Archival Descriptions

Advanced query tips

There are several ways to be more specific in your search query:

"Phrase"
Search an exact match of your query, e.g. "Member lists"
+Phrase
Given word has to be in the result, e.g. +Gestapo
-Phrase
Exclude given word from search, e.g. -Gestapo

Use the following syntax to restrict the search to specific fields:

field:"phrase"
For instance, you can find all descriptions that have the phrase "Auschwitz Birkenau" in their titles by searching for title:"Auschwitz Birkenau".

The following fields are currently available:

  • identifier
  • title
  • creator
  • person
  • place
  • subject
  • address
Displaying items 61 to 80 of 4,487
Search result ordering
Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. David A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of David A., who was born in Krosno, Poland in 1928 and moved to Chorzo?w in 1930. He describes his happy, traditional but not orthodox, home. He discusses the German occupation; the rounding up of Jews; removal to the Krosno and Rzeszo?w ghettos in 1940; his experiences as a slave laborer before deportation to P?aszo?w in 1940; slave labor, living conditions and mass killings at P?aszo?w; a move to Sachsenhausen in 1943; and work in a munitions factory until its bombing and liberation by the United States in 1945. He describes his postwar experiences in Berlin; his retu...

  2. Julia A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Julia A., who was born in a small town near Zaleszczyki, Poland in 1932. She describes her happy, loving home life with her parents on a farm until the Russian invasion in 1939; and her family's escape to L?vov in 1940, where she first hid with her parents and later was sent by them to live on a farm with a Polish Catholic. She speaks of her life on the farm, where she pretended to be the Catholic niece of the owner and where she remained until the war ended. She describes her reunion with her father after the war and alludes to her present ambivalence toward Poland.

  3. Arnold and Lionel R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Arnold R. who was born in 1928 in a town in Slovakia, and his brother Lionel R., who was born in the same town in 1926. Both brothers describe their Orthodox upbringing; the Hungarian and German occupations; their life in the ghetto at Munka?cs; the liquidation of the ghetto; and widespread violence and cruelty. They relate their transport to and arrival at Auschwitz; separation from their mother; their transfer, along with their father, to Mauthausen; and their slave labor in Melk and Ebensee. They also tell of their support of each other and their father during this...

  4. Irene W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Irene W., who was born in Poprad, Czechoslovakia in 1930. Mrs. W. describes her childhood; the German occupation of the Sudetenland and her subsequent fear; the liquidation of her town; her family's deportation, first to Munka?cs, then to Auschwitz, where they were separated upon arrival; and her sustaining relationship with her sister, with whom she survived the war. She tells of working in the "Canada" kommando in Auschwitz; the death march from Auschwitz; starvation; and liberation. She also recalls her ability to survive by dissociating herself from the horrors to...

  5. Shari B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Shari B., who was born in Kos?ice, Slovakia, circa 1928. Mrs. B. describes antisemitism and awareness of her Judaism; the German occupation; her inadequate awareness of the events of the war; being smuggled, with her sisters, out of her town and living with a former Jewish maid; and her and her sister's flight to Bratislava, where they hid for several months and where she met her future husband. She tells of the arrest of her sister; her own arrest and weeklong interrogation; her obsessive fear of dying by German hands; and her transfer to a transit camp in Sered,? wh...

  6. Zvi K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Zvi K., who was born in 1929 in a small town between Krako?w and Kielce, Poland. He describes attending the cheder; the German occupation; the influx of Jews into his town as the cities became ghettoized; the gradual imposition of restrictions on the freedom of Jews; the sudden siege of the town in 1942; and the mass killings which took place while Mr. K. hid in the fields, hating himself for being a Jew. Mr. K. also speaks of being sent, with his family, to Skarz?ysko-Kamienna, Werk C; and daily and cultural life there, where he escaped death, due in part to his moth...

  7. Hela S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hela S., who was born in Be?dzin, Poland, in 1911, into an Orthodox family of twelve children. Mrs. S. describes extreme antisemitism during her childhood; her close friendship with a non-Jew; her education and marriage; mass murders during the German occupation; the deportation of the Jewish men of Be?dzin; and her and her family's internment in the Srodula ghetto. She tells of her slave labor in Gleiwitz; the death march to Ravensbru?ck; and her liberation by the Russians. Postwar experiences include her return to Be?dzin; her travels in search of family members; an...

  8. Hillel K. Holocaust testimony

    Videorecording testimony of Hillel K., born in Krako?w in 1923, a distinguished psychiatrist who has dedicated his life to the study and treatment of Holocaust survivors and their families. He speaks of his prewar involvement in the socialist-zionist movement; his escape to Mielec at the outbreak of the war; his return to Krako?w after being forced to work for the Germans; spiritual resistance of the Jewish community of Krako?w; his flight to Dobczyce upon the ghettoization of Krako?w; his internment in the P?aszo?w labor camp; and his escape to Wieliczka, where he arranged to have his pare...

  9. Joseph M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Joseph M., who was born in Szczakowa, Poland, in 1922. He speaks of family life before the war; the mistreatment and killings of Jews at the beginning of the war; his 1940 deportation to Sakrau, where he was a slave laborer; and his transfer to Gross Masselwitz in 1942. He describes a typical day in Neukirch, a labor camp he was sent to in 1943, and conditions in the camps to which he was subsequently sent: Marksta?dt, Schmiedeberg, Klettendorf, and Waldenburg, where he was liberated by the Russians in 1945. He discusses his postwar return home; his reunion with his s...

  10. Eva L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Eva L. who was born into a well known Hasidic famiy in ?o?dz? in 1924. She remembers the outbreak of the war; the actions against Jews which followed; and her brother's wedding, which took place just before the family was transferred to the ?o?dz? ghetto, where they led a relatively privileged life due to family connections. Mrs. L. describes life in the ghetto, including the constant round-ups and raids; widespread starvation, disease, and dehumanization; slave labor; spiritual resistance and religious observance; and the closeness of her family throughout their orde...

  11. Beatrice S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Beatrice S., who was born in 1933 in a small town near Vilna, Poland (now Lithuania.) She recalls her prewar home life and schooling, and the Russian occupation in 1939. She relates her vivid memories of the German occupation in 1941 and the atrocities which followed, including the murder of her mother and two-year-old brother (which she and her father witnessed from their hiding place); her flight to relatives in another town; her escape with her father into the woods; and the 900 kilometer walk to the Russian front. She describes their journey to Siberia; her separa...

  12. Esther K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Esther K., who was born in Galicia, Poland in 1910. She speaks of her medical education in Czechoslovakia; her return to Poland in 1939 after the outbreak of the war; and her work in a Russian hospital during the Russian occupation of her town (1939-1941). She describes the ghettoization of her home town; life in the ghetto, where she lived with her family and worked as a physician; the liquidation of the ghetto hospital and her transfer to another town where she served as physician and dentist for the gentile population for nine months, until it became unsafe for her...

  13. Donia W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Donia W., who was born in Russia. She was a witness at the Auschwitz trials in Frankfurt in 1964 and has written several books about her wartime experiences. Active in the French Resistance during the war, she was arrested in France and deported to Auschwitz. She describes the journey to Auschwitz in cattle cars, the selections upon arrival, conditions in Auschwitz, and her experiences in the camp. Since she worked in the Political Department, which gave her greater knowledge of the killings and other activities, she was certain that she would never be permitted to su...

  14. Erich K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Erich K., who was born into an observant family in Moravia. Mr. K. describes his happy childhood; the German occupation in 1939; his arrest, three months later, by the Gestapo for helping people cross the border; and his work in the camps of Dachau (1940), Neuengamme (1941), and Auschwitz (1942-1944) as a locksmith and plumber. He relates witnessing medical experimentation and other atrocities and his gradual desensitization; explains how he managed to survive, and help others, including his wife and son, to survive, even though he was labelled a "Geheimnistra?ger", i...

  15. Bronia K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bronia K., who was born in Grodno, Poland (presently Hrodna, Belarus) in 1923. She describes her childhood; a pogrom which took place in Grodno in 1936; her involvement in a Zionist socialist youth organization, which led to her becoming active in the Resistance; the ghettoization of Grodno; her life in the Grodno ghetto; her resistance activities in the Bia?ystok ghetto and on the Aryan side with false papers; and her return to Grodno after liberation to find that her entire family had been killed. Mrs. K.'s resistance activities included smuggling arms; acting as a ...

  16. 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.

  17. Maximillian K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Maximillian K., who was born in Vienna in 1925. He describes his childhood and how it suddenly changed after the Anschluss, the more drastic changes which took place in the wake of Kristallnacht, and his family's life in occupied Vienna, which included slave labor, until the city was made free of Jews in the spring of 1941. He speaks of their deportation to Poland, where they lived with Polish Jews in the town of Opole, near Lublin; their flight to Kunow, a small town east of Opole, where his grandparents were living; and slave labor in Boz?echo?w as a surveyor's assi...

  18. Lotte S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Lotte S., who was born into an upper middle class family in Frankfurt am Main. Mrs. S. describes her early childhood in Germany and emigration to Amsterdam after the Nazis came to power; the outbreak of the war; support by the Dutch; anti-Jewish legislation; and the beginnings of ghettoization and deportations. She tells of her arrest, along with her mother and sister, despite their acquisition of Paraguayan passports; their arrival in Westerbork; and conditions there. She recalls her transport to, and daily life in, Ravensbru?ck, where her mother died; her relationsh...

  19. Henri B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Henri B., who was born in Paris in 1926. He describes the antisemitism he encountered as an apprentice jockey before the war; his escape to southern, unoccupied France when the Jews of Paris were ordered to assemble for deportation; and his detention in and escape from the internment camp at Rivesaltes. He also tells of his life in hiding on a French farm and his activities in the French underground, where, because of his small size, he was trained and employed to work with explosives. Mr. B. speaks with great emotion about his attempts to remember his Jewishness whil...

  20. Henry and Chana F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Chana F., who was born in a town near ?o?dz?, Poland, and her husband Henry F., who was born in ?o?dz? in 1911. They describe the ghettoization of ?o?dz?; conditions in the ghetto including forced labor, overcrowding, beatings, starvation, public executions, and infanticide; and the psychological numbing they experienced from living under such conditions. Mrs. F. tells of the liquidation of the ghetto and her deportation to Auschwitz, where she was selected for work in an ammunition factory; her transport to Ravensbru?ck, then to Mu?hlhausen and, six months later, to ...