Description:
Frieda Finklestein Feller was born in Newark in 1920. In the interview, she traces her family's Jewish roots in Germany, Bohemia and Romania. She grew up in depression-era Newark, attending Maple Avenue School and Weequahic High School. She went to the New Jersey College for Women, where she majored in French and Spanish and graduated in 1941. At NJC, she met her future husband Robert M. Feller, RC '41, who served in the Army in the European Theater during World War II. From 1942 to 1945, she worked in the New York branch of the U.S. War Service Office of Censorship, in Codes, Cyphers, and Secret Inks. Her personal efforts led to the apprehension of one operative, which she discusses in the interview. After the war, she and her husband raised their children in Highland Park. She completed her master's degree in 1976 and got her supervisor's certificate. For fourteen years, she supervised student-teachers in foreign languages and taught classes at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education.
