United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Rena Berliner was born Rena Schönthal in 1925 in Lvov (now Lviv, Ukraine) to Salomon Schönthal (1890-1943) and Klara Rapp Schönthal. Her family lived in the ghetto in Lvov from 1941-1943, but after her father died, she and her mother went into hiding in Warsaw using false papers. After liberation, they spent several months in Krakow before being smuggled into Germany with the help of the Bricha. They lived at the Neu Freimann displaced persons camp from 1945-1949, and Berliner studied at the Händel-Konservatorium in Munich. She founded a Yiddish cultural organization consisting of music students that traveled among the displaced persons camps giving performances.
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The Rena Berliner papers are arranged as a single series: I. Rena Berliner papers, approximately 1945-1949.
The Rena Berliner papers consist of photographs, programs, and school records documenting Rena Berliner’s time at the Neu Freimann displaced persons camp, musical performances at displaced persons camps, and attendance at the Händel-Konservatorium in Munich. Photographs depict Berliner performing at the Föhrenwald displaced persons camp and a group of ORT UNRRA vocation school students in front of their classroom at Neu Freimann. Programs document Berliner’s performances at displaced persons camps. School records include an identification card, membership card, report card, certificate, and two programs documenting Berliner’s studies and performances at the Händel-Konservatorium in Munich.
Rena Berliner papers