Peter Newman

Peter Newman was born in July 1938 in Vienna, Austria to Lisa and Karl Neumann.  Since the Anschluss had taken place 4 months earlier on March 13, 1938, his birth certificate was stamped “Jewish.”

Peter’s parents made arrangements to go to Zagreb, Yugoslavia (Croatia) after his birth.  They lived in Zagreb until Nazi troops attacked Yugoslavia in April 1941.

Peter and his parents escaped to Italy, where they were caught by Italian Fascists.  They were imprisoned in Ferramonti di Tarsia, a concentration camp in the Campania Region of Italy from July 31, 1941 until September 3, 1943.

After their liberation by Allied troops, the family made their way to Naples where we were among 982 people allowed in the United States as “guests” of the government until the end of the war.  They sailed from Naples aboard the USS Henry Gibbon in July 1944.  Upon arriving in the United States they were taken to a decommissioned army camp, the Emergency Refugee Center at Fort Ontario, on the banks of Lake Ontario and outside of Oswego, NY.

While in Oswego, Peter attended school.  In February 1946 Peter and his parents were notified that they could remain in the United States and they were sent to Kansas City, Missouri.