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Displaying items 781 to 800 of 816
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Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. Max L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Max L., who was born in Wuppertal, Germany in 1921, the younger of two children. He recounts attending public and Hebrew schools; antisemitic harassment; participating in a Jewish scout group; anti-Jewish boycotts and restrictions; his bar mitzvah in 1934, the last time his extended family was together; his sister's emigration to the United States in 1936; his emigration in 1937; his parents' arrival in 1938; military draft in 1942; training as a dental technician; marriage; and the births of two children. Mr. L. discusses planning a ten-day visit to Germany in 1987; ...

  2. Zohn M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Zohn M., who was drafted into the United States Army and served in the 103rd Infantry Division, 409th Regiment in World War II. He recounts liberating slave labor camps in Bavaria; entering Landsberg concentration camp; stacks of corpses; encountering a group of camp prisoners being evacuated; describing them as walking skeletons; entering Dachau after its liberation; a former prisoner guiding him through the camp; and screening refugees moving into displaced persons camp. He shows photographs and items from the camps, a book about his regiment, and reads from a lette...

  3. Sonia R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sonia R., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1925. She recounts her parents' divorce when she was three; living with her father; the painting of Stars of David on his shop windows in 1935; having to attend a Jewish school (the Goldschmidt School); participating in Zionist organizations; her father's harassment during a business trip; visits to family members in Poland and England who doubted that the Nazis represented a real danger; attending the 1936 Olympics; her father's marriage in 1937 in New York to an American for emigration purposes; receiving a United States ...

  4. Abraham K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Abraham K., who was born in Goworowo, Poland in 1933. He recalls German invasion; fires and shooting; his father arranging for them (his sister, mother, aunt, uncle, two cousins and three grandparents) to flee to Soviet-occupied Bia?ystok; deportation to Siberia by the Soviets; his mother's death (his grandparents and one cousin also eventually died); placement in an orphanage with his sister; his uncle and father serving in the military; separation from his sister for two years; retrieval by his uncle after the war; being smuggled to Germany; and emigration to the Un...

  5. Walter F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Walter F., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1919. He recalls his close family; deciding to leave Austria immediately after the Anschluss; antisemitic harassment by brown-shirted boys; traveling to Italy with a cousin; working in Albanian oil fields; moving to Tirana before receiving their visas; a brief reunion with his father (he was waiting to leave for England to join his wife); emigration to the United States; enlisting in the army; and visiting his parents in London when he was stationed in England. He discusses his desire to forget everything prior to emigrati...

  6. Susan B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Susan B., who was born in 1920, the youngest of four children. She recalls childhood in an affluent, traditional family in Warsaw; attending private school; her parents' disbelief that the events in Germany would affect them; German invasion in September 1939; her brother and fiance? fleeing to L'viv in the Soviet zone; illegally traveling to L'viv with her sister in December 1939; marriage in 1940; fleeing to Vilna with her husband; obtaining a Japanese transit visa from the Japanese consul, Chiune Sugihara; traveling to Moscow, then Japan, in January 1941; obtaining...

  7. Lillian A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Lillian A., who was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1925. Mrs. A. discusses her family history; prewar Berlin life; experiences of antisemitism during the rise of Nazism; relations with her parents and their attitudes towards Judaism; attending Jewish school; Kristallnacht; the impact of the Nuremberg laws; and departure for Cuba in 1940 with her parents, from where they later emigrated to the United States. Mrs. A. tells of her life in New York and assistance received from HIAS.

  8. Charlotte K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Charlotte K., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1903. She recalls interest in her brother's books; participation in youth movements; marriage in 1927; the birth of two sons in Germany; emigration to France in 1933; the birth of two more sons; seeing her parents for the last time in 1939; and moving to Limoges in 1940. She recounts her husband's attempts to obtain emigration papers; his arrest by French police and release because his two youngest sons were French; receiving exit papers in August 1941; travel to Madrid and Portugal; receiving assistance from...

  9. Olga W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Olga W., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1913. She remembers a pleasant lifestyle as an assimilated family; her perception of Frankfurt as having a liberal atmosphere and absence of antisemitism; participation in a "study group" to combat antisemitism in 1931; expulsion from law school in 1933; efforts to emigrate; marriage in 1933; and her family's emigration to Holland and hers to Porto, Portugal. Mrs. W. describes the small German-Jewish community; a 1936 visit to her in-laws in Germany; awareness of the imminence of war; bringing her parents, sister ...

  10. 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...

  11. Kurt G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Kurt G., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1907. He describes his family's orthodoxy; pervasive antisemitism; his father's death in 1930; marriage; German occupation; arrest in May 1938, then incarceration in Dachau in June, and transfer to Buchenwald in September; forced labor; his shock at being incarcerated simply for being Jewish; release after his wife obtained a visa for Shanghai for him; emigration with his wife to the United States via Zurich and Paris; arriving in February 1939; and his brother and mother joining them. Mr. G. emphasizes his continuing negati...

  12. Peter G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Peter G., a distinguished scholar and professor of history, who was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1923. Professor G. describes his childhood and education; his parents' atheism; the Nuremberg laws; the different opinions people held about the Nazis; his family's haphazard plans to emigrate; Kristallnacht; obtaining passage to Cuba; his two year stay in Havana; and his emigration to the United States. He also discusses the opposing theories of whether the Holocaust could happen again; the impact that the refugees had on United States intellectual life; and his thoughts o...

  13. Gustav R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gustav R., who was born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1929. He speaks of his childhood in pre-war Germany; differences in the attitudes of his parents towards Judaism; the rise of Nazism in Germany; his father's arrest and imprisonment in Buchenwald in the wake of Kristallnacht; the difficulties encountered by his family in attempts to leave Germany; the family's eventual emigration to the United States after spending one and one-half years in Cuba; and the influences his wartime experiences had on his later life, particularly on his relationship with his children.

  14. 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...

  15. Sophie S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sophie S., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1920. She recounts her family history; antisemitic incidents at school; her family's efforts to emigrate to the United States after German annexation; violence and terror during Kristallnacht; her father's arrest and incarceration in Dachau; emigration, with her younger brother, to the United States in 1938; her father's release; and her parents' arrival in 1939. Mrs. S. discusses the importance of an aunt in the United States to her family's ability to emigrate; the deaths of extended family members during the Holocaust; ...

  16. Frank S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Frank S., who was born in Breslau, Germany, in 1921. He describes his childhood in Breslau and the changes which he experienced, particularly in school after 1933. He also details his apprenticeship, at the age of fifteen, to a Nazi electrician; the experience of Kristallnacht, during which he was protected by his gentile cleaning lady; his emigration to England in 1938, where he, a German citizen, was confined as an enemy alien after the outbreak of the war; and the effect of these experiences on his personality.

  17. Paul G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Paul G., who was born in Vienna in 1909. He recalls his medical education; prewar antisemitism in Vienna; his unsuccessful attempt to get help emigrating to England in 1936; the German occupation of Austria (Anschluss); his escape from Austria to join his mother in Czechoslovakia; and his departure for the United States, after many attempts, two days before the deadline. He relates his arrival and adjustment to life in the United States, where he became a dentist; the death of his father; the fate of other family members; and his anxiety and guilt feelings about not b...

  18. Rabbi Henry B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rabbi Henry B., who was born in Fu?rth, Germany, in 1907. He speaks of family life before the war; antisemitism in Furth; his experience on Kristallnacht in Frankfurt am Main; and his 1940 departure for Cuba, from where he later emigrated to the United States. He stresses that antisemitism existed in Germany before Hitler, recalling the increasing repression and the persecution of German Jews before the outbreak of war. He also describes his return to Germany in 1950 to visit his father's grave; his brief stint as the head rabbi in Lima, Peru; and his anger at the Uni...

  19. Thomas W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Thomas W., who was born in Prague in 1917 in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. He recalls his parents' total assimilation; moving to Hamburg; his parents' divorce in 1934; their return to Prague; studying English literature and linguistics; teaching at a Swiss boarding school; returning to Czechoslovakia; German occupation; futile efforts to emigrate through Poland; obtaining a refugee fellowship at Harvard University; receiving exit documents; parting from his mother; traveling on a train full of German soldiers; arriving in Holland; crossing to England; leaving for the...

  20. Georg P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Georg P., who was born in Rakovni?k, Czechoslovakia in 1921. He recounts attending high school; visiting Prague frequently; his family's desire to leave after the Munich agreement; arranging to attend New York University with assistance from his uncle in New York; obtaining a visa from German authorities in Prague in September 1939; emigration to the United States; and corresponding with his family until the United States entered the war in 1941. Mr. P. discusses learning from a cousin that his parents and sisters were killed in Auschwitz; receiving his sister's diary...