Archival Descriptions

Displaying items 781 to 800 of 816
Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
  1. Laura M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Laura M., who was a social worker for the National Refugee Service, then the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. She recalls arriving in Havana, Cuba in February 1939; dealing with many German Jewish refugees; knowing in advance the St. Louis was arriving and its passengers would not be allowed to disembark; the staff not sleeping for the eight days the ship was in harbor in their efforts to assist; her colleague visiting the ship daily; arranging disembarkation in European countries other than Austria and Germany; transfer to Shanghai in April 1941; working...

  2. David K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of David K., a researcher who specialized in the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. He discusses the emigration of many Jews to Shanghai, their relationships with the already existing Jewish communities, the Chinese, and the Japanese. His book Japanese, Nazis & Jews : the Jewish refugee community of Shanghai, 1938-1945, is an authoritative study of this subject.

  3. Fred H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Fred H., who was born in Ulm, Germany in 1919. He recalls a two-year apprenticeship in Freidrichshafen; his mother's death in 1931; realizing that Germany was no place for Jews when the family store was vandalized in 1933; his two sisters' emigration to the United States in 1936 and 1937; his sisters arranging his passage to Cuba; embarkation on the St. Louis in Hamburg; learning they could not disembark in Cuba; efforts by the Joint to assist them; kindness from the crew; returning to Europe; debarkation in Antwerp; living in Brussels; his family arranging exit paper...

  4. Clara and Julius W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Clara W. and Julius W. Ms. W. was born in Crumstadt, Germany in approximately 1906. She recounts their decision to emigrate after her husband was taken to Dachau; leaving on the St. Louis with her husband, daughter, father and other relatives; not being allowed to disembark in Cuba; entering England with their family; and emigration to join her brother in the United States in 1946. Mr. W. was born in Lustadt, Germany in approximately 1897. He recalls five weeks incarceration in Dachau beginning on November 10, 1938; his release based on his leaving Germany as soon as ...

  5. Gertrude M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gertrude M., who was born in Germany in 1915. In addition to information included in a previously cataloged testimony (HVT-1368), Ms. M. recalls living in Hilversum after German invasion of the Netherlands; a non-Jewish friend arranging her hiding place in Haarlem; and staying there from August 1942 to January 1943. She notes improved communications today enable people to help during genocides such as in Cambodia.

  6. Hans and Ruth F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hans F., who was born in Breslau, Germany (currently Wrocław, Poland) in 1928, and his wife Ruth F. In addition to information in a subsequently recorded testimony, Mr. F. notes visiting Chile after the war, where he met his wife, and his belief that the refusal of the United States to allow entry of the St. Louis passengers was a test in which Hitler determined no one would assist Europe's Jews. Ruth F. recalls her uncle's brother-in-law emigrating to Chile from Germany in the early 1930s; her uncle joining him in 1936 (he later arranged for her and her parents' emi...

  7. Hans F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hans F., who was born in Breslau, Germany (presently Wrocław, Poland). He recounts anti-Jewish restrictions; his father's arrest and incarceration in Buchenwald on Kristallnacht; his release in December 1938 based on his departure from Germany followed by his emigration to Cuba in January 1939; his father's friend arranging for Mr. F., his sister, and mother to emigrate to Cuba; the painful separation from his grandparents (he suspected he would never see them again); buying permits in Hamburg at the Cuban consulate; their departure on the St. Louis; the Cuban govern...

  8. Harry E. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Harry E., a non-Jew, who was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1921. He recalls employment in the immigration section of the Department of Justice in 1938; assisting his supervisor in Antwerp, Belgium on the St. Louis, when it returned to Europe (Holland had agreed to take a portion of the Jewish refugees); passengers passing him notes attempting to document connections to Holland; his supervisor choosing those who had high numbers for emigration elsewhere to minimize their stays in Holland; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions, including wearing the star; some n...

  9. Fred B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Fred B., who was born in Krumbach, Germany. He recalls his family's roots there since the sixteenth century; attending high school in Ulm, then ORT training in Munich; rising antisemitism beginning in 1933; obtaining a visa to emigrate to Cuba; sailing on the St. Louis in May 1939 (his parents and sisters were to join him); socializing en route with Fred H. and others; all the passengers being prevented from disembarking in Cuba; sailing around the Caribbean and southern Florida; returning to Europe; passenger watches to prevent others from committing suicide; disemba...

  10. Morris B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Morris B., who was born in Galicia in 1913. He recounts his family fleeing to Vienna during World War I; his determination to learn Austrian German and assimilate into the culture, thinking his future was there; working in a textile factory; attending law school; attending a Nazi convention in Munich in 1936 with fellow students; German occupation in 1938; marriage; arrest on Kristallnacht; beatings and shootings; an Austrian officer releasing him; emigration to Geneva via Italy; obtaining emigration papers to Cuba with assistance from a non-Jewish banker in Zurich; e...

  11. Egon and Mina H. and Gerda and Samuel A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Egon and Mina H. Egon H. was born in Berlin, Germany in 1923. He recounts his family's proud German identity; destruction of their business on Kristallnacht; his father's decision to emigrate to Shanghai, the only place open to them; his father opening a grocery store; working in a metal factory; Japanese occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions, including ghettoization; assistance from the Joint and HIAS; food shortages and lack of sanitation; Allied bombings in July 1945; learning of the Holocaust after the war; and emigration to join uncles in the United States. Mina H...

  12. Gerda and Samuel A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gerda and Samuel A. Gerda A. was born in Vienna, Austria in 1928. She recalls expulsion from school; antisemitic harassment; her father's decision that the family emigrate to Shanghai, against her mother's wishes; their arrival in October 1938; her father establishing a business; deterioration of conditions after Pearl Harbor; ghettoization in Hongkew; transfer to the Kadoorie school; positive contacts with Horace Kadoorie; rampant diseases resulting from lack of sanitation and hunger; the Jews establishing a theater, hospital, and athletic teams; difficult relations ...

  13. Ernest K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ernest K., who was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1919. He recounts his father had been born in the United States and retained his U.S. citizenship; speaking Esperanto at home; attending an Esperanto conference in Vienna with his younger brother and parents when he was five; speaking German, Hungarian, and Slovak; leaving gymnasium due to increased antisemitism; participating in Maccabi (wrestling and gymnastics); his father's efforts to obtain visas to the U.S.; arrest with his father and brother for defending themselves from an antisemiti...

  14. Eva G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Eva G., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1920, an only child. She recalls a comfortable childhood in an assimilated family; attending private school, then at age ten, public school; observing Hitler marching from their balcony; close relations with their maids, which ended abruptly after the Nuremberg laws; the trauma of being shunned by former friends; hiding during Kristallnacht; her parents sending her to England in March 1939; working as a maid in London, and as a secretary in Epsom and at a paper factory; her parents emigrating to the United States, with assist...

  15. Samuel S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Samuel S., who was born in Sni︠a︡tyn, Poland (presently Ukraine) in 1920. He recounts his family's move to Vienna the following year; antisemitic harassment in school; Austrians warmly welcoming German occupation in 1938; attending Jewish school due to anti-Jewish restrictions; his father's arrest (he was in Dachau for four months, then Buchenwald for four months); his release upon promising to emigrate; obtaining documents in 1939 for three to emigrate to Palestine; his father, mother, and younger sister emigrating there; his emigration to Belfast with assistance fro...

  16. Claude L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Claude L., who was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1920, the youngest of three children. She recounts her assimilated family; studying with private tutors, then in public school; a close relationship with her nanny; her father's death in 1933; learning she was Jewish from her brother; graduating from university; vacationing in Greece with her brother; German invasion in May 1940; her brother warning them to escape; fleeing with her mother and nanny to Paris; living in Argenton; assistance from family friends; being wounded in a German bombing; hospitalization and surgery...

  17. Gerald F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gerald F., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1921, one of three children. He recounts his father being wounded in World War I; attending school; increasing antisemitism; attending a Jewish school; expropriation of his father's business; emigration to England via the Netherlands in 1938; working on a farm and attending evening classes at Cambridge University; his family joining him; imprisonment as an enemy alien; transfer to the Isle of Man five months later; reunion with his brother and father after his release; attending university in London; working as a chemist w...

  18. Shulamit L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Shulamit L., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1927. She recounts her family's poverty; attending public school; her parents' divorce; living with her mother; the Anschluss; anti-Jewish restrictions resulting in expulsion from school; participating in a Zionist youth group; her father's remarriage; Kristallnacht; her father's emigration to the United States; her emigration with other children via Trieste to Palestine in 1940; receiving a postcard from her mother in Theresienstadt; living with a family in Jerusalem, then at a children's village; learning after the war...

  19. 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 ...

  20. Milton L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Milton L., who was born in Ulanów, Poland, the youngest of seven children. He recalls working in the family bakery business; attending public school and cheder; antisemitic harassment; two brothers emigrating to the United States in 1939; German invasion followed by Soviet occupation; leaving with the Soviet forces; traveling to Młodów; two brothers and his sister returning home; deportation by the Soviets to Siberia in fall 1940; working with his brothers cutting trees; moving with his mother and brothers to Samarqand two years later; separation from his family whe...