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Displaying items 161 to 180 of 4,487
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Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. Philip H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Philip H., who was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1922. He describes a violent childhood in a poor Jewish neighborhood in Chicago, and vividly recalls the isolated experiences of love and kindness which proved crucial to his later outlook and conduct. He also discusses the dissolution of his mystical view of the unity of all life, as represented by the "Shema", after witnessing the devastation of Mannheim during World War II. Professor H. documents how his study of cruelty and evil eventually focused on the Holocaust, and how his discovery of goodness in its midst, exem...

  2. Bernice S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bernice S., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland, in 1919. She describes the humiliation of her father after the German occupation; the ghettoization of ?o?dz?; and conditions in the ?o?dz? ghetto. She explains that, since her grandfather was a member of the Judenrat and knew H?ayim Rumkowski, for a time members of her family were able to obtain extra food and to evade round-ups. Mrs. S. speaks of the liquidation of the ghetto and tells how she managed to save herself by crawling into the hole of a latrine. She describes her deportation to Auschwitz along with her mother an...

  3. Marc S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Marc S., who was born in ?an?cut, a small town in Poland in 1914 and grew up in ?o?dz?. He notes his Jewish education, beginning with cheder at the age of three. He tells of his flight after the German occupation to Russian-occupied Bia?ystok and of his return, with the help of non-Jews, to ?o?dz? to rejoin his mother, sister, and brother. He describes the ?o?dz? ghetto, particularly its Jewish administration, for which he worked until his deportation to Auschwitz in August 1944. Mr. S. was the representative of the revisionist Zionist organization on the Jewish Counc...

  4. Hanna D. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hanna D., who was born in northern Bohemia in 1928 and moved to Prague in 1938. Mrs. D.'s mother was Jewish and her father was a German Catholic, and Mrs. D. was raised as a Catholic. She describes her family's move to Prague when her father was dismissed from his civil service job for refusing to divorce his Jewish wife; her education; mistreatment by a Nazi teacher (though most Czechs were kind to her); her vivid recollections of incidents of abuse and abandonment of Jews from the rise of Nazism through the deportations; and her forced labor with other "half-castes"...

  5. Eugene N. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Eugene N., who was born in Czechoslovakia, in 1923. He tells of his family's prewar life; instances of prewar antisemitism; and the effects of the Hungarian and German occupations. He relates his family's deportation in April, 1944, from his grandmother's house in Budapest, where they were then living, to the Munka?cs ghetto and later to Auschwitz. Mr. N. vividly recalls his arrival at Auschwitz, including his separation from family members except his father and brother; their transfer after a week to Mauthausen, and eight days later, to Melk, where they worked as sla...

  6. Serena N. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Serena N., the oldest of six children, who was born in Poprad, Czechoslovakia, in 1927. Mrs. N. discusses family life before the war; the effects of the Hungarian occupation in 1938; the initial phase of the German occupation in 1944; and her family's deportations to the brick factory in Munka?cs and, four weeks later, to Auschwitz. She recalls her separation from all family members except her younger sister, with whom she surived the war; conditions in A Lager in Birkenau, where she was interned; sustaining relationships in the camp with her sister, two aunts, and a ...

  7. Abraham B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Abraham B., who was born into a religious home, one of seven children, in Krako?w, Poland, 1924. Mr. B. tells of the sudden outburst of antisemitism in 1935 and of his discouragement at the sight of his father's defeatist attitude after a period of incarceration following the outbreak of the war. He describes his family's evacuation from Krako?w to a small neighborhood; their move back to the city; his unsuccessful attempt to escape from a 1940 deportation order; and his three years of forced labor in an airplane factory in Mielec and conditions in the slave labor cam...

  8. Bella G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bella G., who was born in Vienna in 1920 and grew up in Czernowitz. She recalls her happy childhood; the German occupation of Austria in 1938 while she was studying in Vienna; and conditions at that time in Czernowitz, where she returned to be with her family. She tells of the Russian occupation of Czernowitz and her father's deportation to Siberia, where he later died. Married in 1941, Mrs. G. speaks of moving with her husband, a physician, to a small village in Bukovina across the Dniester River from Zaleszczyki. She recounts their unsuccessful attempt to flee Russi...

  9. Jonas G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jonas G., who was born into a religious family in Siret (Sereth), Bukovina, in 1914. He recalls his childhood education and medical school training; anti-Jewish legislation; being drafted into the army in 1935; his release, along with all other Jews, in 1936; his marriage to his cousin; the Russian occupation of Poland; and his flight to Czernowitz to be with his wife. He tells of commuting to a nearby town where he had obtained an appointment as physician; his family's flight with the retreating Russians to Borshchov; and his circuitous journey back to Czernowitz via...

  10. Rose A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rose A., who was born into a large, Orthodox family in a small village in the Carpathians in 1916. She describes life on the mill/farm which was her home; the invasion of the Carpathians in 1939; acts of open antisemitism; and her deportation to Poland in 1941. Mrs. A. recalls her life with the Jews in Poland; smuggling herself back into Czechoslovakia; and the resumption of life with her family until the German occupation in 1944. She tells of her deportation (after Passover 1944) to the ghetto/brick factory in Beregovo; her transport to and arrival in Auschwitz, whe...

  11. Helen M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Helen M., who was born in Kos?ice, Czechoslovakia, in 1922. She recalls the Hungarian occupation of 1938; anti-Semitic legislation; her escape with her sister across the Hungarian border to Slovakia in 1944; the experience of living and working under false papers; her flight to Bratislava to escape deportation; and her eventual arrest. Mrs. M. also describes her journey to Terezi?n; her vital relationship with her sister; their work regulating the showers in Terezi?n; their attempted escape; her postwar reunion with her father; and other details of her postwar life in...

  12. David and Sonia F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of David F., who was born in Rokiskis, Lithuania, in 1918, and his wife, Sonia of S?iauliai, Lithuania. Mr. and Mrs. F. speak of their respective prewar lives; their feelings of relative freedom under Russian occupation; their marriage in 1941; and their flight from and return to S?iauliai during the German occupation. They describe the ghettoization of S?iauliai and subsequent deportations of children and older people; the evacuation of the ghetto and their deportation, along with Mrs. F.'s family, to Stutthof; and their separation in Stutthof. Mrs. F. tells of conditio...

  13. Esther and Charles G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Esther G., who was born in Soko?y, Poland, in 1924, and her husband Charles, who was born in Lublin in 1916. Mrs. G. describes prewar antisemitism and pogroms in Poland; the German takeover in 1939; Soviet occupation and German reoccupation; the destruction of Soko?y, upon which she escaped to the forest and hid for several days; her transfer to the Bia?ystok ghetto, where she worked making military clothes; and her deportation to Auschwitz. She recalls in detail her arrival at Birkenau; her work in an ammunition factory; atrocities she witnessed in Auschwitz; her tra...

  14. Bert L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bert L., who was born in Warsaw in 1910. He describes the formation of the Warsaw ghetto in 1940; life in the ghetto, which was characterized by sickness, hunger, and mass deportations; and the ghetto uprising, during which he, his wife, and his six-year-old daughter were sent by freight cars to Majdanek. He tells of his initial separation from his wife and child, witnessing their selection the following day; and his transfer, along with his brother-in-law, to a sub-camp fifty kilometers from Majdanek. He recalls the death by torture of his brother-in-law, which he wa...

  15. Abraham O. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Abraham O., who was born in Bia?ystok, Poland, in 1914. He describes the German occupation of Bia?ystok; the ghettoization of Bia?ystok and the round-ups of Jews that began several weeks later; building bunkers to hide from the Germans; and the routine Aktions and selections that characterized life in the ghetto. He discusses the liquidation of the ghetto, when he and his family went into hiding in a bunker; the formation of a small ghetto around the bunker; and the development of community life within this ghetto despite the difficult conditions. Mr. O. also relates ...

  16. Shalom S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Shalom S., who was born in Kovno, Lithuania in 1920. He discusses the prewar situation of the Jews in Lithuania, including Lithuanian antisemitism; the Russian occupation from 1939 to 1941; the German occupation; his flight with a small group to Russia; and the death of two of his brothers on the way home. He speaks of the collaboration of Lithuanian "partisans" with the Nazis in the round-up of Jews; the establishment of the Kovno ghetto; daily killings and other aspects of life in the ghetto; and the "Great Aktion" in which all the Jews were assembled for deportatio...

  17. Frieda J. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Frieda J., who was born in Piotrko?w Trybunalski, Poland, in 1937. She relates her early childhood memories of the Nazi entry into her town; hiding in a closet with a false back; and an assembly of people who were about to be deported. She recalls the public hanging of her father in the small town of Lututov; the deportation of her mother and brother to Treblinka; her own return to Pietrokow; and her frequent relocations under the care of several different extended family members. She recounts her experiences in Ravensbru?ck; her transport to Bergen-Belsen with other ...

  18. Victor C. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Victor C. (accompanied by his daughter Belinda) who was born in Strzemieszyce Wielke, Poland in 1914. He relates his father's death; the family's move to Sosnowiec; extreme poverty; his mother's efforts to raise and educate four sons; studying in Krako?w; being drafted into the Polish army in 1939; being taken as a prisoner-of-war; and his escape. He describes returning to Strzemieszyce; his marriage; the birth of his child; ghetto conditions and organization; transfer with his family to Be?dzin; forced labor; transfers to many camps; the variety of conditions and org...

  19. Lepa M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Lepa M., a non-Jew who was born in Belgrade, Serbia in 1914. She describes the political atmosphere and situation of the Jews in Belgrade before the war; her marriage in 1935; the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941; and the anti-Jewish legislation and mass deportations which followed. She relates that in 1943 she and her husband hid five Jews in the basement of their house in Prokuplje, and that several months later they were discovered, and, along with Mrs. M.'s husband, were taken away and shot by the Gestapo in Nis?. Mrs. M. speaks of her life in Belgrade after ...

  20. Benjamin M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Benjamin M., who was born in Warsaw. He describes his prewar home environment; life in the Warsaw ghetto; and slave labor experiences on the "Aryan" side. He tells of joining the underground; smuggling food into the ghetto; and smuggling people into and out of the ghetto. He recounts his first meeting with his future wife, also active in the underground; smuggling his parents out of the ghetto to helpful gentiles; Nazi tricks to root out Jews in hiding; and his younger brother's falling prey to such a trap. Mr. M. describes the bombardment and burning of the Warsaw gh...