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Learn More about Jill
- Collections View Jill's family artifacts
- First Person Watch Jill share her Holocaust experiences at a First Person program
- Oral History Access Jill's Oral Testimony
Jill Pauly was born Gisella Berg on May 1, 1933 in Cologne, Germany. She lived in a small ancient town outside Cologne called Lechenich, where her family had been living since the 17th century. Her father, Joseph, was a respected cattle dealer who had many connections within the community, and her mother, Klara, tended to the home and took care of Jill and her older sister, Inge. The Bergs were a very close knit, observant Jewish family. Jill’s grandfather was the president of the local synagogue association and her uncle was the cantor.
The Nazis came to power shortly before Jill was born and as a child she was not allowed to play outside with the other children. In 1938, having been warned of the impending pogroms, the Bergs fled to Cologne. During Kristallnacht their home in Lechenich was ransacked and many of their possessions destroyed. The following week, Jill’s father fled to Holland with his brother, George, and a cousin, hoping to avoid imprisonment in Germany. However, upon their arrival in Holland they were arrested for illegal entry and detained for six months in an internment camp.
Desperate to get out of Germany, Jill’s family sought help from a relative of a cousin who had connections to a law firm in Kenya. He was able to secure visas for the Bergs and as soon as they were released, Joseph, George, and their cousin, Ernest, left for Kenya to make arrangements for the rest of the family’s emigration. In May 1939, Klara, Jill, Inge, and several other family members left for Kenya via Genoa, Italy, aboard the SS Usambara. They arrived in June and settled in a large house that Joseph had rented in Nairobi.
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Sara Berg poses with her nieces, Inge and Gisela Berg, on the family farm in Lechenich, Germany. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Two Jewish refugee children, Gisela Berg (right) and Hannah Mandlebaum (left), feed the chickens on their family's farm near Limuru, Kenya (Kiambu district), where they found refuge during World War II. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Gisela Berg poses with her two pet parakeets on her family's farm near Limuru, Kenya (Kiambu district), where they found refuge during World War II. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Portrait of Jill, their cousin Egon and Gisella. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Gisela Berg, her sister Inge, and their cousin Harvey Meyer pose outside on their family farm prior to their emigration from Germany. Pictured are The Meyer family left for the U.S. on the day this photograph was taken. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Group portrait of members of a Jewish family in the backyard of their home in Lechenich, Germany. Pictured clockwise from the front left are: Inge, Sara, Joseph, Gisela, and Klara Berg as well as Erna and Adolph Baum. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Klara, Inge and Gisela Berg sail aboard the Usambara to Kenya. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Group portrait of members of the extended Berg family on their farm near Limuru, Kenya (Kiambu district), where they found refuge during World War II. Pictured are Joseph and Klara Berg, their daughters Inge and Gisela and parents Max and Klara. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Philip Berg (being supported by his Aunt Erna), Hannah Baum, Egon, Gisela and Inge Berg pose outside on the lawn of their farm near Limuru, Kenya (Kiambu district), where they found refuge during World War II. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Gisela Berg stands in front of her farmhouse near Limuru, Kenya (Kiambu district), holding a cage of parakeets. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Group portrait of students in the British school in Nairobi, Kenya. Gisela Berg (top row, third from the left) was one of the only Jewish students in the school. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Gisela (right) and Inge Berg (left) sit on the deck of the Usambara while en route to Africa. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Sisters Gisela and Inge Berg sit together at the dining room table in their parent farmhouse after hearing about the family plans to emigrate from Germany. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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A Jewish soldier in the British army poses with refugee children from Germany on their farm in Kenya where he had come to celebrate Jewish holidays. Gisela Berg is on the far left and her sister Inge is on the right. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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Joseph Berg poses with his two daughters, Gisela and Inge, before the celebration of Passover. In background are Adolf Baum and Mr. Tillingham, who came to the farm for Jewish religious services. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
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The Berg family is gathered on the platform at a train station in Kenya before their departure for the US. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Kurt & Jill Berg Pauly.
Kenya was then part of British East Africa and when the war broke out in September 1939 the British government arrested all adult male foreign nationals, including Jill’s father and uncles. They were classified as enemy aliens and after being held for one week they were released on the condition that they work on the farms of British citizens who were called away for war service. Shortly thereafter the family purchased a 375-acre farm in Limuru and an additional 125 acres about eight miles to the south in Muguga; from their farm they could see the distant peaks of Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro.
The Berg family lived in two large houses on the farm in Limuru, where they raised cattle and grew pyrethrum—a flowering plant used to make insecticide. Jill’s father rode a bike to Muguga daily, stopping halfway to fulfill his mandatory service on the farm of a British family before continuing on to manage his other property. Despite the many restrictions placed upon them, Jill and her sister were able to continue their education, attending British schools in Nairobi where they eventually learned English.
In 1947, the Bergs came to the United States, and eventually purchased a chicken farm and dairy business in Vineland, New Jersey. Jill completed her high school education and graduated from business college. In 1957, she married Kurt Pauly, a fellow survivor from Nazi Germany. The Paulys have two children.
Why I Volunteer
I work at this Museum because it is the only living, teaching tool on a national level, reaching everyone that visits it, about hate and discrimination and the effects on mankind, and, always, every single time I enter the building, in memory of all our loved ones who perished.