My father’s parents, Wilhelm and Eva Holt, were family doctors in the 20’s and 30’s in Zarow, a small German town in lower Silesia. After World War II Zarow became part of Poland. As it became clear that Hitler and the Nazis were dominating the country, and the threat of war was looming, they decided they needed to leave. The planning process took several years. They arrived in the US in July 1939 with their two sons who were 9 and 15 at the time. They were required to recertify for the US medical boards. While they essentially had to restart their medical education, they placed their sons in Quaker sponsored foster care for two years. The family reunited in a small town in upstate New York where my grandparents practiced as family doctors again. This is one of the suitcases in which they carried the few belongings they were allowed to bring to the US.
