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JULIE (KLESTADT) KEEFER

JULIE (KLESTADT) KEEFER

LVIV/POLAND 1941, NOW L’VIV UKRAINE

OCCUPATION OF LVIV INTERNMENT IN GHETTOS FAMILY MOVED TO BARN LIFE UNDER FALSE IDENTITY AT A FRIEND THIS FRIEND WAS ARRESTED HIDDEN IN ORPHANAGE GERMAN EVACUATED THE ORPHANAGE JULIES SISTER WAS NEVER FOUND AGAIN MIGRATION TO THE US MANY ORPHANAGES ADOPTION

Born Jula Weinstock

June 1941: Germans occupied Lviv

Jews were forced into ghetto enclosed by wooden fence/Family moved into barn of grandfather’s house inside the ghetto

November 1941: ”Aktion“/Grandfather was arrested and sent to Jaktorow labor camp/Released but rearrested in may 1942/Sent to Janowska labor camp/escaped

Returned to the ghetto to help the family escape into the Borszczowice forest

Had built large bunker with 30 other escapees

Julie and her sister moved back to live with a family friend, Lucia Nowicka as her nieces

grandfather assumed the identity of Lucia’s disappeared husband

Lucia was arrested/Sister brought to hide in a catholic children’s home

Lucia was released from prison and returned home to care for Julie

April 1944: Germans discovered forest bunker and killed everyone they found inside/Grandfather survived

Germans evacuated children’s home

Julie never found her sister again

1948: Sent to America by her grandfather

Lived in a children’s home for six years and was then adopted by Fred and Thea Klestadt

Lest We Forget Washington, D.C. 01-21-2018

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