Shirley Sandy Schulman was born in September 1922 in Manhattan, New York [Annotator's Note: Manhattan is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. She grew up as the youngest of six children in Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. Her parents bought a house which made Schulman's friends believe that they were wealthy. Although her family had the house, there was no heat or other comforts that her friends who lived in apartments had. Even though they were poor during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], Schulman had a happy childhood. Her neighborhood was diverse; there were Jewish families, Catholic families, and an orphanage. She mostly befriended Jewish children because she went to a Jewish school. She played in the streets during the summer and the kids found ways to make their own fun. She had three dolls and sewed rags together to make them clothes. She adored her older siblings and they doted on her. She was a popular student in high school and even though she went to the same school as her future husband, Hyman [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], she did not know him until later. Schulman and her family were aware of the rise of Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and the hostilities towards the Jews in Europe. Her mother gathered clothing and other supplies to send to her family. Her parents were very religious. Schulman was sitting in her kitchen with Hyman and a friend when her brother walked in and told them Pearl Harbor had been attacked [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. She was surprised by this news and knew that all her men friends would be going to be drafted. Growing up, the kids often went to clubs where there were records playing and they would dance and socialize. Schulman met her husband at one of these clubs. He was a singer and sang to the group of kids that day. They always had something to do over the weekend. Kids would have had gatherings at their houses as well.

Around 1938, Shirley Sandy Schulman began dating her future husband, Hyman, while they were in high school. Her parents thought well of her boyfriend, but Hyman's mother did not care for Schulman. Even though Schulman did not particularly care for Hyman's mother she still did her best to be kind to her, and while Hyman was overseas, she would visit his mother on a weekly basis and share the letters she received from him. Schulman and Hyman attended night school after they graduated. She wanted to learn to be a typist. They dated for three years before Hyman was drafted into the Army. Shulman and Hyman were vacationing at a Jewish retreat in the country when he received his draft notice. He did not mention anything to his family until he got home. Schulman asked Hyman if he wanted to get married, but he said no because he did not want to leave Schulman as a widow. During his time overseas he wrote to Schulman daily and told her that he wanted to make her happy. He regretted not marrying her. When he returned to the United States on a furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], the couple became engaged. Hyman carried several pictures of her during his service. After Hyman was inducted into the Army, he began basic training, which was difficult for him, but he became so proficient in armed weapons the Army made him an instructor. Hyman applied for the ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] and was accepted. While he was in the program, Hyman asked her to come out marry him. Hyman graduated from the program right before the Army shut it down. He was sent to Oregon and then to California. Schulman and Hyman were married in California and had a three-month honeymoon before he was given his deployment orders.

Newlyweds, Shirley Sandy Schulman, and Hyman parted ways at a train station. Schulman headed home to Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York], and Hyman was shipped overseas to Europe. As a way to make money, he started a watch repair service while he was in England. He was soon sent over to France. Schulman and Hyman kept in touch by writing to each other daily. Schulman noticed a change in tone in his letters as Hyman moved into combat. He promised that he would not let the war changed him, but Schulman could already see that it had. Even though Hyman was affected by World War 2, it did not change the way he felt about Schulman. He loved her more than anything. Hyman was a radio man and was wounded while he served in Europe. He saw the Buchenwald concentration camp [Annotator's Note: in Weimar, Germany]. He described in his letters to Schulman that the prisoners looked like skeletons. There were pile of dead bodies everywhere. He took pictures of the camp with his own camera and sent the pictures to Schulman. Schulman's husband was well-liked by many in the military. Schulman was shocked to read what he said about Buchenwald. She was aware that Jews were forced into concentration camps, but she did not know how harshly they were treated until she received Hyman's letters. Schulman bought war bonds [Annotator's Note: debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war] and rolled bandages to support the war efforts. When her husband returned, he made a career in the jewelry business. They had five children together. War rationing was horrible and very inconsistent. Because Schulman was Orthodox Jew, she found a job that allowed her to work on Sundays. She worked in a garment factory, fixing spools as they broke. She eventually quit because the job was too hard and found a position as a bookkeeper and typist in an office [Annotator's Note: Video break at 0:55:29.000 and interview begins again at 0:56:32.000.]

While her husband, Hyman, was deployed overseas in Europe during World War 2, Shirley Sandy Schulman found a job as a bookkeeper and typist at an office not far from her house. For entertainment she went to the movies and listened to music. She hated watching the news reels in the theater. Shulman soon found out that her husband was selected to be a chaplain's assistant to a Rabbi. She was so happy to know that he would not be on the front lines. Her husband received a Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy] because he was wounded during his service in Europe. He described his injury as a little scratch to Schulman in a letter. Learning about the concentration camps was very surprising to her when Hyman wrote about them in the letter. She lost a brother-in-law in the war. During the war, she lived with her parents.

Shirley Sandy Schulman and her husband, Hyman, corresponded daily through letters while he was deployed overseas in Europe during World War 2. Schulman reread her letters all the time. She did not get all his letters, especially the ones while he was deployed in Switzerland. He later told her that he was trying to help orphaned children find haven. On VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945], Schulman wrote her husband telling him how happy she was the war in Europe ended. Her husband responded to the letter telling her that they did not have time to celebrate, and he was waiting for his next orders. When her husband did return home, he suffered from Posttraumatic Stress and very bad headaches. He wrote to VA [Annotator's Note: United States Department of Veterans Affairs; also referred to as the Veterans Administration] and received some money for one year. Shulman and her husband did not discuss the war very much, except later in life, he began to be more open about he experienced.

Shirley Sandy Schulman is thankful that her husband, Hyman, came home from World War 2. She was living at her mother's house at the time. After the war, the couple found a house in the suburbs and had children. Americans do not think about World War 2 today because of other things that are happening now. She wanted her children to marry other Jewish individuals so they can bring up more Jewish children since so many were lost in the Holocaust [Annotator's Note: also called the Shoah; the genocide of European Jews during World War 2]. There should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations to so history will not repeat itself. [Annotator's Note: Video break at 1:38:59.000 and black until end of segment].