Johanna Neumann was born into a family of merchants in Hamburg, Germany, on December 2, 1930. Her family tried several times to get visas to enter the United States, but because Johanna’s father was, officially, a Polish citizen, he was given a higher quota number than his wife and child. Therefore, they decided to stay in Germany as a family. In 1939, they escaped to Albania along with a few other Jewish-German families. They remained in Albania, fleeing from one town to another throughout the war until they were freed by the Allies in 1945. In 1945, Johanna and her family went to Italy where they lived in the Tricase Porto displaced persons camp. It was at this camp that Johanna first came into contact with survivors from various concentration camps. In June 1946, Johanna and her mother left Italy for the U.S. Her father went to Rome, where he waited until he received his U.S. visa. He joined his family in the U.S. in 1947.
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German and Austrian Jews who survived the war in Albania, aboard a British ship taking them to a DP camp Tricase Porto in Italy. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Johanna Neumann.
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Johanna Jutta Gerechter stands with her dog Piccola next to a laundry line in Albania. Her family was supporting themselves in exile by doing laundry for Italian truck drivers. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Johanna Neumann.
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Johanna Jutta Gerechter washes dishes outdoors in Shkoset Albania. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Johanna Neumann.
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Alice Gerechter, her daughter Johanna Jutta Gerechter, Lizalotte Pilku and Siegbert Gerechter stand on the steps of their home in Albania. The Gerechter family lived in this house from June 1941 to August 1943. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Johanna Neumann.
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Alice Gerechter and her daughter Johanna Jutta Gerechter living in hiding in Albania sit on a wooden ledge together with their rescuer and her family, Luan Pilku, and Lizalotte Boetge-Pilku. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Johanna Neumann.
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German and Austrian refugee children pose with Albanian children shortly after their arrival. Johanna Gerechter is standing in the center with an apron. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Johanna Neumann.
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Jewish refugees Siegbert, Alice and Johanna Gerechter look through the window of their one room home in Albania. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Johanna Neumann.