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Displaying items 1 to 20 of 4,487
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Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. Eva B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Eva B., who was born in Prague. She describes German and Czech nationalism in prewar Prague; the German occupation of Prague; conditions and experiences in Theresienstadt, where she and her mother remained for two years, and in Auschwitz and various German labor camps; and their liberation from Theresienstadt, to which they had been transported again shortly before the end of the war. Mrs. B. speaks of her boyfriend, who did not survive the war and whose loss she still mourns; the psychological coping mechanisms which aided her survival; postwar adjustment and effects...

  2. Leon W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Leon W., who was born into a middle income family in ?o?dz?, Poland, in 1925. Mr. W. recalls his happy childhood, widespread denial in the wake of the outbreak of the war; and the formation of the ?o?dz? ghetto. He vividly describes conditions in the ghetto: forced labor, the harrowing effects of intense hunger, the deterioration of interpersonal relationships, selections, and infanticide. He tells of his arrest in May, 1944; his transfer to Cze?stochowa, where he worked in an airplane factory; his evacuation from that camp at the end of 1944 to Buchenwald and from th...

  3. Sally H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sally H., who was born in Zwolen?, Poland in 1928. She describes the ghettoization of her city; ghetto life, including forced labor and the humiliation of the Jews in the ghetto; her detention, together with her two sisters, in slave labor camps in Skarz?ysko-Kamienna and Cze?stochowa, where they worked in ammunition factories; and postwar antisemitism in her home town. She also reflects on the reasons for her survival and the lasting effects and ever-present memories of her Holocaust experiences.

  4. Sylvia B. and Frances G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sylvia B., who was born in 1928, and her sister Frances G., who was born in 1924, in Velikii? Bereznyi? in the Carpathian region of Czechoslovakia. They speak of their happy prewar life in a town with a large Jewish population; economic difficulties and anti-Jewish legislation under Hungarian occupation; the German occupation in 1944; and the round-up and deportation of Jews three weeks later. They describe conditions in the Ungva?r (Uz?h?horod) ghetto, where they spent several weeks before being sent to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz they were separated from other family me...

  5. Rene?e G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rene?e G., who was born in ?osice, Poland, in 1932. She describes the German occupation of ?osice, its ghettoization, and the liquidation of the ghetto; her arrest along with her older brother; and their transfer to the "small ghetto", where she worked as a forced laborer. She also describes her escape from the ghetto with the assistance of a non-Jewish friend of her father; and life in hiding, first in the home of the Polish policeman who had arrested her and her brother, and later in the barn of a Polish farm family. Here, she and her family hid in a pit under a man...

  6. 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.

  7. 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...

  8. Stanley S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Stanley S., who was born in Sosnowiec, Poland, in 1931. He recalls his early childhood among both Jews and gentiles; the sudden shock of antisemitism that accompanied the German occupation; and the disappearance of his father, which made him, at the age of nine, the sole support of his family. He describes the mass round-up and deportation of the Jews of Sosnowiec; his and his sister's escape; and their subsequent activities in the Srodula ghetto, where he became a courier for the ghetto underground. He recounts his escape from the ghetto shortly before its liquidatio...

  9. William R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of William R., who was born in Cze?stochowa, Poland, in 1918. He describes prewar Jewish life in his town; his happy childhood and young adulthood as part of a large, close-knit, religiously observant family; the German occupation and ghettoization of Cze?stochowa; his black market activities to obtain food for his starving family in the ghetto; the liquidation of the ghetto and the destruction of his family; his unsuccessful attempt to save his younger brother and the sense of guilt at his failure; and his experiences in numerous concentration camps. Mr. R. speaks of hi...

  10. Krystyna S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Krystyna S., a non-Jew who was born in Poland in 1928. She discusses the bombing of Warsaw and her separation from her father at the outbreak of the war; life in Warsaw with her mother and younger sister; and the fact that the concentration camps were common knowledge. She tells of her evacuation from her house; her recollections of the Warsaw ghetto uprising; and her deportation to Bergen-Belsen, where she and her mother worked as slave laborers. She recounts her life in Bergen-Belsen; liberation; her postwar return to Bergen-Belsen and other displaced persons camps ...

  11. Schifre Z. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Schifre Z., who was born in Dolhinow, near Vilna, Poland, in 1929. Using vivid and poetic language, and taking care to name the Polish non-Jews who helped her and her family, Mrs. Z. describes her prewar childhood; the German occupation of her town; forced labor; the suffering of her brother at the hands of the Nazis; the liquidation and burning of her town while she hid in a nearby village, and what she saw when she returned; and hiding with her family, first in the attics of the house and barn of sympathetic non-Jews, and later, when this became unsafe, in the fores...

  12. Dora and Salo R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Dora R., who was born in a suburb of Czernowitz, Romania, in 1926, and her husband Salo R., who was born in Czernowitz in 1919. Mr. and Mrs. R. did not meet until after the war. They both describe the rich cultural life of prewar Czernowitz; the large (60,000) Jewish population; the German and Russian occupations and the German re-occupation; the implementation of anti-Semitic action; and the mass murder at the Kulturpalast. Mr. R. recalls hiding in a gentile household at the onset of the German occupation; the ghettoization of Czernowitz; conditions in the ghetto; hi...

  13. Shmuel S. and Dora R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Shmuel S., who was born in Czernowitz, Romania, in 1916 and his sister Dora R., who was born in 1926. Mr. S. relates pleasant aspects of his prewar life: a happy family, ease in being Jewish, work in a clothing factory. He describes the German re-occupation of Czernowitz; the forced march to Bershad;? forced labor in and near the Bershad ?ghetto; and the cruel treatment which he suffered. He tells of fleeing to Balta with his sister and of their journey after the Russian takeover through the woods back to Bershad ?to rejoin the rest of their family. Also recalled are ...

  14. Kurt and Trude S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Kurt S., who was born in 1904 in Oelde, Westphalia, and his wife Trude S., who was born in Wiesbaden. Mr. S. recalls that his family was the only Jewish one in the neighborhood; antisemitism during high school; passing his law exams in 1928-1929; the boycott of Jewish businesses; losing his job as a result of the Nuremberg laws; and taking a new job in Wiesbaden where he then met Mrs. S. Mrs. S. speaks of her childhood memories and religious observance; nationalist protest in 1930; and anti-Jewish actions in 1934. Mr S. describes his arrest during Kristallnacht and th...

  15. Helene R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Helene R., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1923, into a large Orthodox family. Mrs. R. remembers attending a Polish school, yet not considering herself a Pole; the German occupation in 1939; being a nurse during the typhus epidemic in the ghetto; deportations of the sick in 1941; and moving with some of her family away from the ghetto to the forest, where they lived with a group of underground Jews and acquired false papers. She recalls her arrest while acting as a courier for the Wieliczka ghetto and her and her sister's leaving the underground group and the rest o...

  16. Alexander L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Alexander L., a non-Jew who was born in Kiev in 1936. He describes leaving Russia in 1941 at the onset of the German occupation of Kiev; the fear of being separated from his parents; and imprisonment in labor camps in Germany from 1942 until 1944/1945. He remembers on-going travel, and hearing shots fired but never seeing any bodies. He tells of going to Czechoslovakia after the war and expresses the hope that his children will never have similar experiences.

  17. Miny H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Miny H., who was born in Poland. Although she has great difficulty expressing herself in English, Ms. H. speaks of the loss of her family, with the exception of one surviving brother; slave labor in Estonia and Germany; life in the Stutthof concentration camp; and her attempts, amidst constant degradation, to retain her humanity.

  18. Hanna F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hanna F., who was born in Czemierniki, near Lublin, Poland in 1923. She mentions prewar life in a mixed neighborhood and details the changes which occurred in the wake of the German occuption, including her slave labor. She relates her family's evacuation to Parczew in 1942; their hiding during round-ups for deportation; and the splitting up of her family (she alone survived the Holocaust). She tells of escaping from a slave labor camp near Parczew, securing false papers, and joining a Polish (non-Jewish) labor transport to Germany, where she remained from October, 19...

  19. Morris G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Morris G. who was born in Praszka, Poland in 1914, three months after the death of his father. He tells how he lived in Praszka with his uncle and worked in his uncle's bakery until the age of sixteen. Living in ?o?dz? at the time of the German occupation of Poland, Mr. G. describes his flight to Warsaw to escape the Germans and his return to ?o?dz? shortly thereafter. He worked as a baker in the ?o?dz? ghetto until 1940, at which time he volunteered for a labor transport to Spiegelberg, Germany. He remained there building roads until 1943. Mr. G. recounts his transfe...

  20. Leon G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Leon G., who was born in Cze?stochowa, Poland, in 1923. He was one of nine children, three of whom survived the Holocaust. Mr. G. tells of a pogrom which took place in Cze?stochowa in 1933; the rise of antisemitism there beginning in 1938; and the German occupation and the increased anti-Jewish activities which followed. He describes his life in the Cze?stochowa ghetto, where he worked as a forced laborer at the railroad station; his escape from the ghetto on New Year's Eve, 1941; and his eventual return home because there was no help forthcoming from the Poles. He re...