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 46,081 to 46,100 of 55,889
Search result ordering

  1. Peter H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Peter H., who was born in 1920 in Hannover, Germany. He recounts his parents' divorce; being raised by a Catholic governess; his bar mitzvah; anti-Jewish laws; expulsion from school in 1936; apprenticeship in a Jewish-owned chemical factory; the factory's expropriation; losing his job; studying chemistry privately in Berlin; working as a chemist; Kristallnacht;, obtaining visas with his mother and brother at the American Consulate in Hamburg; visiting relatives in Cologne and Amsterdam; emigration to the United States in 1939; learning his father had emigrated to Thai...

  2. Bella H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bella H., who was born in Bilky, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1924, one of seven children. She recounts a happy childhood despite her family's poverty; a large, extended family; attending Czech school; Hungarian occupation; her brother's draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion; deportation to the Berehovo ghetto, then to Auschwitz about five weeks later; remaining with her sister (she never saw her mother or younger brothers again); a brief encounter with her father, when she was beaten for running to him (she never saw him again); transfer to Boizenburg...

  3. Morris K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Morris K., who was born in Pruz?h?any, Poland. Mr. K. describes the Russian occupation, after which he was made the manager of a department store; the German occupation of Pruz?h?any; the Judenrat and confinement in a ghetto; and a confrontation between German officers and partisans which led to the liquidation of the ghetto and Mr. K's deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau. He details his injury during an enemy bombing and his subsequent narrow escape from the crematoria; the death march to Mauthausen; slave labor in Melk; his liberation from Ebensee; brief visits to Ger...

  4. Renee H. edited testimony

    From the point of view of the child that she was at the time, Renee H., a survivor of Bergen-Belsen from Bratislava, Slovakia relates her wartime experiences. She tells how, in German-occupied Bratislava, she served as the "ears" of her deaf parents and younger sister, alerting them to impending round-ups of Jews. She speaks of her vain attempts to find shelter for her sister and herself after the deportation of her parents, and her voluntary surrender to the police in the hopes of being reunited with her parents in Auschwitz. She describes the life that she and her sister led in Bergen-Bel...

  5. Gerald L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gerald L., who was born in Gumbinnen, Germany (now Gusev, Russia) in 1929. He recalls his parents' divorce; living with his father and stepmother; moving to Ko?nigsberg (Kaliningrad), then Danzig (Gdan?sk, Poland); emigrating with his father, stepmother, and other family members to Shanghai in July 1939; his father's death six months later; living with his stepmother among the Jewish refugees in a Chinese working-class district; financial support from his uncle's dental practice; attending a Jewish school (the center of his social life); Japanese occupation; confineme...

  6. Frank M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Frank M., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1911. He recalls his brother's emigration to France in 1926; antisemitic incidents while playing soccer; marriage in 1936; briefly visiting Algeria in 1936; the birth of twin daughters in April 1939; draft into the Polish army in August; German invasion; discharge in Zamos?c?; escape from a train in Kovel?; fleeing to L'viv in the Soviet zone; working in a bakery until 1941; German invasion; hiding with assistance from a Polish woman; using false papers; joining his family in the Warsaw ghetto in December 1941; shock at the ...

  7. Henry B., Sophie B., and Millie K., Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Henry and Sophie B. and their daughter Millie K.. Mr. B. was born in Łódź, Poland in 1910. He recalls his mixed neighborhood; cordial relations with non-Jews; marriage in 1937; Millie's birth in 1938; German invasion in September 1939; fleeing with his brother to Soviet-occupied Vilnius, then Šiauliai; German invasion in 1941; exemption from ghettoization due to his job; receiving Ukrainian papers and a travel permit for him and his brother from his wife; reunion with his wife and daughter in Bochnia; moving to Kraków; obtaining a privileged position in communicat...

  8. Eve F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Eve F., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1923. She recalls the prewar emigration to the United States of many members of her mother's family; her own identity as both German and Jew; the edict barring Jewish children from schools and the increasingly tense atmosphere in her own school; the belief held by many Jews that Hitler's antisemitism was temporary; and learning of the deportation of Communists to concentration camps as early as 1933. She relates emigrating with her family to New Orleans in December 1933; the assimilated life styles of her relatives...

  9. Juraj L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Juraj L., who was born in Spišská Nová Ves, Czechoslovakia in 1921. He recalls attending public school; moving to Lučenec in 1930; cordial relations with non-Jews; Hungarian occupation in 1938; returning to Spišská Nová Ves; being drafted for forced labor in the Sixth Slovak Brigade in Sabinov; training in Humenné; slave labor in Svätý Jur; using false documents and a Slovak army uniform provided by a guard to visit his family in 1942 (they were all deported shortly thereafter); improved conditions after transfer to Kralovany, then Banská Belá; smuggling e...

  10. Leo R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Leo R., who was born in Ro?z?an, Russia (currently Poland) in 1913, one of nine children. He recalls attending cheder and public school; participating in Po'alei Zion; anti-Jewish violence; working in Mys?lenice; German invasion; joining his family in Ostro?w Mazowiecki; fleeing with his father and brothers to Soviet-occupied Zambro?w; moving with his parents and several siblings to Slonim; German invasion in 1941; hiding during a mass killing; traveling with a brother, two sisters, and their families to Zambro?w via Bia?ystok; staying with a brother in Tarno?w to avo...

  11. Sonja M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sonja M., who was born in Berlin in 1925. She recalls antisemitic harassment in school; expulsion; attending a Jewish school; refusing a place on a kindertransport to remain with her parents; forced factory labor; her parents' deportation; hiding with her future husband (his job for the Jewish Kultusgemeinde provided protection and influence); deportation to Theresienstadt in June 1943 due to his influence; marriage by a rabbi; a Red Cross visit; deportation to Birkenau in October 1944; transfer ten days later to Freiberg; slave labor in an airplane factory; civilians...

  12. Henryk L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Henryk L., who was born in Warsaw, Poland. He recalls his older brother's emigration to the United States; German invasion; he and his brother being drafted; his unit ending up in Lwo?w under Soviet occupation; returning to Warsaw to help his parents; their move into the ghetto in 1940; his parents' deaths; starvation, typhus, and daily deaths; smuggling his niece out of the ghetto in 1943; going in and out of the ghetto using false papers with assistance from Polish friends; smuggling his girlfriend and her sister through the sewers to a hiding place on the Aryan sid...

  13. Miriam P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Miriam P., who was born in Loosdrecht, Holland, the oldest of four children. She recounts attending school in Hilversum; graduation in 1936; living in England and Paris, each for a year, to improve her language skills; one brother's emigration to Canada in 1938; teaching school in Bilthoven; German invasion in 1940; opening a Jewish school in her parents' home; assistance from a nearby hachsharah, which included her future husband; organizing an underground group to obtain false papers and hide children; her family's deportation to Westerbork in 1943; an underground m...

  14. Clemens L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Clemens L., who was born in Stanis?awo?w, Poland, in 1937. In this impressionistic and reflective testimony, he remembers the loss of his grandmother in 1942; being left by his mother at a Catholic convent at Otwock; feeling accepted and safe there; leading prayers; postwar reunion with his mother; believing himself a "chameleon" after becoming a religious Jew while in a displaced persons camp; longing to recall the toys he had as a child; and imagining his deceased father appearing as a guest lecturer in his American high school. He discusses his belief that he has s...

  15. Sonia S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sonia S., who was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1925, the third of five children. She recalls German invasion; incarceration with her family in the Seventh Fort; a mass killing including her father; transfer with her mother and siblings to the Ninth Fort; release; ghettoization with her younger siblings and mother; smuggling food; hiding her siblings; forced labor; their deportation to an Estonian labor camp; deportation to Auschwitz; a prisoner giving her life-saving advice; learning her mother and siblings had been gassed; recognizing one of her older brothers (she h...

  16. Salamon R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Salamon R., who was born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia in 1919, one of six children. He recalls attending printers' school; active participation in Hashomer Hatzair, Matatja, and the Communist Party; German occupation in 1941; his father's deportation to Stara Gradiška; participating in partisan activities; hiding in Sarajevo; fleeing to join partisans in Romanija; liberating Teslic; capture and torture by Chetniks; transfer in April 1942 to the First Proletarian Brigade; sabotaging railroads and battles; withdrawing to Bosanski Petrovak; meeting the writer Vladimir Dedije...

  17. Hilda B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hilda B., who was born in Steinsfurt, Germany in 1926. She recalls her father's death in 1928 from World War I injuries; moving to a village; having their windows broken on Kristallnacht; expulsion from public school; attending a Jewish school in Heilbronn; her family's deportation while she was away from home in 1940; living with a teacher in Heilbronn; forced labor; briefly studying nursing in Hamburg; and deportation to Theresienstadt in August 1942. Mrs. B. describes the organization of life in Theresienstadt; deportation to Auschwitz in October 1944; transfer to ...

  18. Paulette S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Paulette S., who was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1932, to immigrants from eastern Europe. She recalls a happy childhood; moving to Brussels; summer vacations in Knocke-sur-Mer; attending public school; German invasion; an unsuccessful escape attempt; her brother's birth; her father deciding they should go into hiding; living with a Catholic family in Waterloo; splitting up the family; hiding in Ghent, in an Ursuline convent in Brussels, with several families, and finally with two unmarried sisters, all arranged by a Franciscan priest; a brief visit with her mother; li...

  19. Katarína L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Katarína L., who was born in Bratislava, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1910. She recalls attending gymnasium; participating in a Maccabi sports club; cordial relations with non-Jews; Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria arriving in 1938; Slovak independence in March, 1939; anti-Jewish laws; helping to convey information about Auschwitz to Dr. Tibor Kovács of the Jewish rescue committee; visiting her sister in Nováky using false papers; obtaining her sister's release; exemption from deportation until 1944 due to her job; deportation with her parents and husband, ...

  20. Gertrude H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Getrude H., who was born in approximately 1931 in Reghin, Romania. She recalls no awareness of politics; visiting grandparents in Sighet; wearing the yellow star in 1944; her father's removal by the SS; forced relocation with her mother to the Vis��eul de Sus ghetto; deportation to Auschwitz; a kapo removing her mother from the line of older people and warning them to conceal they were mother and child; staying in the same bunk at night, but keeping apart during the day; the birth of a child in her barrack; burying the baby; the barrack kapo seeing and ignoring it (sh...