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Displaying items 21 to 40 of 816
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Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. Leo G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Leo G., who was born in Berlin in 1921. Mr. G. details his family history and speaks of his prewar life. He describes his experiences of antisemitism during the rise of Nazism, both in school and in his neighborhood. He relates the death of his father in 1933; Kristallnacht and other anti-Jewish actions which followed; his departure from his mother and three sisters, whom he never saw again; and his emigration to the United States. He recounts his enlistment in the U.S. Army in 1942; his training as a denazification expert; and his arrival in Normandy, where he witnes...

  2. Siegried K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Siegfried K., who was born in Danzig in 1930. He notes Danzig's unique place in Jewish history and speaks of his luxurious prewar life. He tells of the rise of Nazism and recalls shaking Hitler's hand during a visit to Berlin as a small child. The disturbances and attacks by the Brownshirts and his experiences with antisemitism, which continued in the United States, are also related. He describes his family's flight to England in 1938; the difficulty of leaving home and relatives, and, for him, leaving behind his beloved dog; the help given them by German non-Jews; hi...

  3. Ruth W. and Maryann L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ruth W., who was active in New York in the wartime relief efforts of the Congregational Church, and her daughter, Maryann L., who has helped lead church groups through Germany since the war. Mrs. W. describes her work with refugees in Europe and the United States, including the rescue network operated by the churches, and the difficulty in assigning responsibility for the refugees. Mrs. L. discusses her group trips to Germany, noting the desolation that characterized Warsaw and Berlin. Both speak of their reactions during a visit to Dachau, of bringing information bac...

  4. Hans F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hans F., who was born in 1922, the youngest of three children, into an assimilated family in Breslau, and moved to Berlin at the age of seven. He is now a professor of Religious Studies and much of his testimony is suffused with a psycho-historical critique of the topics he discusses. From his personal experience, Professor F. tells of his early politicization; his parents' fear for the family; his education in England, where he became a religious Christian (while his father, still in Germany, renounced his own conversion and returned to Judaism as a political protest...

  5. Hans L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hans L., who was born in Colmar, Alsace (then Germany, now France) in 1906. He discusses the death of his father shortly after his birth; his childhood in Kassel, Germany and then, from the age of five, in Berlin; and his feelings of Jewish identity within an assimilated family. He recalls the atmosphere in Berlin during World War I; the post-war political instability; and the Nazi rise to power. He speaks of his education as a philosophy student under Martin Heidegger; his pursuit of a medical degree; the anti-Jewish order resulting in his dismissal from his internsh...

  6. Bruce T. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bruce T., who was born in L?vov, Poland in 1914. He speaks of prewar family and community life; the Russian occupation in 1939, followed by the German occupation; and the formation of the L?vov ghetto in the fall of 1942. He recalls Polish antisemitism and aid to the Nazis in hunting Jews; his activities with a resistance group based in Skole, on the Hungarian-Polish border; his capture and incarceration in Munkacs; and his transfer to Budapest as an alleged spy. Mr. T. relates his escape from Budapest, joining the Hungarian underground as a tactician; his attempts to...

  7. Sandor G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sandor Arye G., who was born in Cluj, Romania. He describes his active involvement in the Zionist organization in Cluj; his unsuccessful attempts to convince the people around him to flee to Palestine; the partition of Transylvania in 1940; and a trip to Budapest to prepare for emigration to Palestine. He tells of leading a Youth Aliyah group to Palestine via Romania, Istanbul, and Lebanon in 1941; joining the British army as a volunteer in 1942; and smuggling Jewish children from Egypt to Palestine. He relates being sent with his company to Italy, where he became fam...

  8. Helen S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Helen S., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1920. She speaks of her childhood; the rise of antisemitism in prewar Berlin; escape from Germany through Holland in 1938; her family's emigration to the United States after being detained in an internment camp in Bonaire, Netherlands West Indies; and her adult life in the United States.

  9. Eva and Frank S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Eva and her husband Frank S., both of whom are from Germany. Mrs. S. describes her childhood in a well-to-do assimilated Jewish family in Berlin; her vivid recollection of the day that Hitler came to power; the changes that took place in Nazi Germany, particularly as they affected her in school; Kristallnacht; her emigration to England, as part of a children's transport; and her life in England. Mr. S. speaks of his childhood and youth in Breslau; experiences with antisemitism in school, beginning shortly before Hitler came to power; and the patriotism of German Jews ...

  10. Gabrielle S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gabrielle S., who was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1914. She describes her childhood; the impact of the Nuremberg laws; emigration to the United States in 1938; and returning to Europe as a social worker in 1947 to assist Jewish refugees. Mrs. S. relates her deceased husband's story because she is the last one who knows it. Mr. S. was born in Galicia in 1912. She recounts his being sent away for schooling; attending medical school in Bologna, Italy; his return home; conditions under Russian occupation; the German occupation and being exempted from extermination because...

  11. Martha S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Martha S., who was born in Prague in 1907. Mrs. S. describes her early family life; her family's move to the Sudeten in 1909; and her family's reaction to her marrying a non-Jewish child survivor of the Armenian genocide. She recounts the plight of the Jews in the wake of Kristallnacht and her husband's help in assisting her and her parents to flee to Czechoslovakia. She recalls anti-Jewish restrictions; her designation, along with her oldest "Jewish" daughter, for transport to a labor camp (a younger daughter was not designated as Jewish); and her husband's conscript...

  12. Cecille B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Cecille B., who was born in Czernowitz, Austria in 1898. Mrs. B. describes her family; her brother, who left for the United States in 1907; moving to Mannheim, where her father worked for prominent relatives; meeting her husband, a Polish citizen; the birth of her son and daughter; citizenship problems due to the transfer of the city of Czernowitz from Austria to Romania; meeting Nahum Goldman in 1924, and asking his assistance in obtaining citizenship papers. She relates changes resulting from Hitler's rise to power; she and her husband losing their business in 1938;...

  13. Bertha B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bertha B., who was born in 1904 in Wiesbaden, Germany. She describes early family life; emigration to Antwerp in 1933; and prewar life in Antwerp with her family. She recalls the German occupation of Belgium in 1940; her family's failed attempt to flee to southern France; the deportation of her husband in 1942 (she never saw him again); and the Nazi capture of her mother and niece. Mrs. B. tells of placing her younger son in the care of the Belgian underground; her underground life in Brussels with her older son; the eventual removal of both sons to private homes; and...

  14. Walter K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Walter K., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1914. He describes his family background; the Anschluss and resulting terror; losing his job; unsuccessful escape attempts through Luxembourg to Brussels; returning to Vienna; the terrorism and destruction of Crystal Night; his arrest and transfer to Dachau; slave labor and his efforts to remain unnoticed; and release in April due to membership in a Zionist organization which obtained emigration papers for him to Great Britain as a farm laborer. He describes arrival in London; transfer to Wales; several farm jobs; internme...

  15. John P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of John P., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1904. Mr. P. describes the atmosphere and political conditions in Vienna; prewar antisemitism; his family's desire to assimilate; his marriage in 1933; early observations of changing conditions; watching a boycott against Jews from a rooftop in 1938; his mother's refusal to leave because she was the widow of a World War I veteran, was married to another at that time, and was reluctant to leave her art collection; and his escape with his wife to Paris. He relates their incarceration in a French jail for one month; release and...

  16. Erna P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Erna P., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1903. She describes her childhood and education in a middle class Viennese family; her marriage in 1933; changes in living conditions which resulted in their decision to leave; her pregnancy and abortion; escaping to Brussels in 1938; meeting her parents there; leaving for Paris with her husband because they had no documents; incarceration in a French jail for one month because of lack of documents; obtaining visas for the United States in 1939 while her husband was in a French internment camp; arrival in New York; and obtai...

  17. Henry K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Henry K., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1934. He recalls his family's unsuccessful escape to France; staying in Antwerp; his father's arrest; going to Paris, then Marseille, with his mother and two sisters; their arrest and detention in Rivesaltes in 1942 where his father rejoined them; being loaded on a freight car for deportation and being taken off with his younger sister at the last moment; separation from his sister; and being placed with a family near Limoges where he lived until the end of the war. He describes posing as a Catholic; his foster family's con...

  18. Anne-Marie R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Anne-Marie R., who was born in Krefeld, Germany in 1925. She describes her assimilated family who had lived in Germany since 1630; moving to Mannheim; friendships with non-Jews; being beaten by other children after school and being helped by her non-Jewish friends; moving to Switzerland because her mother had tuberculosis; her mother's death in 1938; moving to Holland with her stepfather and maternal grandmother; and the German invasion when her stepfather was in Brazil. She recalls moving to Bussum; attending a public school for one year; having to wear a star and no...

  19. Ludwig H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ludwig H., who was born in Gru?nberg, Germany in 1902. He describes moving to Breslau, then Dortmund where he spent his youth and young adulthood; anti-Semitic incidents prior to the war; arrest in 1933 by three Nazis; imprisonment with his dog; the return of his dog by the S.A. to Mr. H.'s mother; his own release after eight days with a document certifying his imprisonment; and escape with his brother to Paris, where he was allowed to remain because of the document which proved he was a victim of religious persecution. He recalls working for a banker; his marriage in...

  20. Simon B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Simon B., who was born in Berlin in 1909. Mr. B. recalls his family's close relationship with the non-Jewish family who lived in the apartment above his; his father's military service during the first World War; quitting school in order to help his ailing father with the family business; his attempt to emigrate to Israel; and the totally transformed attitude of his German "friends" after 1933. He describes anti-Jewish measures to which he was subjected; Kristallnacht; hiding from the police; being smuggled, with his wife, into Belgium, and arranging for his parents to...