Archival Descriptions

Displaying items 10,901 to 10,920 of 55,814
  1. Yakov E. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Yakov E., who was born in Poland in approximately 1930, the oldest of three children. He recalls his family's Zionism (an uncle had emigrated to Israel); antisemitic harassment; belonging to Gordonyah; his father's importance in the town; Soviet occupation; leaving on an evacuation train to Kazakhstan in 1941, the only Jewish family to do so (his father was not with them); stopping a few days in Saratov en route; difficulties being accepted by other Jews in Kazakhstan; knowing nothing about the Holocaust; receiving a package from relatives in Israel; attending school;...

  2. Henry O. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Henry O., who was born in Hrubieszo?w, Poland in 1923. Mr. O. describes leaving imprisonment in Budzyn? in January 1944, after falsely registering himself and his three brothers as scientists in order to be placed in a special commando in Flossenbu?rg; and the detail itself (documentation of this commando exists at YIVO), which Mr. O. speculates was a sham for those Germans in charge to avoid front line duty. He recalls their transfer by cattle car to P?aszo?w; suffering, beatings, and horrendous conditions there; transfer to Berlin from the Krako?w railroad station w...

  3. Bela K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bela K., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1929. She recounts a happy childhood despite pervasive antisemitism; a large extended family; her father's mobilization immediately before the war; German invasion; her father's return, seriously wounded; ghettoization; her father's death; forced labor; the deaths of many relatives; hiding during round-ups of children; her grandfather's death; hiding during the ghetto's liquidation; discovery; deportation to Auschwitz; separation from everyone but one aunt; learning about the gas chambers; assistance from her aunt when she wa...

  4. Roni B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Roni B., who was born in 1930 in Berlin, Germany. She recounts antisemitic harassment and restrictions, including her father not being able to treat non-Jews (he was a dentist); some non-Jews sneaking in for treatment; a non-Jewish butcher providing them with meat; changing schools frequently; Kristallnacht; relatives emigrating to several destinations; the war's outbreak; bribing an official to obtain visas; traveling to Paris, Bordeaux, San Sebastia?n, and Barcelona; emigrating by ship to the United States in August 1941; and receiving letters from relatives via the...

  5. George A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of George A., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1907. He describes his family's move to Brno in 1920; his rebellious youth; working until 1936; moving to Prague; realizing the danger following the 1938 Munich agreement; registering for emigration to the United States; German occupation in March 1938; arrest; release with assistance from a police official, his father's friend; obtaining a temporary French visa; attempting to escape with assistance from non-Jews; brief imprisonment; traveling to Paris; incarceration as an enemy alien after the war began; transfer to Borde...

  6. Stephanie R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Stephanie R., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922. She recalls her father's strong German identity; losing his bank in 1933 due to anti-Jewish legislation; her expulsion from school in 1938; convincing her father to hide on Kristallnacht to avoid arrest; her wish to emigrate; her father's refusal until August 1939; and the painful parting from her parents. Mrs. R. describes difficulties adjusting in England; communications with her parents prior to the war; a nine month incarceration on the Isle of Man as a potential German spy; return to London; the trauma of Ger...

  7. Ruth N. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ruth N., who was born in Ansbach, Germany in 1931. She recounts her father's position as a rabbi; antisemitic harassment; cordial relations with a neighbor who belonged to the SS; her father's job offer from Paris; their emigration in 1937; birth of a sibling; her father's enlistment in the Foreign Legion in 1939; German invasion in May 1940; traveling with her mother and siblings to Albi, where her father was stationed; living in Milhars and Toulouse; her father's discharge; moving to Nice in 1941; benign conditions under Italian occupation; the birth of twin sibling...

  8. Joseph N. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Joseph N., who was born in Mukacheve, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Ukraine) to a large, religious family. He recalls Mukacheve becoming part of Czechoslovakia after World War I; cordial relations with non-Jews; military draft in September 1938; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish laws; conscription into a Hungarian slave labor battalion; serving in Szentkira?lyszabadja and Budapest; hiding briefly; rejoining his battalion in Budakeszi; transport to Buchenwald, then to Offenburg five days later; slave labor building railroads; transfer to Dresden; Allied bombings...

  9. Henry and Sally K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Henry and Sally K. Ms. K. was born in Wolano?w, Poland in 1930, one of five children. She recounts her family's orthodoxy; harassment by non-Jewish children; attending a Jewish school in Radom; German invasion; soldiers burning the synagogue and killing the rabbi; her father being killed; her older brother hiding, and her sister going to Warsaw (she was killed); incarceration with her mother, sister, and younger brother in a forced labor camp for about a year; their transfer to Bliz?yn; public execution of her cousin when he tried to escape; transfer to Auschwitz/Birk...

  10. Henri R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Henri R., who was born in Poland in 1910. He recalls growing up in P?ock; his father's desire that he become a rabbi; moving to Paris in 1931 with his future wife to study medicine; working as a custodian while studying; joining the Foreign Legion; demobilization in the free zone; rejoining his wife in Paris; arrest in May 1941; internment in Pithiviers; working as a physician; adequate living conditions; visits from his wife; transfer to Drancy with a group of children in September 1942; deportation to Auschwitz a week later; voluntary transfer to Golleschau; forced ...

  11. Colette T. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Colette T., who was born in France in 1932. She describes growing up in Rouen in a very assimilated family (she did not realize she was Jewish); her father's service in the French military; fleeing to Agen with her mother and brother after German invasion; learning her father was a prisoner of war; returning to Rouen; shame at having to wear the yellow star; an empathic teacher; arrest with her mother and brother on January 15, 1943 despite their status as family of a war prisoner; deportation to Drancy; transfer to Beaune-la-Rolande; return to Drancy; a rabbi who org...

  12. Rose and Aaron M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Aaron M., who was born near ?o?dz?, Poland circa 1915, and his wife Rose M., who was born in ?o?dz? circa 1916. Mr. M. relates his conscription into the Polish army prior to the outbreak of the war; his escape from the army and, later, from deportation; the German takeover of his home town; and his transfer to the ghettos of Warta and then ?o?dz?, where he remained from 1942 until 1944. He describes life in the ghetto; his separation from his first wife and small daughter, whom he never saw again; and his own capture and imprisonment. Mrs. M. discusses the ghettoizati...

  13. Helen E. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Helen E., who was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1925, one of three children. She recounts attending a Jewish public school; participating in Gordonyah; her father's death; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions; working as a tutor; a notice to report for forced labor in January 1942; hiding with an aunt, then a non-Jewish neighbor; arrest; transport to Neusalz; slave labor in a factory; a six week death march in January 1945; briefly escaping with two fellow prisoners in Karlovy Vary; train transport to Flossenbürg, then a week later to Bergen-Belsen; starvation, l...

  14. Sonia W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sonia W., who was born in Mie?dzyrzec Podlaski, Poland in 1925, one of three children. She recalls attending public school; German invasion; forced labor; hiding with her family during deportations; ghettoization; her brother placing her sister in hiding with a non-Jew; her father and brother hiding with another non-Jew; their betrayal and execution; deportation with her mother to Majdanek; public hangings of escapees; separation from her mother (she never saw her again) when she was transferred to Auschwitz/Birkenau; hiding during selections; a beating when their wor...

  15. Arnold L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Arnold L., who was born in Polzin, Germany (presently Po?czyn-Zdro?j, Poland) in 1919. He recalls attending public school; expulsion in 1935 due to antisemitism; attending a Zionist agricultural school near Berlin with his brother; visiting his parents in Berlin, where they had been forced to move after confiscation of their assets; moving to a kibbutz in Hessen in 1937, then to another in Gru?sen; emigration in 1938 to a town outside Amsterdam in order to leave for Palestine; illegally traveling by ship to Palestine with 1500 other people in 1939 (his brother had emi...

  16. David R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of David R., who was born in Mukacheve, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Ukraine) in 1916, one of nine children. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; emigration of siblings to the United States; cordial relations with non-Jews under the Czech regime; his father's death in 1920; working in a factory; Hungarian occupation; his mother's death in 1939; antisemitic harassment; moving to Budapest; draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion in 1943; hospitalization; returning to his unit; German invasion; transfer to Uz?h?horod, then Terka; building roads and bridges; sket...

  17. Tamar S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Tamar S., who was born in Berlin, Germany. She recounts her family's Dutch citizenship; spending summers in Amsterdam, where she met Anne Frank; being sent to boarding school in Holland while her parents moved to Paris in 1933; joining the Scouts; assisting Belgian refugees through the Scouts, after German invasion; moving to Moulins with her family; attending school in Lyon; her parents and younger siblings being forced to move to Grenoble; joining the Jewish scouts which rescued Jewish children; the family's arrest; leaving her three-year-old sister in hiding with a...

  18. Israel M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Israel M., who was born in Slonim, Poland (today Belarus), in 1937. Mr. M. tells of being sent by his family (whom he never saw again) to visit his uncle in 1941; fleeing east from the German attack with his uncle and family; traveling through Minsk to Kiev, where they entrained for Soviet Central Asia; German air attacks en route; and arrival in Samarqand, Uzbekistan in late 1941. He recounts the lack of food and poor sanitation; the deaths of his relatives from disease; placement in a Russian orphanage in 1942; returning to liberated Poland in 1945; anti-Semitic tau...

  19. Claire S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Claire S., who was born in Germany, the oldest of four children of Polish émigrés. She recounts her family's move to Brussels; attending school; working at fourteen to help support her family; joining the Bund; her father's arrest for debt resulting in his deportation to Germany; obtaining money to secure his return; German invasion; one brother hiding in a monastery; anti-Jewish restrictions; marriage in 1942; obtaining false papers; her sister's deportation; bribing officials to free an underground member from the Gestapo; her father's round-up and deportation; ar...

  20. Erica K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Erica K., who was born in Mad, Hungary in 1925 and grew up in Miskolc. She recalls a carefree childhood; German occupation; her father being "taken early"; deportation to Auschwitz with her mother and siblings; transfer to Birkenau with her sister and cousin; constant thirst and hunger; the oppressive odor; liquidation of the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager); transfer to Ravensbru?ck in August 1944, then Reinickendorf; a German foreman providing extra food which she shared with her sister; and transfer to Oranienburg. Mrs. K. describes liberation by Soviet troops; living i...