marc is in junior high school - Equivalency test finds her in 98 percentile - Encouraged to enroll at Roosevelt University in CLEP Program which University of Chicago and Princeton developed - Tested and entered as a college junior, graduated with honors, graduate school at Rosary prior to Roosevelt graduation - Graduated Rosary with honors 1972
• Job hunt, Wilmette Library opening under Helen Siniff – Works part time with graduation following year, hired full time as reference librarian and cataloguer under Mr. Freiser and Dorothy Hasse - Upon her retirement became Assistant Director under Dick Thompson
• Library system goes on computer — Lack of security— Community attitudes change regarding respect of library property
• Takes computer course at Oakton Community College – Wilmette Public Library goes on computer, placed in charge of conversion
• Future of libraries - Various kinds of library users – Changes in needs of readers as changes in communications occur
Notes: Regina Fleischer is a survivor of the Holocaust during World War II.
Place of Publication: Wilmette, Illinois
Date of Original: 1981
Subject(s): Concentration camps
Librarians
World War, 1939-1945
Oral histories
Wilmette (Ill.) -- Residents
Personal Name(s): Fleischer, Regina
Language of Item: English
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