ROHA Digital Learning Center
ROHA Military History
ROHA Rutgers History
ROHA Educational Resources
ROHA Women's History
Like ROHA on Facebook
ROHA Digital Learning Center
ROHA Military History
ROHA Rutgers History
ROHA Educational Resources
ROHA Women's History
Like ROHA on Facebook
previous arrow
next arrow
PlayPause

Rutgers Oral History Archives

  • College/Year: NJC '41
  • Links to Oral History Sessions: Feller, Frieda Finklestein (March 27, 1998)
  • Conflict(s): World War II
  • Military Branch & Unit: U.S Government
  • Theater(s): Home Front
  • Women in the Service: Other: Office of Censorship

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.

Targum Cover 11 22 1963a

 

"HERE IS A BULLETIN...": Memories of the Day Camelot Died

 

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

Images from that day and the events that followed remain etched in our collective consciousness—the open-top Presidential limo traveling down the people-lined streets of Dallas; President Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One beside a shaken First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy; John, Jr. saluting his father's passing casket at the funeral in DC.

Those who lived through that traumatic period can recall both their initial shock and the nuances of their reactions.

In "HERE IS A BULLETIN...": Memories of the Day Camelot Died, ROHA presents a sampling of stories related to the Kennedy tragedy, a touchstone event for multiple generations.

The Rutgers Targum (campus newspaper) cover from its November 22, 1963 issue. (Image courtesy of Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.)

 

Voices of Veterans Banner 1

Voices of Veterans

 

Voices of Veterans is an online exhibit showcasing passages from oral history interviews of veterans who served in the Second World War and in wars in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. ROHA created this exhibit in commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT MORE ONLINE EXHIBITS 

 

 

Resources

Information