United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright Holder: Ninetta Matsa Feldman
folder 1
Consists of the memoir, untitled, of Esther Cohen Matsa, originally of Delvino, Albania. In the memoir, originally written in Greek and translated by Ninetta Matsa Feldman (the author's daughter), the author describes her childhood, the family's life in Ioannina (Yannina or Janina) in Greece and in Delvino, her experience at a boarding school in Corfu, work in her father's fabric store, her marriage to Leon Matsas and the births of their two children. The family moved to Agrinio, Greece, and the author leaves out much discussion of the early days of the war, when her husband was drafted in the Greek Army for a brief period. She describes life in wartime Greece after the family is reunited, and in fear of being deported, the family decided to move to the small mountainous village of Psilovrahos. At one point, they avoided discovery by hiding in a cave during a German raid. She describes life in Psilovrahos and massive food shortages. In the fall of 1944, she and her husband returned to Agrinio to look for food and shelter. After the war ended in Greece in October 1944, the family returned to discover that their extended family had been deported in March 1944 and perished almost entirely in the Holocaust.
Esther Cohen Matsa memoir