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Displaying items 4,361 to 4,380 of 4,487
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Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. Joseph L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Joseph L., who was born in Warsaw in 1924. He describes his life in the Warsaw ghetto, and briefly discusses his incarceration in Treblinka, Auschwitz, and the slave labor camp Jawischowitz/Monowitz, where he performed construction work. The only surviving member of his family, Mr. L. has been unable to locate anyone with his surname.

  2. Helen K. edited testimony

    Helen K., a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, Majdanek, and Auschwitz relates her wartime experiences and describes her postwar reunion with her husband, whom she had married in the ghetto at the age of sixteen. She emphasizes her determination to survive as an act of defiance against Hitler, a decision she reached when her younger brother died in her arms in the cattle car en route to Majdanek. The theme of resistance, both passive and active, recurs throughout her testimony. Ms. K. concludes on a pessimistic note, wondering whether "it was worth it" in view of the continuing suffering and in...

  3. Inge Marie B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Inge Marie B., a non-Jew, who was born in Austria in 1929 and lived in Vienna and nearby Mo?dling. Mrs. B. recounts her experiences as a child and young adult in Austria prior to, during, and after the war. Among the topics discussed are the arrest of her father, a Social Democrat, and his premature death in 1939; the burning of a synagogue; and the auction of Jewish property and other anti-Jewish activities which she witnessed. She also recalls Nazi ideology taught in school; Nazi organizations which Austrian women and children were required to join; her evacuation t...

  4. Keith S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Col. Keith S., who served in the United States Army Infantry during World War II. He recalls induction in July 1941; posting overseas in October 1943; participating in campaigns including the Battle of the Bulge; his assignment to seek and assist Allied prisoners of war; entering Buchenwald shortly after its liberation; unexpectedly finding civilian inmates in debilitated condition; stacks of bodies; total lack of sanitation; the relatively better condition of military prisoners; completing his assignment to assist Allied war prisoners; and leaving with his unit after...

  5. Emerson B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Emerson B., who served with the United States Army 411th Infantry Regiment, then the 3rd Infantry Division in World War II. He recounts landing in North Africa; being wounded in Italy; hospitalization; going through France to Germany; visiting Dachau for about four hours the day after its liberation; and observing from a distance a train filled with emaciated corpses and prisoners.

  6. David A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of David A., who was born in approximately 1924 and served with the United States Army 4th Armored Division, Medical Battalion in World War II. He recounts fighting in the Battle of the Bulge; liberating Ohrdruf; emaciated prisoners; corpses piled in trenches; the pervasive stench which he still recalls; and forcing the townspeople to walk through the camp (their denials of knowledge of the camp were not credible). Mr. A. notes having no prior knowledge of what a concentration camp was, and sharing his experiences with his daughter. He shows photographs.

  7. Leon S. edited testimony

    Leon S., a Jew from Poland, tells his story with painful deliberation. He describes the liquidation of the Jews of his town, during which he witnessed the murder of this grandmother, and his experiences in the concentration and slave labor camps of Płaszów, Skarżysko-Kamienna, Buchenwald, and Theresienstadt. Mr. S. relates that he became religious in the camps and still uses the tefillin and prayer book he removed from the huge piles of religious objects which he found in Theresienstadt after he was liberated. He is grateful that he was able to retain his faith and humanity in spite of al...

  8. Count Stanley M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Count Stanley M., a non-Jew, who was born in Mszczono?w, Poland, in 1925. He speaks of his childhood in a prominent family; the abrupt change in his life precipitated by the German occupation of Poland, and subsequent arrest of his anti-Nazi mother; his decision to join the Polish resistance, and his underground activities as a communications specialist. He also discusses the situation of both Jews and non-Jews in occupied Poland, and the lasting effects of his wartime experiences.

  9. John F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of John F., who served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He recalls being assigned to an information gathering unit; traveling as a group of four to assignments and conveying their findings to their commander; assignment to visit Buchenwald; not being able to have imagined what they saw; being shown parts of the camp by an English-speaking guide, a former prisoner; disgust at the sights and smells; and continuing on to future assignments. Mr. F. discusses serving on the governor's Holocaust Committee and implementing Holocaust curriculum for sixth,...

  10. Merle W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Merle W., who was a lieutenant in the United States Army during World War II. He recalls serving in North Africa, Italy, and the Battle of the Bulge; entering Nordhausen with no prior knowledge of it; many corpses exhibiting signs of starvation; the joy of the surviving prisoners; his commander requiring German men to bury the corpses and women and children to watch; difficulty believing the treatment of the Jews; and his unit taking no prisoners for some time afterward as a result of their anger. Mr. W. expresses his belief that similar events will recur. He shows ph...

  11. Rita M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rita M., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1920. She recalls her prosperous family's strong German identity; refusing to accept a sports award with a swastika; leaving school in 1937 when she was no longer allowed to sit with "Aryan" children; attending a Jewish school for one year; receiving affidavits from relatives in the United States; staying with friends for two weeks in Amsterdam; and leaving from Rotterdam for the United States in June 1938. Mrs. M. notes all her relatives who remained in Europe were killed.

  12. Harold S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Harold S., who was born in Missouri in 1920, and served in the United States Army in World War II. He recounts joining the Air Force in 1942; deployment to England; serving with a radar unit in France, Luxembourg, and Germany; visiting Buchenwald three days after liberation; sick and emaciated prisoners; wheelbarrows filled with corpses; a lampshade made of human skin; feeling numbness, disbelief, then anger; taking photographs (his wife, horrified, threw them away); and visiting divided Berlin as an officer many years later.

  13. George C. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of George C., who was born ca. 1922 and served in the United States Infantry during World War II. He recalls encountering German soldiers eager to surrender; entering Wo?bbelin concentration camp a few hours after its liberation; seeing hundreds of corpses in sand dunes and railway cars; encounters with survivors, one of whom turned down an opportunity to kill a guard; and a German religious group that buried the dead in the camp. He discussed the destruction of prisoners' dignity; his abhorrence of war; and his fear of a recurrence.

  14. William H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of William H., who was born in 1916. He recounts his medical education; enlistment in the United States Army Medical Corps; sailing on the Queen Elizabeth to England in May 1943; caring for field casualties; and entering Germany in January 1945. Dr. H. describes his disbelief upon entering Buchenwald on April 21, 1945; walking through Buchenwald with a Catholic priest and a Belgian officer; and seeing debilitated survivors in the barracks and corpses of women and children in the "killing area." He reads from letters to his wife written on April 22 and May 14, 1945, descr...

  15. Elizabeth G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Elizabeth G., who was born ca. 1911 in Miskolc, Hungary. Mrs. G. recalls her pleasant childhood and adolescent life, marred by prewar Hungarian antisemitism; her marriage in Budapest in 1935; and her life in hiding with her husband and two sons during the Russian and German occupations (from 1942 until liberation.) She also speaks of her and her family's postwar emigration, first to Italy and later to the United States; her happy marriage; and the loss of her husband, who died four years before the interview.

  16. William N. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of William N., who was born in 1923 and served with the United States Army 12th Armored Division of the 7th Army in World War II. He recalls coming across several small labor camps while advancing across Germany in March 1945; coming upon a group of emaciated Dachau survivors in late April; recognizing them as "camp people" because of their uniforms; and giving them rations, water, and blankets before leaving. Mr. N. shows photographs his friend took when liberating Landsberg.

  17. Albert D. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Albert D., who served in the United States Army, 104th Infantry Division (Timberwolves). He recounts encountering emaciated prisoners in labor camps; German civilians denying knowledge of the existence of camps; entering Nordhausen in April 1945; the horrific sight of rows of thousands of corpses; and then entering Halle labor camp. Mr. D. shows photographs he took.

  18. Edith P. edited testimony

    Edith P., a survivor from eastern Czechoslovakia, relates her wartime experiences in an emotionally powerful and unusually poetic way. She tells of her family's evacuation to a brick factory, their train journey to Auschwitz, and their separation upon arrival. She describes her life in Auschwitz and later in Salzwedel, where she worked as a cook for the SS. Ms. P. recounts the joy of liberation by American soldiers and concludes by expressing her distress at her own, and the world's complacency while suffering and inhumanity continue.

  19. Hence H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hence H., who served in the United States Army in World War II. He recounts military draft in 1944; deployment to Europe; landing in Le Havre; entering Buchenwald; a prisoner showing him the crematoria; corpses stacked like wood; lampshades made of human skin; burying corpses; the pervasive stench, which he remembers to this day; Eisenhower visiting the camp; marching local Germans through the camp; returning to the United States; and military discharge.

  20. Walter L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Walter L., who was born in 1921 in Breslau, Germany (presently Wroclaw, Poland). He recounts graduating from a German gymnasium in 1938; leaving Germany on November 9, 1938; emigrating to Palestine; closely following events in Europe; and the killing of his parents and relatives during the war. Mr. L. discusses what average Germans, and the rest of the world, knew about the murder of European Jewry during the war as documented in his book The Terrible Secret. He notes a novel he wrote led to his research.