Archival Descriptions

Displaying items 101 to 120 of 816
Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
  1. 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.

  2. Julius K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Julius K., who was born in Mannheim, Germany in 1915. He recalls exclusion from university and athletic clubs due to anti-Jewish laws; working in his father's business; traveling to the United States in spring 1938; his father's reluctance to leave; his uncle and father's arrests on Kristallnacht; his parents' and brother's emigration to Chile; his father's death a year later; enlisting in the U.S. ski patrol; serving with the Fifth Army in Italy; acting as a translator for General Lucian Truscott; and discharge in 1945. Mr. K. discusses marriage to a woman from his t...

  3. Frances S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Frances S., who was born in Horocho?w, Poland in 1910. She describes her prewar family and religious life; her marriage in Yugoslavia in 1938; her studies at the University of Belgrade; and her arrest in 1938 before her stay was legalized. She recalls registering for emigration for fear of the Nazis; her flight, once she obtained her visa; her journey to Bombay via Greece, Iraq, and Karachi; and her forty-day trip to the United States, where she arrived in March 1941. She tells of her life here; her impressions of America's inertia with regard to receiving immigrants;...

  4. 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...

  5. Hedy W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hedy W., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1905. She recalls studying piano at the conservatory; marriage in 1928; the births of two sons; the Anschluss; anti-Jewish regulations; her husband's imprisonment in Dachau for a year; transferring funds to Switzerland; obtaining Yugoslavian papers (his parents were Yugoslavs) resulting in her husband's release; traveling via Koprivnica to Zagreb, where they remained for two years; German invasion; fleeing to Split; returning to Zagreb; obtaining Bolivian papers; crossing from Sus?ak to Abbazia (now Opatija) in Italian terri...

  6. Hilda R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hilda R., who was born deaf in Vienna, Austria in 1904. She recalls her family; starting work at age sixteen as a seamstress; her marriage to a deaf man; her two daughters; her husband's neglect of the children because they were deaf (he had hoped for hearing children); their divorce; emigration to the United States in 1940 with assistance from a brother already there; having to remain at Ellis Island because they were deaf; and assistance received from the New York Society for the Deaf. Mrs. R. discusses her strong faith in God; gratitude to the United States; visiti...

  7. Larry S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Larry S., who was born in Hofheim, Germany in 1922. He recounts moving to Bamberg in 1934 or 1935 so his father would not be placed in a concentration camp; his father fleeing to Holland; attending gymnasium in Wu?rzburg with his brother; his father's return; attending school in Florence in 1936; his arrest during Hitler's visit; apprenticeship in a tool and die shop in Nuremberg; his father's arrest during Kristallnacht; being placed on a children's transport to England; living with an aunt and uncle; working as a tool and die maker; and emigrating to the United Stat...

  8. Roger B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Roger B., a Catholic, who was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1921. He recounts attending school; working as an accountant; contact with Jewish refugees fleeing to the United States; German invasion; military draft; service in France; capture by Germans; escaping with others; returning to Brussels; his father's participation in the underground; notification of his draft for labor in Germany; hiding; observing a killing of Jews from his hiding place; remaining in hiding despite obtaining false papers; liberation by British troops; joining a Belgian section of the British ...

  9. Martha W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Martha W., who was born in the Netherlands in 1908. She recalls attending public and Hebrew schools in a small town; living in Paris in the spring of 1939 with her husband and baby; returning to Leiden, Netherlands from a vacation in Biarritz when the war started in September; returning to Paris in 1940; and re-establishing correspondence with her family after the German invasion in May. Mrs. W. describes escaping from Paris in May 1940; crossing to Oran, Algeria; traveling to Casablanca, Morocco; receiving affidavits from relatives in the United States; traveling via...

  10. Ralph M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ralph M., who was born in 1922 and served in the United States Army. He recounts military draft in November 1942; landing at Omaha beach; the Battle of the Bulge; assisting displaced persons; entering Dachau; emaciated prisoners; locating a mass grave near Regensburg; forcing the local townspeople to rebury the dead; working at Straubing displaced persons camp; friendships with refugees; returning home; and military discharge. He shows photographs and a drawing of himself by a former camp prisoner.

  11. 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...

  12. Manfred M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotaped testimony of Manfred M., who was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1917, one of seven children. He recalls cordial relations with non-Jews until 1933; working for the Warburg banking firm; an announcement in 1937 that the bank would become a German firm; Mr. Warburg leaving in tears; several of his own siblings leaving Germany; realizing he had to leave; asking Mr. Warburg for assistance; receiving papers to emigrate to the United States through Mr. Warburg's son; scheduling his emigration for November 11, 1938; Kristallnacht taking place on November 10; arrest shortly thereafter; inca...

  13. 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...

  14. Lisa H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Lisa H., who was born in Essen, Germany in 1919. She remembers the gradual deterioration of the Jewish situation in Germany, including restrictive legislation as well as overt displays of antisemitism; being sent to London by her parents two weeks before the outbreak of war; working as a cook in Devon; switching from one domestic job to another in London; her emigration to America in 1946; studying Yiddish at the Jewish Institute; learning of the death of her family in Europe; returning to Germany on a visit in the 1950s, where she was able to locate the director of h...

  15. Jacques B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jacques B., who was born in Poland in 1933. He recalls living in Warsaw; vacationing in Otwock when the Germans invaded; fleeing to Sarny with his parents; Soviet occupation; attending school until the German invasion in June 1941; fleeing with his parents to Siberia via Kobyzhcha; living with his mother in Turksib and Dzhambul from the end of 1941 until 1946 (his parents were divorced); observing people starving to death; repatriation to Wroc?aw with his mother; pervasive antisemitism in school; joining the youth section of the Bund; and emigration with his mother to...

  16. Libby F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Libby F., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1934 to Polish parents. She recounts being born a triplet (the other two did not return from the hospital with her and their fates are unknown); her family's orthodoxy and poverty; attending a Jewish school; anti-Jewish restrictions; obtaining papers for emigration from an uncle in the United States; Kristallnacht; her father's deportation to Dachau; her mother forging papers to secure his release; her father's emigration; moving into an uncle's house with her mother and brother; and their emigration to the United States. M...

  17. Shary K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Shary K., who was born in Travnik, Yugoslavia in 1918. She tells of her marriage on April 6, 1941, the day of the German invasion; living in Tuzla; leaving her mother behind (she never saw her again) to escape, dressed as a Muslim, to Mostar to join her husband; working as a nurse for the partisans; fleeing to Bari, Italy; emigration to the United States; life at Fort Ontario; and their return trip to Yugoslavia in 1991.

  18. Hermann R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hermann R., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1913 to Polish immigrants. He describes his father's military service; their orthodox home; the rich cultural life and the vibrant Jewish community; attending public school; antisemitic incidents in engineering school; the socialist uprising in 1934; the Anschluss; anti-Jewish measures; his father's decision to leave Austria even if the family separated; his sister's emigration to England; fleeing to Freiburg with his friend; obtaining false German citizenship documents; crossing to Luxembourg; traveling to Brussels, with...

  19. Bernard A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bernard A., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in approximately 1915, an only child. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; attending high school; anti-Jewish legislation preventing him from attending university; arrest with his father on Kristallnacht; their deportation to Buchenwald; his father's release as a World War I veteran; his release after five weeks, based on his promise to emigrate; returning home; emigration to London in February 1939; receiving letters from his parents, first from Belgium, then from France; emigrating to the United States in winter ...

  20. Ida C. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ida C., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1931. She recalls moving to Siedlce, returning to Warsaw prior to 1938; brief German invasion while she was with her grandparents near Siedlce; Soviet occupation; traveling to Minsk; her parents and sister joining them, transport to Arkhangel?sk in late 1939, then to a labor camp in Komi; attending school while her parents worked; hunger; and transfer to Samarqand at the end of 1941. Mrs. C. recounts their return to Poland in 1945; leaving ?o?dz? intending to emigrate to Palestine, living in a displaced persons camp and in Ulm...