LONGBOAT KEY – He remembers none of it but had an impact on all of it. George Erdstein determined much of his family’s fate, simply by existing.
“Every survivor story is different, but they all contain the DNA of this terrible story,” Erdstein said.
George Erdstein’s story started before he was born.
“It’s really my family’s story, of which I am a small part, but my existence, or presence in the family, accounted for a lot of their actions,” Erdstein said.
His parents were born in Vienna, Austria, and his father, Berthold Erdstein, served in the Austrian army when he was 17. On March 12, 1938, Hitler took control of Austria, known as the Anschluss.
“The night of the Anschluss the chancellor of Austria got on the radio and he said, ‘All is lost. God help us,'” Erdstein said.
That night hundreds of Jews committed suicide.
“My mother wanted to commit suicide. She was pregnant with me at that time,” Erdstein said. “They didn’t know what to do. My father, always the optimist, said, ‘Let’s hang in there.'”
Things got worse in Vienna. Jews were being taken by the Germans every day. George’s father was eventually arrested and tortured at Gestapo headquarters. An affidavit came for him from an uncle in New York, so Berthold moved to New York and got a job. George, his mom and his sister went to New York in Spring of 1939. The war hadn’t even started yet. George’s paternal grandparents couldn’t get out of Poland. They were taken to a killing camp, where they were shot and killed.
“Human nature is capable of so much good, as well as evil, and you have to decide where you are on your own little moral compass,” Erdstein said.
He joined the Army reserve for six years during the Vietnam War and eventually did live his American dream, studying at Columbia University and becoming an architect.
