Archival Descriptions

Displaying items 4,321 to 4,340 of 4,487
Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
  1. Lea I. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Lea I., who was born in Mszczono?w, Poland. She recalls compulsory relocation of all Jews to Warsaw; deportation to Majdanek; the hanging of an eight-year-old girl; transfer to Auschwitz/Birkenau, then to a forced labor camp near Prague; constant hunger; a soldier who threw her bread; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Mszczono?w; learning none of her family had survived; moving to ?o?dz?; marriage; her son's birth; and emigration to Israel, then to the United States two years later. Mrs. I. notes her strong belief in God and observance of the Jewish dietary laws.

  2. Fenya B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Fenya B., who was born in Odesa, Ukraine in 1932. She describes hiding from bombardments in catacombs during the German invasion; evacuation with her mother, brother, and aunt to Novorossii?sk; living for a month in Krasnodarskii? krai?; renting an apartment in Makhachkala; traveling to Tajikistan; living for six months near the Afghanistan border; traveling to live with her grandparents in Krasnoarme?isk; and returning to Odesa in 1944. Mrs. B. recalls attending school; marriage; the birth of her sons; and emigration to the United States.

  3. 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...

  4. Edith H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Edith H., who was born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, in 1928. She describes her prewar life in Holland; her family's increasing awareness of trouble in Germany; their unsuccessful attempt to flee Holland in the wake of German occupation; anti-Jewish legislation and activities; her difficult and unpleasant life in hiding (on a farm with non-Jews), where she lived for three and a half years, first by herself and later with her parents; her life in Leeuwarden after the war; and the lasting effects of her wartime experiences.

  5. Judy and Michael K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Judy K., an American-born child of Holocaust survivors, and her husband Michael. Mrs. K. remembers feeling different from other Jewish children as she was growing up and the strong tie which she felt to her mother. She describes her and her husband's recent trip to Poland, which was prompted by her need to see her parents' original home, to learn about the Holocaust, and to find her own way of dealing with it. She tells of her visits to Warsaw and Majdanek, where she had imaginary conversations with her maternal grandmother, who perished in Majdanek, and of her visit ...

  6. Jerry S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jerry S., who was drafted into the United States Army in 1943. He recounts assignment to the 82nd Airborne Division; dropping into France behind enemy lines; fighting from town to town in Germany; entering Dachau, having no conception of a concentration camp; observing prisoners who looked like walking cadavers, mostly Jews; providing whatever food and water they had; observing piles of corpses, human hair, and belongings; United Stares military authorities compelling local Germans to go through Dachau; their specious claim of having no knowledge of the camp; and leav...

  7. Robert C. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Robert C., who served in the United States 1st Army, 104th (Timberwolf) Division during World War II. He recalls the division's rapid progress toward the Elbe River; arrival at Nordhausen concentration camp shortly after liberation, where he remained for about a half hour; seeing emaciated, numb inmates wandering out through the gates; deciding not to enter the camp alone; and continuing with his division east. He discusses the importance of preventing a recurrence by keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive and notes his division will soon complete its history, incl...

  8. William R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of William R., who was born in Arizona in 1918. He recounts liberating Mauthausen as a member of the United States Army 11th Armored Division; his shock at seeing thousands of starved and sick prisoners; the pervasive stench; prisoners dying after liberation because they could not digest food; buildings that appeared to be shower rooms but were gas chambers; and hundreds of corpses. He describes an American general who had himself sprayed with DDT so prisoners would allow themselves to be treated for lice to stem the typhus epidemic and the policy of the United States Ar...

  9. Kenneth Z. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Kenneth Z., who was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1917. He recalls his medical education; marriage in 1941; enlistment in the Army Air Force in 1943; and serving as the surgeon for the 8th Armored Division's 399th Field Artillery as they crossed the English Channel in January 1945, progressed through France, Holland, and Germany, and crossed the Rhine on March 27th. He recounts establishing a medical station in Langenstein; entering a nearby concentration camp; his horror at the inmates' condition and mass graves; efforts to help the prisoners; witnessing the killing...

  10. Robert K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Robert K., who was born in New York in 1920. He recalls enlisting in the United States Army at age twenty-one; assignment to the 101st Cavalry Reconnaissance; entering Europe shortly after D Day; receiving radio orders to proceed to a concentration camp in April 1945; prisoners wearing striped uniforms; mounds of smoldering bodies; smoking chimneys; giving the prisoners food; leaving the camp when they were relieved by other soldiers; and learning later that it had been Landsberg concentration camp. Mr. K. recounts his reaction of disbelief upon entering Landsberg and...

  11. Arnold K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Arnold K., who was born in 1923. He recounts enlisting in the United States military when he was nineteen; serving in the Eighth Air Force; visiting Dachau a month after its liberation, having no knowledge of the Holocaust; a pervasive stench; piles of clothing and shoes; and reciting the Kaddish. Mr. K. notes it was many years later that he fully understood what he had seen.

  12. Frank A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Frank A., who served in the United States Army in World War II. He recounts mobilization; transfer to England; landing in Normandy; being wounded by friendly fire; liberating Dachau; observing unburied corpses; taking photographs of the corpses and emaciated survivors; United States officers forcing local German civilians to walk through the camp (they denied knowledge of what happened there), to dig graves, and to bury the corpses; and his departure two hours later. Mr. A. notes sending his photographs of Dachau to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and show...

  13. Luba Z. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Luba Z., who was born in Wyszko?w, Poland in 1914, one of nine children. She recounts visits to Warsaw; German invasion; fleeing with her family to Sarny; fleeing further with one sister (she never saw her family again); hiding in various places, including Zhadova; marriage; traveling to Germany; living in Lechfeld displaced persons camp; her son's birth; and emigration to the United States. Ms. Z. notes her son does not want her to discuss her experiences because she becomes too upset. She shows photographs.

  14. Morris K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Morris K., who was born in Po?aniec, Poland in 1917. He recalls escaping with two friends from a forced evacuation of the town in October 1942; being hidden in a cave by farmers (they had been his father's customers), who also hid a Jewish girl in their home; liberation by Soviet troops in 1944; working for the Soviets; fleeing to ?o?dz? after Jews were killed by soldiers of the Polish underground; marriage to a concentration camp survivor; and emigration to Cuba in 1947, then to the United States in 1961. Mr. K. sings a song from the Warsaw ghetto.

  15. Bracha R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bracha R., who was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1927. She recounts her parents had emigrated from Poland; German invasion; fleeing to Toulouse; attending school; her father's return to Brussels; rejoining him with her mother a few months later; her father bringing her to the home of non-Jews to hide, then to another home a few days later; remaining for about eighteen months; being placed with another family under a false name for the rest of the war; reunion with her parents; marriage; and the births of a son and daughter.

  16. 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;...

  17. Ursula D. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ursula D., a non-Jew, who was born in Cologne, Germany in 1938. She recounts her parents' anti-Nazi sympathies; her father listening to Allied radio broadcasts; Allied bombing; constant fear; arrival of United States troops; postwar hardships, including rationing; an influx of refugees; her sense that Germans refused to admit culpability for the war and considered themselves "victims"; visiting relatives in Belgium, where she first learned about the Holocaust; confronting her parents; their unwillingness to discuss it; moving to Israel in the early 1960s; marriage to ...

  18. Miriam A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Miriam A., who was born in Hungary, one of eight children. She recounts her father's position as a Hebrew teacher in Nyi?rba?tor; her brothers' draft into Hungarian slave labor battalions; studying nursing in Budapest; returning home in 1942; German invasion in 1944; ghettoization; deportation with her family to Auschwitz four weeks later; separation from her family, except her sister, in Birkenau; transfer to Dachau in August; and liberation by United States troops in April 1945. She shows a photograph of one of the men who liberated her.

  19. Edith K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Edith K., who was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1924, an only child. She recalls their assimilated home; essentially being raised by her grandmother; German invasion in 1944; her parents' round-up in November 1944 (she never saw them again); escaping with two friends from a round-up; returning to Budapest; hiding with her future husband's family; obtaining false papers through non-Jewish friends; living as a non-Jew in several places; liberation in January 1945; reunion with her grandmother; learning no other relatives had survived; marriage in 1948; escaping with her ...

  20. Bert E. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bert E., who served in the United States Army in World War II. He recounts serving in a tank battalion of the 4th Armored Division; deployment to Europe in 1944; entering Ohrdruf concentration camp; emaciated prisoners; stacks of corpses; his state of shock; and assignment to occupation forces in Wilseder Berg where they found prisoners bodies in a mass grave, and then organized a proper funeral. He reads excerpts and shows photographs, including his own, from the history of the 4th Armored Division.