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Displaying items 81 to 100 of 4,487
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Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

  1. Joan B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Joan B., who was born in Mainz, Germany. She describes the growth of antisemitism in Nazi Germany; Kristallnacht, which resulted in the deaths of her father and mother; and her experiences as a slave laborer in Theresienstadt, where her first husband and entire immediate family perished. She also describes Auschwitz; various slave labor camps in Germany; and Bergen-Belsen, from which she was liberated. Other topics include the ways in which she attempted to undermine the German war effort while in concentration and labor camps; her postwar life in Belsen, where she wo...

  2. Marta R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Marta R., who was born in a small town in Moravia in 1921. Mrs. R. describes her happy childhood; her gradual awareness of antisemitism; the German occupation; her education and work as a teacher; her marriage; and her and her husband's deportation to Terezi?n in December, 1942. She tells of daily life in Terezi?n; her transport, with her husband, to Auschwitz, where they were immediately separated (she never saw him again); her transfer after two weeks to Birnba?umel, a labor camp in a small village; the death march to Gross Rosen, from where she was taken by train t...

  3. David C. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of David C., a non-Jew, and an American physician now practicing in New Haven, Connecticut. He speaks of his experiences in the Dachau concentration camp, where, as a physician with the U.S. Army, he arrived a few days after liberation and remained for six weeks with another U.S. Army physician to treat former prisoners and conduct research on typhus.

  4. Kochevit P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Kochevit P., who was born in Krako?w, Poland in 1931. She tells of her family's move to her grandmother's farm outside Krako?w after the first Aktion in 1942; the murder of her mother and brother in 1942, which she witnessed from a neighbor's cellar; hiding with a Polish family in Warsaw from 1942 until the end of 1944; and her adoption by a group of nuns, who, thinking she was Catholic, placed her in a convent where she remained until the end of the war. She discusses her awareness of being Jewish and of the need to hide that fact; her postwar reunion with an aunt; a...

  5. Celina S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Celina S., who was born into a large Jewish family in Krako?w, Poland. Mrs. S. describes the active Jewish community in Krako?w; spending summers in the town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz); the outbreak of the war; and the Bochnia ghetto, where she worked as a cleaning woman for the Lagerfuh?rer. She relates her escape from the ghetto, aided by non-Jews; her arrest while attempting to cross the border from Slovakia into Hungary; her imprisonment in Kos?ice, where she was registered as a non-Jew; her release from Kos?ice, after which she attempted to escape to Romania and was...

  6. Niusia A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Niusia A., who was born in Krako?w, Poland, circa 1924. She describes the changes caused by the German takeover of Poland; her family's move to the nearby town of Bochnia; the ghettoization of Bochnia and the subsequent liquidation of the ghetto; and her and her mother's return to Krako?w to avoid deportation (her father had died before the war). She also tells of living on the Aryan side in Warsaw and her journey from Warsaw to Budapest, where she remained until the German invasion of Hungary; her capture while trying to escape to Romania; and her detention in a Roma...

  7. Olga S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Olga S., who was born in Vilna, Poland. She describes her prewar life in Vilna; life under the Russian occupation from 1939 to 1941; and the German occupation, including anti-Jewish legislation, ghettoization, the massacre at Ponary, and deportations. She also relates her wartime experiences of hiding in a convent and on a farm; smuggling herself back into the ghetto when she faced danger on the Aryan side; working in a labor camp with false papers; and hiding in a bunker with her father and other Jews, where she remained until her liberation by the Russians.

  8. Bronia and Nathan L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bronia L. and her son Nathan L. who was born in Danzig in 1936. Mrs. L. speaks of the deterioration of the Jewish situation in 1936; the birth of her son in the same year; the miscarriage she suffered as a result of a beating by Nazis in 1939; and her subsequent hospitalization, during which she was sterilized without her knowledge or consent. She describes leaving Danzig in 1940 and the three-month-long journey by ship to Palestine, where she suffered an emotional breakdown and a typhus epidemic claimed the life of her sister. Mrs. L. also relates their arrival in Pa...

  9. Varda H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Varda H., who was born in Czernowitz in 1915. At the time of the German occupation Mrs. H. and her husband were in the Ukrainian town of Kamenet?s?-Podol?skii?. She describes the massacre of the Jews in Kamenet?s?-Podol?skii?; the difficulties she and her husband encountered in making their way back to Czernowitz; the ghettoization of Czernowitz, where Mrs. H. remained for the next three years, witnessing frequent deportations; and her postwar life in Israel. As Mrs. H. had difficulty expressing herself in English, the interview was ended after twenty-six minutes.

  10. Israel A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Israel A., who was born in Plotsk (P?ock), Poland in 1925. He relates his family's transfer to the Starachowice ghetto in 1940; the worsening conditions there in 1942; and the action of the Einsatzkommando and subsequent deportation of his parents and brother to Treblinka, while he and his older brother were driven to a factory which comprised the Starachowice concentration camp. He tells of the brutal conditions in the camp (he later testified against its gestapo head at the Frankfurt war crimes trials) where, eluding selections and mass murders, he remained until th...

  11. Chana B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Chana B., who was born in Chop, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine), in 1931. She tells how her family and other Jews were affected by the Hungarian occupation in 1938 and, using the Jewish holidays to define her chronology, she vividly recalls her experiences of the German occupation. She also recalls her deportation, with her family to the Uz?h?horod (Ungva?r) ghetto, where she was separated from her father, and her deportation to Auschwitz, where she was separated from her mother but managed to be "adopted" by a cousin, the first of many older women who cared for he...

  12. Jacob and Mira B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jacob B., who was born in Piotrko?w, Poland, in 1922 and his wife Mira B., who was born in Sosnowiec in 1925. Mrs. B. describes her happy childhood; her religious education and participation in Zionist organizations; the panic during the German occupation; and her deportation, with her sister, to a labor camp. Mr. B. recalls his childhood education; relations with non-Jews; being sent from Da?browa to Piotrko?w during the German invasion; widespread violence and looting; and his deportation and experiences in numerous labor camps including Anhalt, Marksta?dt, Ludwigsd...

  13. B. family Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of the B. family: Lorna B., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland; her husband Max, who was born in ?o?dz? in 1914; and their daughter Ruth and son Teddy, who were born after the war and speak only occasionally. Mr. B. remembers eluding the Russians after the outbreak of the war; living in the ?o?dz? ghetto until 1940, when he was taken with the first labor transport to build roads; the liquidation of his labor camp and his two years of work in an I. G. Farben synthetic rubber factory under the jurisdiction of Auschwitz; and the death march from there to Gleiwitz, from where he...

  14. Elizabeth D. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Elizabeth D., a Jehovah's Witness, who was born in Germany in 1929 and grew up in Saxony. She relates her father's activities as a Jehovah's Witness; his repeated arrests beginning shortly after Hitler's rise to power; his final arrest in 1936; and her mother's arrest at that time. She speaks of the 1936 trial of Jehovah's Witnesses, including her parents; her mother's two and a half year sentence; her father's imprisonment; his refusal to renounce his faith; and his eventual death in Sachsenhausen. Mrs. D. recalls living with her grandparents during her parents' impr...

  15. Erich G. Holocaust testimony

    Erich G., a survivor of the Holocaust, teaches a course on the Holocaust at Harvard University. In this interview Professor G. speaks as a scholar and educator rather than as a survivor. He discusses the unprecedented, almost universal sadism of the Nazis, the uncharacteristically violent behavior of many Jews, and the difficulties in accounting for the occurrence of this world of extreme cruelty and aggressiveness. He compares and contrasts the psychology of the executioners and their victims. The necessity for and difficulty of maintaining clinical detachment in Holocaust scholarship are ...

  16. Walter K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Walter K., who was born in Peiskretscham, near Gleiwitz, Silesia, in 1924. He describes his experiences of antisemitism as a schoolboy in Germany; Kristallnacht, during which his father was sent to Buchenwald but later released; and the voyage of his family on the ill-fated ship St. Louis. He recounts his family's arrival in France, their separation, and his life in children's homes, first in Paris and later in central France. He also recalls hiding in a home for the developmentally disabled, helped by a priest, and with false papers. He explains that he joined the Fr...

  17. Irene S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Irene S., who was born in 1925 in the Galician town of Vizezhany and grew up in Grudziadz, Poland. She describes her life as the daughter of a prominent local musician; her family's move to Bia?ystok in 1938; and their life there under Russian and German occupation. She speaks of the ghettoization of Bia?ystok; ghetto life; her underground activities there; and her capture and transport to Majdanek by way of Treblinka. She tells of her experiences in Majdanek; in a small nearby labor camp; in Auschwitz; and as a slave laborer in Germany where she was liberated by the ...

  18. Heda K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Heda K., who was born in Prague. In this vivid and insightful testimony, Mrs. K., a writer, tells of the absence of antisemitism among the Czechs; the consequent inability of many Jews, including her father, to understand the mortal danger they faced; and her deportation, by train, to the ?o?dz? ghetto. She describes various aspects of life in the ghetto, including the selections, random violence, hunger, and spiritual resistance; the children in the ghetto; and H?ayim Rumkowski. Her deportation, with her parents, to Auschwitz; her parting gift to them of poison; and ...

  19. Zezette L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Zezette L., who was born in Belgium in 1929. She describes the German invasion and her surprise at being sent by her parents to hide in a Catholic convent; her attempts to fit in by imitating the other girls during her stay of a year and a half; and leaving the convent on April 1943 for a visit to her parents, during which the three of them were discovered on Easter Sunday, arrested, and immediately deported to Malines. She tells of the train journey to Auschwitz; separation from her parents; and her mother's selection for gassing. She details her solitary, mute and i...

  20. Ena L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ena L., who was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1934. She tells of her life in Belgrade before and during the war and of her flight to northern Italy with her mother, sister, and other relatives. She explains how her family was able to live openly as Jews in a small village near Vittorio Veneto, aided, as were other Jewish refugees, by the Italian government. She describes her life in Amandola where her family fled after Mussolini's fall and where they remained, "passing" as Catholics, for about two years until just before liberation, when they hid in the mountains. ...