Ralph Moratz

Ralph Moratz was born in Berlin, Germany on 10/10/31. As Hitler's power increased he was subjected to ever increasing incidents of harassment: on krystalnacht, he and the other children were locked in the Synagogue in the Auerbach, the Jewish orphanage where he was living ... and the eternal flame was disconnected from the gas supplying pipe, an early attempt to gas them by the nazis... One of the children broke a window and the fresh air mercifully revived them. From then until he left, the gestapo kept two machine guns trained on the orphanage from the surrounding rooftops to prevent the children from forming any kind of resistance. On July 4th, 1939 the children of the orphanage were able to leave Berlin on a kindertransport to France. They went to Chateau de Quincy 30 km SE of Paris. Shortly before the Germans occupied Paris, they tried to escape the rapidly closing pincer movement of the Blitzkrieg. After 3 days of traveling by road and coal barge down the Seine, constantly dodgin