How The Philippines Saved 1,200 Jews During The Holocaust

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Three Sisters, from the left, Peggy Selonick, Susan Stern, and Jane Ellis, pose near a photo showing themselves in the same order as young girls, Friday, Feb. 4, 2005, at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Their father, Morris Frieder, and his brothers operated a factory in the pre-World War II Philippines that helped rescue 1,200 Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe. A new permanent exhibit will be created at the Holocaust Center to honor their efforts. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

Even at the age of seven, Lotte Hershfield knew her world was crumbling.

She avoided the benches with the sign: No dogs or Jews allowed. She couldn't attend public schools. And the Nazis and their growling German shepherds raided her family's house, throwing their books into a fire.

As a child, "we were very aware," said Hershfield, now 84. Jews weren't welcome in their own home.

Growing increasingly fearful, her parents and her older brother left their hometown of Breslau, Germany, in 1938 and journeyed to an unlikely new home -- the Philippines.

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