John Ralph Silva was born Hans Rolf Silberstein on June 26, 1921, in Berlin, Germany. John’s parents were Leo and Amalie Holz Silberstein, and he had a sister named Ingeborg, who was 10 years older than him. Leo was a cigar manufacturer and Amalie, a housewife. The children were in most part raised by their governess.
John learned Latin, French, and English at school and loved going to birthday parties and to the movies. He also took piano lessons. John experienced antisemitism at school, especially from his teachers, who made snide remarks against Jews. In April 1933, the German government issued the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities, which dramatically limited the number of Jewish students attending public schools. This new law limited the number of Jewish students in any one public school to no more than five percent of the total student population. When John was 16 years old, he was no longer allowed to attend his public school and he had to finish the school year at a Jewish school.
Shortly after, on November 9-10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a nationwide pogrom against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event, known as Kristallnacht (also referred to as the November Pogrom or the Night of Broken Glass) resulted in the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes. John witnessed his synagogue burning while his neighbors, police, and fire department stood and watched. This deeply unsettled him. The pogrom was especially destructive in Berlin, home to one of the largest Jewish communities in Germany. Mobs of SA men roamed the streets, attacking Jews in their houses and forcing any Jewish people they encountered to perform acts of public humiliation. The official figure for Jewish deaths, released by German officials in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, was 91, but recent scholarship suggests that there were hundreds of deaths, especially if one counts those who died of their injuries in the days and weeks that followed. Police records of the period also document a high number of rapes. During the pogrom, some 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up and taken to prisons and concentration camps. John’s father, Leo, was one of those who was arrested.
Following Kristallnacht, John fled Germany for Italy, carrying only a small suitcase and his prized stamp collection, passed down to him by his grandfather. He was 17 years old. He tried to convince his family to join him, but like many German Jews at the time, they felt that the violence and chaos would eventually cease and all would be well again. In Genoa, John boarded a ship for Bolivia, selling stamps so that he could afford to pay for his passage. He traveled with other refugees, eventually arriving in the Peruvian port city of Mollendo. Upon arrival in Peru, officials issued John a transit visa to Bolivia. John took a train to the Andes Mountains and crossed Lake Titicaca, reaching Bolivia.
Bolivia admitted more than 20,000 Jewish refugees between 1938-1941. Bolivian President German Busch sought to improve the Bolivian economy by admitting European immigrants and refugees were able to obtain visas from Bolivian consulates in Europe. Many of the refugees who arrived in Bolivia eventually traveled illegally across its porous borders into neighboring countries, especially Argentina.
When John arrived in Bolivia, he learned that the visa he received in Peru was only valid for 30 days. Officials warned him that the Bolivian government did not want anyone in the country who did not have a legal visa, and the only way for him to stay would be to work in the jungle. Faced with going back to Germany or scrambling for other options, John agreed.
He flew on a small plane to a settlement in Bolivia, where their overseers collected the refugees’ passports and they were left to do dangerous and grueling work clearing trees, vines, and other dense vegetation in the Bolivian jungles, under constant threat of being sent back to Germany if they did not work hard enough.
John survived malaria, yellow fever, and hard labor without adequate nutrition or medical care. He made multiple escape attempts while in the jungle and his fourth try was successful. He traveled through Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then to Montevideo, Uruguay, where he was able to find a job in the wool business.
John was playing the piano in a club when he met his future wife, Lotti Behrend, a Jewish refugee from Mannheim, Germany. They married in Montevideo in 1944. In 1947, John and Lotti were able to immigrate to the United States when President Harry S. Truman’s administration prioritized the immigration of displaced persons. John and Lottie were able to immigrate to the United States, where they settled in New York City. They became United States citizens in 1952. John and Lottie had one daughter, Sharon.
John was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. His father, Leo, died by suicide in January 1942. His mother, Amalie, was murdered in the Sobibor killing center in occupied Poland in June 1942. His sister, Ingeborg, was forced to work in a Siemens factory in Berlin until she and her husband, Herbert Israelsky, were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland in December 1942, where both were murdered.
John worked in the wool import/export industry for most of his career and served two terms as the President of the New York Wool Trade Association. He never forgot those who helped him when he was a young, undocumented refugee trying to survive in Latin America. He volunteered at Catholic Social Services Immigration Clinic for over a decade, helping immigrants seeking legal status in the United States. He received the Georgia Hispanic Network - Outstanding Community Service Award in 2004. John died on June 30, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Interested in writing for IranWire?
Share your stories.
comments