Charlotte Geller Brown was born in Lackenbach, Austria, in 1924. Once the Nazis occupied the country in 1938, her family was split, and she moved with her aunt in Vienna. A few months later, she and her siblings were rushed to be evacuated on the Kindertransport to England. Upon arrival, the children were housed in dorms and were made to pick produce. Charlotte and her siblings moved around to different locales and took the first available jobs found for them. By 1940, she worked for a family in Leicester to care for children and upkept the home. Her Jewish identity had almost become non-existent as assimilation became the means of survival in England. Soon, while working in a factory, she was able to form a social group which she saw multiple times a week.

When the war ended, she immigrated to the United States and first settled in Brooklyn, New York, in 1947. She stayed with her uncle who at the time owned a deli in Brooklyn. At the time, there was a large Jewish community, and it was refreshing for her. She attended night school to improve her skills as an English-speaker and there she met her husband, Murray Brown. The two married in 1948 and had their first child in 1949 and the second by 1953. While living with her family in the Bronx, she was very involved within the Jewish community. She sent her children to Hebrew school, attended synagogue, and participated in events held by the temple.

In the 1970s, she and her husband visited their eldest son, Sid (Sydney), in Eugene, Oregon. After spending some time in the town, her husband instantly fell in love with the place and the couple moved to Eugene in 1978. It was not long before she started to make friends within the community. Soon enough she organized a senior group which met once a month in downtown Eugene. She was also integral to the Jewish community newsletter. She and her husband also were quick to begin attending services at Temple Beth Israel and volunteer in all the temple’s events. She recalled running the bagel stand at the local fairgrounds with her husband. The stand would hold an annual Blintz brunch and she would help make the blintzes. Charlotte Geller Brown passed away on December 6, 2020, at the age of 96.

Authored by Abi & Becca