Archival Descriptions

Displaying items 101 to 120 of 4,487
Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
  1. Eva and Carl S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Eva S., who was born in Debrecen, Hungary and her husband Carl S., who was born in Breslau, Germany. Mrs. S. describes her and her family's journey by cattle car to Auschwitz; her separation from her parents and younger brothers there, as well as her reunion with her sister; and her selection for a labor transport to a factory in Germany, where she was an interpreter. She also speaks of her evacuation to another camp and finally to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated. She tells how, unable to locate any surviving family members in Hungary, she returned to Bergen-Be...

  2. Agnes S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Agnes S., who was born in Budapest in 1925. She speaks of the German occupation of Budapest; of her work as a slave laborer in a mill in Budapest; deportations from the brick factory in which she and her mother were interned, but from which they were spared through the intervention of Raoul Wallenberg; their internment in the ghetto of Budapest in December, 1944 and liberation there in January 1945; the illegal departure of herself, her husband, and her son from communist Hungary in 1949 and their emigration to the United States in 1956. The physical and psychological...

  3. Gregor S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gregor S., the only survivor of a family of twenty-two, who grew up in Libau, Latvia. He speaks of his prewar life in a close-knit Hasidic family; his childhood education; his musical education in Vienna and his career as an opera singer (he is now a cantor.) He tells of his return from Switzerland to Latvia, shortly before the Russian occupation, where he was employed by the state opera; the rapidly worsening situation for the Jews following the German occupation; and the willing collaboration of the Latvians. He relates his internment in the large ghetto and, upon i...

  4. Robert S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Robert S., who was born in Vilna in 1935. He discusses family life before the war; the Russian occupation in 1939; and his father's refusal to accept Soviet citizenship, for which the family was exiled to Siberia. He relates the journey to Siberia and his family's internment in an exclusively Jewish camp within the Gulag system. He tells of his transfer to Kotlas, then Arkhangel?sk and of his family's flight from there to a small village near Kirov where they stayed until the liberation. Returning to Poland after the war, they were taken to a displaced persons camp in...

  5. Rabbi Meyer S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rabbi Meyer S., who was born into a rabbinic family in Poland in 1920. He describes in detail his childhood and family life in Poland and in Germany; his family's move to Wittmund, Germany, in 1926; the rise of antisemitism and anti-Jewish legislation; and his family's observance of the Jewish dietary laws in spite of the prohibition of ritual slaughter. Rabbi S. tells of his family's arrival in the United States on July 4, 1935; his father's work as a cantor and shochet (ritual slaughterer) in Pennsylvania; and his own studies at a Yeshiva in New York. He also relate...

  6. Edith P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Edith P., who was born in Michalovce, Czechoslovakia 1920 and raised in Uz?h?horod. In an unusually poetic and expressive way, Mrs. P. describes her childhood in a middle class Jewish family; the Hungarian occupation in 1940-1941; anti-Jewish legislation; the indifference of her non-Jewish neighbors and friends; the deterioration of the Jewish situation under German occupation; the internment of her family in a brick factory outside her town; and their transfer two weeks later to Auschwitz. She recalls in detail the train ride to Auschwitz, then her arrival, upon whic...

  7. Anna G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Anna G., who was born in Drohobych, Ukraine (then Poland), in 1929. She speaks of her prewar life, life under Russian occupation, and her experience of the German occupation of her town. She notes the worsening conditions under German occupation, culminating in the deportations and (as they learned only later) mass murder of Jews, including Mrs. G.'s mother, sister, and young niece. She tells of living with her father and brother in Drohobych; in the Gestapo camp on Janowska Street, where she had to hide in a closet for over a year and was finally discovered by a Germ...

  8. Annie C. Holocaust testimony with Jackie B.

    Videotape testimony of Annie C., who was born in England. She married a Frenchman in 1915 and moved to France with her husband and two-year-old child after World War I. She describes her pleasant prewar life in France, her daughter's flight from France before the German occupation, and the German occupation. She speaks of her unsuccessful attempts to leave France after the German occupation; her and her husband's flight; hiding with the help of her husband's non-Jewish relatives and French civilians; and using false papers. She stresses the continual fear of discovery and betrayal. She tell...

  9. Ralph F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ralph F., who was born in Kabalnik, a small town 80 km. east of Vilna, Poland. Mr. F. tells of his Orthodox childhood and his education in both a cheder and a Polish primary school; the rapid increase of antisemitism; the egalitarianism of the Russian occupation; disappearances in the middle of the night; the German occupation; and the precautions which he took to avoid being rounded up and deported. He describes the acts of extreme barbarity and cruelty which he witnessed; antisemitic legislation; his narrow escape from the liquidation which took place on Yom Kippur,...

  10. Mila P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Mila P., the fourth of five sisters, who was born in Chrzano?w, Poland, in 1926. She tells of her prewar life in this poor town, where her father was a tailor; the German occupation and anti-Jewish activities which followed; and life under German occupation, until the beginning of deportations from Chrzano?w in January, 1941. She relates her deportation, through Auschwitz to Ober Altstadt, a slave labor camp near Trautenau, Czechoslovakia. She describes the terrible conditions there, where, with three of her sisters, she worked in a factory until liberation by the Rus...

  11. Joseph Z. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Joseph Z., who was born in Vienna in 1918. He describes his childhood and youth, relating instances of antisemitism; the political situation in Austria before the Anschluss; the German occupation of Austria (which forced him to leave medical school); his subsequent training in tailoring and English and work in his father's tailor shop; his emigration to the United States via Paris and London with his parents and two younger sisters; and his service in the American army (he was drafted in 1942) interrogating German prisoners.

  12. Nathan A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Nathan A., who was born in Tarnopol, Poland, in 1930 and moved to Krako?w at the age of three. He tells of the deaths of his mother and grandmother in 1938; the outbreak of the war; anti-Jewish legislation; and his dismissal from public school. He relates the establishment of the P?aszo?w camp on the site of the Jewish cemetery; his and his father's transport in March 1940 to Kras?nik, near Lublin, where they joined his older brother; their internment in the Be?z?yce ghetto; and ghetto life, which was characterized by round-ups, deportations and random violence. He de...

  13. 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.

  14. Frania R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Frania R., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1932. She speaks of her memories of prewar life; life in the ?o?dz? ghetto, into which she, her brother, and her parents were among the first to move in February, 1940, and where they remained after the ghetto's liquidation until liberation by the Russians in January, 1945; and her postwar difficulties in adjustment.

  15. Abe and Sari B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Abe B., who was born in Warsaw circa 1925, and his wife Sari B., who was born in Hungary circa 1928. Mr. B. describes the bombardment and burning of his house in 1939, in which his mother was killed; living conditions and slave labor in the Warsaw ghetto; the liquidation of the ghetto; and his deportation to Majdanek. Mrs. B. speaks of the worsening situation in 1944; her family's confinement in the ghetto; her separation from her family on the transport to Auschwitz/Birkenau; her transfer from there to the slave labor camp in Allendorf, where she worked in a bomb fac...

  16. Felicia B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Felicia B., who was born in Warsaw. She speaks of her prewar life in Warsaw; her life in L?vov, where she and her son were taken by her husband (who was a medical officer in the Polish army) after the German occupation; her and her son's deportation to Siberia with a transport of wives and children of Polish officers (her husband was shot in a Russian internment camp) and their life in Siberia, where they remained for six years, until the end of the war. Mrs. B. also describes their return to Poland, where they witnessed postwar antisemitism; her feelings on returning...

  17. Lee R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Lee R., who was born in Olkusz, Poland, in 1905. He recalls his prewar life and speaks of the rise of antisemitism before the war. He relates his separation from his wife and small son when the Jewish men of Olkusz were sent to Katowice and from there to Siberia, where he remained from 1939 until 1945. He describes his return to Olkusz after the war, where he learned that the rumors of the murders of his wife and son were true; and he tells how, upon his return, he made arrangements for the restoration of the cemetery, which had been vandalized. Though he appears to b...

  18. Gina E. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gina E., who was born in Grajewo, Poland in 1905. She describes her childhood during and after World War I in Bia?ystok and Warsaw; her family's move to Berlin in 1928; and the institutionalized and legalized discrimination against Jews after 1933. She recounts the mandatory return of most of her family to Poland, including her brother, who was eventually deported to Auschwitz; her mother's hospitalization and eventual deportation; and the role of Berlin's Jewish communal organization in assisting the Nazis. Mrs. E. speaks of her forced labor in a factory; the entranc...

  19. Jacob F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jacob F., who was born in Sambor, Poland, in 1900. Mr. F. tells of resisting a Cossack pogrom at the age of fourteen; the Austrian, Russian, and German occupations; the enforcement of slave labor in 1941; and his separation from his wife and children (he was ordered from the cattle car which took them to their deaths). He describes making his way to Drohobych and Boryslav and hiding there before being captured and taken, via L?vov, to Mauthausen, where he worked in the quarry for four weeks. He relates his religious observance while in Mauthausen and in Linz, where he...

  20. Sylvia F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sylvia F., who was born, an only child, in Krako?w, Poland, in 1909. During the last quarter of the testimony she is joined by her husband, Jacob, who details the circumstances under which they met and notes the camps in which he was interned: Lemberg (Lv?ov,) Borislav, Krako?w (P?aszo?w,) Vielichka, Mauthausen, and Linz. [His wartime experiences are more fully recounted in Holocaust videotape testimony T-120.] Mrs. F. describes her marriage at the age of nineteen; the arrest and murder of her first husband; her life in the ghetto and her work in the commissary in Kra...