Archival Descriptions

Advanced query tips

There are several ways to be more specific in your search query:

"Phrase"
Search an exact match of your query, e.g. "Member lists"
+Phrase
Given word has to be in the result, e.g. +Gestapo
-Phrase
Exclude given word from search, e.g. -Gestapo

Use the following syntax to restrict the search to specific fields:

field:"phrase"
For instance, you can find all descriptions that have the phrase "Auschwitz Birkenau" in their titles by searching for title:"Auschwitz Birkenau".

The following fields are currently available:

  • identifier
  • title
  • creator
  • person
  • place
  • subject
  • address
Displaying items 281 to 300 of 816
Search result ordering
Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. Manfred M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Manfred M., who was born in Marxheim, Germany in 1919, one of two children. He recounts living with his grandparents; moving to Ho?chst an der Nidder in 1933; the erosion of his friendships with non-Jews; being stoned; expulsion from school in 1935 (he was the only Jewish student); working in a shoe factory; receiving an affidavit from relatives in the United States; emigrating to the United States via Hamburg in 1936; meeting his future wife in 1937 (also a German-Jewish e?migre?); working hard to have his parents, sister, and grandparents join him in 1938, following...

  2. Edith R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Edith R., who was born in Babenhausen, Germany in 1918. She recalls her family's orthodoxy; antisemitic harassment prior to Hitler; helping victims of Nazi violence; Nazis frequently vandalizing the family business starting in 1931; the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in April 1933; emigration of several siblings to the United States; her father's severe beating by Nazis; receiving affidavits from her siblings to emigrate to the United States; traveling to Stuttgart with her parents in July 1933; emigration to the United States with her father in October; her mother...

  3. Paul M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Paul M., who was born in Berlin, Germany to Polish immigrants in 1922. He recalls involvement in Zionist organizations; attending a Jewish school; the decision of some relatives to emigrate in 1933; a beating by Hitler Youth in 1934; his parents' decision to leave following a Gestapo interrogation in 1936; their journey to Palestine via Austria and Trieste (his parents had money smuggled to them in Italy); their emigration to the United States in 1938; attending high school; cessation of communications from family in Europe after 1939; being drafted in 1942; encounter...

  4. Gys L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gys L., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1921. She recalls her childhood in a wealthy family; her father's decision to move the family to Paris in 1933; education in French schools and the Sorbonne; internment of male German Jews (including her father and brother) in late 1939; and meeting her future husband when he called with news of her brother. She recounts detention with her mother in Gurs; primitive camp conditions; release during the German invasion in 1940; her marriage in Marseille; and her in-laws' escape to the United States (her father-in-law was the ant...

  5. Edith R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Edith R., who was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1930, the older of two children of Polish émigrés. She recounts attending Jewish summer camp; German invasion in May 1940; fleeing with her family to France; living on a non-Jewish family's farm; attending school; traveling to Toulouse; incarceration in Claremont-Ferrand; escaping approximately six weeks later after her father bribed a French guard; walking to Paris; returning to Brussels; expulsion from school; being sent with her brother to a summer camp in Uccle; returning; hiding with her parents; their arranging ...

  6. David L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of David L., who was born in Sadgora, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Ukraine) in 1910, one of four children. Mr. L. recounts his family fleeing the Russians during World War I to Vienna, via Budapest; his father's and uncle's military service in the war (his uncle was killed); his family's orthodoxy; participating in Zionist groups; visiting relatives in Palestine in 1920; completing gymnasium and medical school; frequent antisemitic harassment; Austrian receptiveness to the Anschluss in March 1938; dismissal from his research position; his father's and grandfather...

  7. Helen D. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Helen W., who was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1929. She recounts her parents' divorce when she was about two; living with her paternal grandparents in Proste?jov, Czechoslovakia; her father's weekly visits; a close relationship with her non-Jewish governess; attending public school; cordial relations with non-Jews; celebrating Easter and Christmas as "national" holidays; attending synagogue; a close relationship with her uncle; her father moving funds out of Austria after the Anschluss and obtaining documents for the United States for himself and her; her grandparents...

  8. Yakov E. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Yakov E., who was born in Poland in approximately 1930, the oldest of three children. He recalls his family's Zionism (an uncle had emigrated to Israel); antisemitic harassment; belonging to Gordonyah; his father's importance in the town; Soviet occupation; leaving on an evacuation train to Kazakhstan in 1941, the only Jewish family to do so (his father was not with them); stopping a few days in Saratov en route; difficulties being accepted by other Jews in Kazakhstan; knowing nothing about the Holocaust; receiving a package from relatives in Israel; attending school;...

  9. Roni B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Roni B., who was born in 1930 in Berlin, Germany. She recounts antisemitic harassment and restrictions, including her father not being able to treat non-Jews (he was a dentist); some non-Jews sneaking in for treatment; a non-Jewish butcher providing them with meat; changing schools frequently; Kristallnacht; relatives emigrating to several destinations; the war's outbreak; bribing an official to obtain visas; traveling to Paris, Bordeaux, San Sebastia?n, and Barcelona; emigrating by ship to the United States in August 1941; and receiving letters from relatives via the...

  10. George A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of George A., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1907. He describes his family's move to Brno in 1920; his rebellious youth; working until 1936; moving to Prague; realizing the danger following the 1938 Munich agreement; registering for emigration to the United States; German occupation in March 1938; arrest; release with assistance from a police official, his father's friend; obtaining a temporary French visa; attempting to escape with assistance from non-Jews; brief imprisonment; traveling to Paris; incarceration as an enemy alien after the war began; transfer to Borde...

  11. Ruth N. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ruth N., who was born in Ansbach, Germany in 1931. She recounts her father's position as a rabbi; antisemitic harassment; cordial relations with a neighbor who belonged to the SS; her father's job offer from Paris; their emigration in 1937; birth of a sibling; her father's enlistment in the Foreign Legion in 1939; German invasion in May 1940; traveling with her mother and siblings to Albi, where her father was stationed; living in Milhars and Toulouse; her father's discharge; moving to Nice in 1941; benign conditions under Italian occupation; the birth of twin sibling...

  12. Israel M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Israel M., who was born in Slonim, Poland (today Belarus), in 1937. Mr. M. tells of being sent by his family (whom he never saw again) to visit his uncle in 1941; fleeing east from the German attack with his uncle and family; traveling through Minsk to Kiev, where they entrained for Soviet Central Asia; German air attacks en route; and arrival in Samarqand, Uzbekistan in late 1941. He recounts the lack of food and poor sanitation; the deaths of his relatives from disease; placement in a Russian orphanage in 1942; returning to liberated Poland in 1945; anti-Semitic tau...

  13. Jeanne A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jeanne A., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931. She recalls living in Laufenselden; moving when she was in kindergarten; her family's emigration to Scheveningen, Holland (her grandparents lived there) due to her father's sense that they should "get out"; moving to Paris in 1938; the outbreak of war in September 1939; her father's detention as an "enemy alien"; his release and brief service in the French military; German invasion; her father's internment at a camp near Lyon; moving with her mother to that area; her father's escape; joining him in Lyon; returning to...

  14. Victor B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Victor B., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1934 and has vague memories of being smuggled to Antwerp. He recounts bombings when Germany invaded in spring 1940; an unsuccessful attempt to escape to France; brief hospitalization for measles; returning to Antwerp; his father being taken to a labor camp (he shows postcards from him); moving with his mother to Brussels; his father's return; his parents placing him in hiding with non-Jews in a village (his parents remained in Brussels); transfer to an orphanage; living with a widow; being protected by all the non-Jews in ...

  15. Gertrude K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gertrude K., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1923, one of five children. She describes her close, observant family; the March 1938 German annexation of Austria; forced transfer to a Jewish section; round-ups; her family's employment in a soup kitchen; her emigration to Palestine through Hashomer Hatzair with her father's encouragement; writing to and receiving letters from her family; and learning of their emigration to Yugoslavia. Mrs. K. recalls being joined by one of her brothers; life with other children on a kibbutz; joining her aunt's household in Haifa in 19...

  16. Rudolph J. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rudolph J., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1913. He describes moving to his maternal grandparents' in Wiesbaden during World War I when his father was drafted as a physician; his return to Berlin in 1918; his secular, liberal upbringing; attending university in Berlin; and the beginning of Nazi activity, including the burning of the Reichstag and Hitler's election. He recounts his activity as an anti-Nazi; questioning by storm troopers on an "anti-Jewish day"; leaving Germany for medical school in Genoa, Italy; his family's forced departure from Berlin to Prague; ...

  17. Berthold and Gertrude H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Berthold and Gertrude H. Mr. H. was born in Vienna, Austria in 1904. He recalls his apprenticeship at age fourteen; earning a good living as a salesman; antisemitic attacks; many Jews committing suicide; confiscation of their apartment; arrest on Kristallnacht; abusive treatment until his release; emigration to the United States in February 1939; and psychiatric treatment to deal with his traumatic memories. Mrs. H. was born in Vienna in 1909. She recalls her father's death as a soldier in World War I; marriage in 1937; changes after Hitler took over Austria; being sh...

  18. Barbara Z. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Barbara Z., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1921, an only child. She recalls her father was not Jewish; her parents were both dentists; their divorce when she was twelve; her maternal grandfather living with them; her mother's Danish friend urging her mother to send her to Denmark due to Hitler's ascent to power; arrival in Copenhagen in 1936; attending a Catholic school; her mother's arrival a year later (her grandfather had died); their sham marriages so they could remain; German invasion; non-Jews arranging their transport in a small fishing boat to Sweden (the ...

  19. Jack A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jack A., who was born in Cologne, Germany in 1927. He recalls a secure family life; changes after the Nuremberg laws, including violent harassment; deportation of Polish Jews in October 1938, including many relatives; one brother's emigration to Palestine in November 1938; burning of synagogues and destruction of his father's store on Kristallnacht; his parents putting him and a brother on a train to the Netherlands; being stopped at the border in Emmerich; assistance from local nuns; traveling to the Netherlands; living in a children's home in Arnhem; arrival of his ...

  20. Hanna P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hanna P., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1928. She recalls her family's affluent life; her brother and father reporting for military service before German invasion; German occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions and food scarcity; learning her father and brother were alive and fleeing to the Soviet zone; using false papers to join them in Soviet-occupied Bia?ystok; moving to Orsha; attending Russian school; fleeing east after the German invasion; her father working as a bookkeeper on a collective farm near the Urals; her brother's draft; moving to Ukraine near the war...