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Displaying items 4,341 to 4,360 of 4,487
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Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. Lucie W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Lucie W., who was born in Bad Berleburg, Germany in 1924. This is a follow-up to her previous testimony recorded in 1980. She describes visiting Bad Berleburg for a series of events organized by the local residents to document and memorialize the Jews of the city, survivors, and those who were murdered during the Nazi period. She also relates her experience in Röddenau, her mother's birthplace (she had visited her grandmother there as a child on her grandmother's birthday). She was invited by the present population, who memorialized her maternal family's residence a...

  2. Rabbi Baruch G. edited testimony

    Rabbi Baruch G., a survivor from Mława, Poland, tells of his childhood and youth. Recollections of the joyous Passovers of his childhood call to mind his feelings of loneliness at his son's bar mitzvah, at which there was no one present from his side of the family, since all had perished in the Holocaust. Rabbi G. chronicles the breakdown and destruction of his closely-knit extended family and his own personal deterioration as he experienced the degradations of numerous concentration and slave labor camps. He describes the process of his recovery and relates his insights into its limitatio...

  3. Ellen S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ellen S., a non-Jew who was born in Bohemia. Mrs. S. describes her life in Plzen?; her limited yet positive contact with Jews; the German occupation and increasing restrictions on her freedom; her apprenticeship to a dressmaker; and her peripheral knowledge of the Jewish situation. She relates the shock of seeing a deportation train full of abused prisoners, and her thwarted attempts to feed them; her subsequent attempts to aid people when possible; and the inability of the church to address the immediate situation. She also speaks of meeting the American G.I. who was...

  4. H. D. S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of H.D. S., who served in the United States Army in World War II. He recounts assignment to a POW camp in New Mexico; landing in Le Havre; moving into Germany; entering Dachau; giving all his food to the starving prisoners; entering barracks and a crematorium; traveling to Salzburg three weeks later; delivering supplies to Ulm displaced persons camp; and discharge in 1945. Mr. S. notes nightmares and physical ailments resulting from the war and never discussing his experiences. He shows documents.

  5. Rose D. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rose D., who was born in Poland. She recalls her three older brothers were married and had children; her parents' deaths before the war; incarceration in a concentration camp in Poland for about four weeks; transfer to Buchenwald; slave labor in a munitions factory; sharing extra water with fellow prisoners; transfer to Bergen-Belsen; learning four nephews were the sole family survivors; emigration to the United States in late 1947; marriage; and raising a daughter. Ms. D. notes health problems resulting from her camp experiences; her continuing belief in God; and dif...

  6. Stefan R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Stefan R., who was born in a small city in Romania in 1914 and spent most of his prewar life in Oradea Mare. He tells of his family life without his father, who died when he was six years old; his service in the Romanian army (1934-1936;) his conscription in 1942, after the Hungarian takeover, into the Jewish brigade of the Hungarian army, from which he repeatedly escaped; and his hiding in Budapest, at times with the aid of the Communist and Jewish undergrounds, and for a time in a Swedish safe house, until the city's liberation by the Russians.

  7. Thomas R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Thomas R., who was born in 1920 and served in the United States Army in World War II. He recounts military draft after Pearl Harbor; serving in the 3rd army, 79th infantry division; deployment to Belfast, then England; crossing the channel; fighting in France, Austria and Germany; encountering several slave labor camps; entering Dachau; "skeleton-like" prisoners; freight cars filled with corpses; being stationed in Salzburg; observing evacuations of displaced persons; and military discharge.

  8. Leon F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Leon F., who was born in Zolochiv, Poland (presently Ukraine) in 1919, one of five sons. He recounts studying in a yeshiva; mobilization shortly before the war; Soviet occupation; German invasion; hiding with Jews and non-Jews in several locations; his brother suggesting he hide elsewhere; learning his brother and mother had been killed; visiting his wife who was hiding elsewhere; and liberation by Soviet troops.

  9. Martin S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Martin S., who was born in Bronx, New York in 1922 and served in the United States military as a radio repair man in Europe during World War II. He recounts passing outside of Buchenwald immediately prior to its liberation and observing thousands of skeletal prisoners in striped uniforms as well as the pervasive stench of dead bodies. Although his unit left the next day, having no exposure to the prisoners except briefly observing them twice, Mr. S. notes it was one of his most traumatic experiences.

  10. John R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of John R., who was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1917. He recalls enlisting in the United States Army; moving from England through France to Germany; having no prior knowledge of concentration camps; arriving in Buchenwald shortly after its liberation; initial shock at the conditions; emaciated, lethargic prisoners; piles of corpses; several prisoners dying in front of him; the contrast between the prisoner and SS barracks; and taking pictures so he would not forget what he had seen. Mr. R. notes the lack of interest of those to whom he described his visit; ceasing to d...

  11. Lucie W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Lucie W., who was born in Bad Berleburg, Germany in 1924. She describes instances of Nazi-related antisemitism in public school; her family's experiences during Kristallnacht and its aftermath; her journey to Belgium, along with her brother and sister, on a children's transport; and her unsuccessful attempt to escape into France. She also relates her illegal entry into Germany in February 1941, in order to emigrate to the United States with her family, and her subsequent emigration to the United States via Portugal.

  12. Elbridge H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Elbridge H., who was born in 1924 and served with the United States Army 20th Armored Division in World War II. He recounts entering Dachau immediately after it was liberated; being overwhelmed with grief; the pervasive stench; piles of corpses; emaciated, dazed inmates; and leaving shortly thereafter. Mr. H. discusses his inability to believe the "inhumanity" of the camp; visiting Dachau with his family in 1964; and recently speaking publicly about his experience at Dachau.

  13. Rosita K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rosita K., who was born in Cluj, Romania. She speaks of the ghetto of Cluj, where she lived for four weeks; her deportation to Auschwitz; daily life in Auschwitz; her work as a slave laborer; the kindness shown her by a Wehrmacht soldier; her transfer to Bergen-Belsen where she was liberated by the British; her postwar stay in Sweden before emigrating to the United States; and the lasting detrimental effects of her wartime experiences.

  14. Edward L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Edward L., who enlisted in the United States Army after Pearl Harbor. He recalls serving in a medical unit attached to armored infantry; entering Ohrdruf in April 1945; piles of corpses, shot in the head and still warm; entering a barrack; observing extreme emaciation; speaking with a Greek prisoner who described what had happened and expressed hatred for the Germans; and leaving after a few hours. Mr. L. notes no prior knowledge or preparation for encountering a concentration camp; being dumbfounded in spite of having previously seen many gruesome war wounds; and not...

  15. Thomas E. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Thomas E., who enlisted in the United States Army in 1942. He served in the 157th infantry regiment of the 45th division; had combat experience in Italy, France and Germany; and entered Dachau in late April 1945. Mr. E. recalls shock at seeing rows of railroad cars overflowing with corpses; emaciated inmates including children; anger and outrage directed at captured guards; reluctantly following orders not to kill captured guards; organizing a soup kitchen; and proceeding with his unit toward Munich the next day. Mr. E. discusses the complete lack of preparation for e...

  16. Philip P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Phillip P., who was born in approximately 1922 and served in the United States Army. He recounts military draft in 1942; deployment to England in 1943; arrival on Omaha Beach on D-Day; crossing through France into Germany; the Battle of the Bulge; liberating Leipzig, and a nearby camp; emaciated prisoners; many corpses; and moving south. He notes that prior to this, he had been skeptical when hearing about concentration camps, but realizing for what he had been fighting having liberated a camp. He shows photographs.

  17. Ruth K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ruth K., who was born in Niedermendig, Germany in 1935. She recalls hearing of her father's arrest on Kristallnacht; his internment in Dachau where he suffered a heart attack; his release; her mother selling the family jewelry to finance their departure from Germany in 1939; traveling through Portugal to Brazil; and their emigration to the United States two years later. Mrs. K. discusses what happened to members of her extended family; a memorial in Niedermending dedicated to her family; and her father never talking about Dachau.

  18. 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.

  19. Paul G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Paul G., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1922. He tells of family moves to Budapest, France, then Berlin before he was five; being the only Jew in public school; the cosmopolitan Berlin lifestyle; being sent to his grandmother in Hungary from 1933 to 1935 due to the rise of Hitler; and increased antisemitism upon his return. Mr. G. recalls emigrating to the United States with his parents in 1936 rather than Hungary (his parents were Hungarian); their adjustment; the experience of being an immigrant; learning of family members who perished in concentration camps; an...

  20. Yugoslav Voices from the Holocaust /

    Many aspects of the history of the Holocaust in the former Yugoslavia are told through the voices of those that survived it. This edited program includes excerpts of Jews rescued by Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians; a Serbian non-Jewish rescuer whose husband was shot for hiding Jews; survivors of concentration camps in Yugoslavia; those deported elsewhere; camp escapees; and partisans. The survivor and witness testimonies were recorded in the United States, Israel, and the former Yugoslavia between 1982 and 1996. They tell of the Sephardic Jewish community before the war, life under the Nazis, l...