Archival Descriptions

Displaying items 1,741 to 1,760 of 4,487
Language of Description: English
Holding Institution: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
  1. Rose J. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rose J., who was born in Vilna, Poland in 1925. She recalls her family of nine children (she is the sole survivor); Vilna's cultural and religious life; her father's optimism resulting in unwillingness to flee to the Soviet Union; forced labor, hunger, smuggling, cultural events, and round-ups in the ghetto; and one sister's refusal to abandon her son to save herself. Mrs. J. tells of deportation to Latvia; forced labor and sabotaging products in Strazdenhof; smuggling food to children; prisoners killing an informant; transfer to Stutthof, then Dresden; work in an amm...

  2. Wiera G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Wiera G., who was born in approximately 1921. She recalls a happy childhood in Vilna, Poland; participating in Hashomer Hatzair; learning dressmaking; Soviet occupation in 1939; Lithuanian independence; Soviet reoccupation; German invasion; her father's murder in Ponary; ghettoization in September 1941; murder of her grandparents at Ponary; slave labor in a uniform factory; hiding during round-ups; injuring her leg; hospitalization; deportation with her sister to Kaiserwald in 1943; slave labor in a silk factory in Strazdenhof; assistance from a Lithuanian doctor; sab...

  3. Regine B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Regine B., who was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1920. She recounts moving to Antwerp when she was eleven months; living in a non-Jewish neighborhood; no one knowing her family was Jewish; German invasion; registering as a Jew (no one else in her family did); an official offering to help her; being baptized as a result; working informally for the resistance; her position as a governess in Brasschaat; deportation to Malines in 1943; her mother and sister visiting; transfer to Auschwitz in May 1944; slave labor digging trenches and other jobs; observing a woman give...

  4. Selma E. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Selma E., who was born in Groningen, Holland, in 1922 and grew up in Zuidwolde, Holland, where her family operated a kosher hotel. She recounts her prewar family life; the influx of German Jews in 1938; anti-Jewish legislation following the German occupation of Holland; going into hiding; her capture and internment in the Dutch camps of Vught and Westerbork; and her deportation to Sobibo?r. She describes her arrival at Sobibo?r; her gradual realization that she was in an extermination camp; her work sorting the clothing of the victims of gassing; and the circumstances...

  5. Rosalie W. and Jolly Z. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rosalie W. and her daughter Jolly Z., who was born in Uz?h?horod, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1926. They describe their happy, privileged prewar life; the emigration of Mrs. W.'s son to Palestine; the Hungarian occupation; the deterioration of conditions following the German occupation; their transfer to a brick factory in the ghetto (Mrs. Z. came out of hiding to join her parents there); and their evacuation and journey by cattle car to Auschwitz. They speak of their separation from Mrs. W.'s husband, whom they later realized was gassed upon arrival; their ...

  6. Marvin L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Marvin L., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1925. He remembers his mother's death in 1934; living with his grandparents; his father's emphasis on education; studying with private tutors when Jews could not attend school; moving to Dzia?oszyce when the ?o?dz? ghetto was being formed in 1939; deportation of the women and children to Treblinka and the men to a Krako?w forced labor camp in 1942; transfer back to Dzia?oszyce; another deportation; and execution of his brother. Mr. L. relates his work as a mechanic and locksmith in the Krako?w ghetto; witnessing atrocities ...

  7. Leon F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape of Leon F., who was born in Bia?ystok, Poland in 1919. He remembers the vibrant Jewish community; Polish antisemitism; brief German occupation, then Soviet occupation; German invasion in June 1941; Germans burning Jews alive in the synagogue and Jewish quarter; his family's rescue by a Pole; ghettoization; forced labor; escaping from a round-up in which his father was killed; the Judenrat organizing a transfer to the Pruzh?a?ny ghetto for him, his mother, and one sister; obtaining food from non-Jewish farmers; liquidation of the ghetto in January 1943; deportation to Auschwitz; se...

  8. Werner R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Werner R. who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1927. He recalls his father losing his job in 1933; moving to Zagreb; attending public school; their Zionist, rather than Jewish, identity; his father's death in 1940; German invasion in 1941; being baptized with his sister; living separately from his mother and sister because it seemed safer; his sister's escape to Italy; working with the partisans; and arrest by the Gestapo in 1943. Mr. R. tells of jails in Graz and Vienna; transport to Terezi?n; cabarets and opera; German efforts to preserve Jewish books; and transport t...

  9. Magdalena N. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Magdalena N., who was born in Ružomberok, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1920, one of two sisters. She recalls cordial relations with non-Jews; her strong Slovak identity; teaching Jewish students in L̕ubochňa; anti-Jewish restrictions, including the humiliation of having to wear the star; moving to Bratislava with her family; her father hiding them, then arranging for her and her sister to be smuggled to Hungary; interdiction in Senec; return to Bratislava; two strangers paying for their release; her sister's marriage to a man legally exempted from deportat...

  10. David K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of David K., who was born in Skuodas, Lithuania in 1905. He recalls the family's move to ?o?dz? in 1913; German occupation in World War I; his mother's death in 1920; choosing not to emigrate to the United States in 1923; serving in the Polish army from 1926 to 1928; working as an accountant; German invasion; fleeing to Warsaw and returning immediately; his father's death in 1940; ghettoization; working for the Judenrat; contact with H?ayim Rumkowski; arrival of Czech, German, and Austrian Jews in 1942; deportation of the sick, elderly, and children; liquidation of the g...

  11. Yehuda S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Yehuda S., who was born in S?iauliai, Lithuania in 1912, one of three children. He recounts his family's forced relocation by Russia to Vitsebsk during World War I; returning in 1920; vacations in Palanga; his siblings' emigration to South Africa; working in his father's leather business; his death in 1939; Soviet occupation; German invasion; fleeing east with his mother; returning home; anti-Jewish restrictions; ghettoization; his mother's deportation with other relatives (he never saw them again); he and his future wife hiding with Lithuanian non-Jews for four month...

  12. Judith S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Judith S., who was born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1929, and raised in nearby Kiskundorozsma. Mrs. S. recalls tacit and overt antisemitism in pre-occupation Hungary; her family's deportation to Szeged in June 1944; a Christian family that offered to hide her; priests who offered conversion to detainees; transport with her family to Strasshof; camp living conditions; and forced labor at several sites, including a farm near Pravice, a sugar mill in Hrus?ovany, and digging tank traps. She tells of the family's escape from a death march during a Soviet attack; hiding; liberat...

  13. Marlis M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Marlis M., who was born in Hannover in 1932 to a Jewish father and German mother. She recounts her younger brother's birth in 1936; arrest in 1938 (her oldest brother was not with them); their release; her father leaving for Antwerp; viewing damage done during Kristallnacht; joining her father in summer 1939; returning shortly thereafter (her father remained); harassment in school because her father was Jewish; her younger brother's death from illness; learning her father was doing forced labor in the Harz Mountains; moving to a nearby village in winter 1943/44; a vil...

  14. Jack A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jack A., who was born in Cologne, Germany in 1927. He recalls a secure family life; changes after the Nuremberg laws, including violent harassment; deportation of Polish Jews in October 1938, including many relatives; one brother's emigration to Palestine in November 1938; burning of synagogues and destruction of his father's store on Kristallnacht; his parents putting him and a brother on a train to the Netherlands; being stopped at the border in Emmerich; assistance from local nuns; traveling to the Netherlands; living in a children's home in Arnhem; arrival of his ...

  15. William F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of William F., who was born deaf in a small town near Sa?toraljau?jhely, Hungary, in 1910. Mr. F. describes his childhood in a large family (two brothers were also deaf); learning from his father to read Hebrew for his bar mitzvah; being self-taught because he lacked a formal education; becoming a leatherworker; his pride at living independently in Budapest at age eighteen; growing antisemitism; fleeing to Czechoslovakia in late 1937; courtship and marriage; and establishing a business in Pies?t?any. He recalls a Christian maid who helped him and his wife avoid deportati...

  16. Elbridge H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Elbridge H., who was born in 1924 and served with the United States Army 20th Armored Division in World War II. He recounts entering Dachau immediately after it was liberated; being overwhelmed with grief; the pervasive stench; piles of corpses; emaciated, dazed inmates; and leaving shortly thereafter. Mr. H. discusses his inability to believe the "inhumanity" of the camp; visiting Dachau with his family in 1964; and recently speaking publicly about his experience at Dachau.

  17. Celina R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Celina R., who was born in Krako?w, Poland in 1929. She recalls the outbreak of war; fleeing with her family to Lv?iv; Soviet occupation; returning to Krako?w in December 1939; fleeing to Wieliczka to escape ghettoization; her father's deportation and subsequent death; forced relocation with her mother and brother to the Krako?w ghetto in 1943, then to P?aszo?w in March; her brother's deportation with the children's transport (she never saw him again); working with her mother in an upholstery shop; hiding during Goeth's visit; deportation with her mother to Auschwitz;...

  18. Milan S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Milan S., a Romani, who was born in Jelšava, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia). He recalls providing information about Hlinka guard movements to partisans; arrest with others; deportation to Komárno; transfer ten weeks later to Dachau; being marked as a partisan; slave labor in an airplane factory; a guard killing a Jewish prisoner for not working; meeting Romanies from throughout Europe; transfer two weeks later to Hamburg; shootings of Romani friends; placement in barracks with Jews; little communication among ethnic and national groups; one German giving him ex...

  19. Dori K. Holocaust testimony

    A follow-up, directed videotape testimony of Dori K., whose first testimony was recorded in 1979. Ms. K. notes that she does not remember what she said in her testimony, but it was the first time she had spoken at length of her experiences and it was very painful. She recounts that the 1979 testimony freed her to explore her past by visiting the home where she was hidden and an archive in Brussels which contained records of her, her father, and family photographs. She also discusses clarifying some of her own memories; encountering a neighbor who said everyone knew she was Jewish and kept q...