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 2,761 to 2,780 of 58,922
Search result ordering

  1. Bernat F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Bernat F., who was born in Vojvodina, Yugoslavia in 1921, the youngest of seven children. He remembers his childhood in Subotica; his family's orthodoxy; membership in Hashomer Hatzair; attending gymnasium; his communist leanings undermining his religious beliefs; his mother's death; Hungarian occupation; conscription into a Hungarian slave labor battalion in 1942; solidarity with those in his unit from Vojvodina; being moved to many locations ending in Bor; escaping four weeks later with others with assistance from a Serb partisan; joining a partisan unit and SKOJ; b...

  2. Dana S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Dana S., who was born in L?viv, Ukraine (then Poland) in 1935. She recalls having a governess (her parents were both lawyers); the beginning of war; Soviet occupation; her father hiding from military draft; his eventual draft and return home; German invasion; ghettoization; hiding during round-ups; her mother hiding her with a Christian former neighbor; their returning her after a week; her father obtaining false papers for her and her mother (as a male, he thought he would jeopardize them); seeing her father for the last time; going by train to Zakliko?w; living as C...

  3. Jacob B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jacob B., who was born in Il'nitas, Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine) in 1922. He recalls moving to a small village in 1927; attending yeshivoth in a nearby town in Slovakia and in Munkacs; difficulties returning home after Hungarian occupation in 1938; abusive behavior by the police; increasing anti-Jewish restrictions; dealing on the black market to support his family; changing his last name to escape arrest; compulsory service in a Hungarian labor battalion from 1943 onward in O?zd, Moha?cs, Pe?cs, Koma?rom, and Budapest; efforts to observe the dietary laws; harsh condi...

  4. Violet S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Violet S., who was born in Berehovo, Czechoslovakia in 1928. She recounts Hungarian occupation in 1939; her father's mobilization into a Hungarian labor battalion (she never saw him again); German occupation; hardships encountered by her mother in caring for six children; round-ups of Jews from surrounding villages to a nearby brick factory; supplying food and medicine to the incarcerated Jews with other local youngsters; her own family's round-up; hunger; inadequate shelter; and her mother's efforts to provide strength and a sense of security. Mrs. S. tells of deport...

  5. Helga E. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Helga E., who was born in Braunschweig, Germany in 1923, the only child of a Jewish mother and non-Jewish father. She recalls her father was a published, well-known photographer; enjoying evangelical Christian classes in school; consciousness of her Jewish identity beginning in 1933; antisemitic incidents in school; disappointment at being prohibited from participating in Nazi youth groups; her father's refusal to help her mother's brother; notification of his death after Kristallnacht; expulsion from several schools; difficulty obtaining a job; working at age fifteen...

  6. Solomon S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Solomon S., who was born in Charsznica, Poland in 1926. He describes the town, his family and education; fleeing to a farm during the German invasion; increasingly harsh conditions; a mass shooting in September 1942; transport to P?asow with his father and cousin; frequent killings; their escape to the Krako?w ghetto, then Charsznica; and his father (whom he never saw again) sending him to a labor collection to escape transport. Mr. S. recalls moving between P?asow and the ghetto; surviving several times due to help from friends and a Jewish kapo; transfer to Mauthaus...

  7. David A. Holocaust testimony

    A follow-up, directed videotape testimony of David A., whose first testimony was recorded in 1982. Mr. A. discusses his reluctance to talk about the Holocaust, even with his children, prior to recording his testimony; attributing his survival to luck and kindness from others; the speculative nature of survival theories; inappropriate myths of heroism and faith; a kapo and others in his barracks hiding a sick friend, risking their own lives; and having to view the bodies of kapos who were shot attempting to escape. He recalls living with a friend in Berlin after liberation; returning to Pola...

  8. Gerard K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Gerard K., who was born in Paris, France in 1935, the oldest of three brothers. He recounts that his mother was born in England; his family's move to Montargis in 1937; attending school; German occupation; his father's deportation in June 1943; receiving a letter from him, which he reads; his mother obtaining funds from Jewish and Quaker organizations in Paris; the local priest warning them to hide prior to round-ups; traveling from Cha?lette to Clefmont; hiding with a non-Jewish woman from May to August 1944, using false papers; after liberation, being sent to a refu...

  9. Valerie S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Valerie S., who was born in Hungary in 1898. She recounts her family's move to Vienna when she was four; a wonderful childhood and schooling in an affluent home; very close relationships with her mother and sister; marriage in 1923; working as a typist for her husband's anti-Nazi newspaper; fleeing to Budapest with her husband after the Anschluss; learning of her father's arrest from her mother's letters (they were later deported and she never saw them again); fleeing to Paris in 1939 with her husband; his death in January; German occupation; returning to Budapest in ...

  10. Sam K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sam K., who was born in 1920 and served with the United States Army in World War II. He recounts serving in North Africa, then Sicily; transfer to the 3rd Infantry Division; fighting in Naples and Rome, through France, and into Germany; visiting Dachau for less than two hours shortly after its liberation; piles of corpses; not believing local Germans who claimed ignorance of the camp; and his state of shock at what he witnessed. Mr. K. notes having no previous knowledge of concentration camps. He shows photographs and items he obtained during the war.

  11. Yvonne P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Yvonne P., a non-Jew, who was born in Havré, Belgium in 1912. She recounts her father becoming an invalid in World War I; completing teacher training in 1930; her father's death in 1933; marriage in 1935; moving to Antwerp in 1938; participating with her husband in anti-fascist activities; his military draft; German invasion on May 10, 1940; fleeing to Havré; her husband's return; participating in the Resistance; hiding using false papers; visiting her husband in Tertre; his arrest in December 1941 and execution in February 1942; hiding with a friend, then with an a...

  12. Robert W. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Robert W., who was born in Skarz?ysko-Kamienna, Poland in 1931, the youngest of six childen. He recalls antisemitic harassment; German invasion; a public hanging; ghettoization; his father arranging for him to hide with non-Jews; returning to rejoin his family; his mother's deportation; being smuggled into the labor camp by his brothers; slave labor; sharing extra food received from a civilian worker with his brothers, father, or sister; his father hiding him when he was sick; his father arranging his escape to the partisans; returning due to antisemitic hostility fro...

  13. 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.

  14. Stefan D. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Stefan D., a Catholic Romani, who was born in Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1934. He recalls Hlinka guards destroying their homes; living in a forest; continuing to attend school; the local population being blamed when partisans blew up a bridge near their village; deportation with his mother to Prešov, then Dubnica, a concentration camp for Romanies; his mother giving birth in the train; separation of the women from the children; seeing his mother an hour a day; crowding and very poor hygiene; sparse food rations leading to high death rates, particularly am...

  15. Hilda F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Hilda F., who was born in Storojinet, Romania (today Storozhinets, Ukraine), in 1920. Mrs. F. describes her childhood in a civil servant's family; rallies by anti-Semitic Romanian political movements; Soviet occupation; killings of Jews by withdrawing Romanians; being sent as a teacher to a small village; returning home; and being rounded up with other Jews by returning Romanian troops in June 1941. She tells of a Christian friend who helped her; being sent with her family to the Storojinet ghetto; arrest and detention as a former "communist" teacher; expulsion of her...

  16. Tzvi A. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Tzvi A., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1927, the older of two children. He recounts attending public school; the Nuremberg laws resulting in many restrictions; visiting England for six weeks in 1936 through a Jewish community program; attending Jewish summer camp; transfer to a Jewish school in 1938; Kristallnacht; his sister's emigration on a kindertransport; his bar mitzvah; attending a Zionist training school; working in a factory starting at age fourteen; his grandfather's deportation; hiding during a round-up with assistance from a non-Jewish family; joining...

  17. Martha H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Martha H., who was born in Vilma?ny, Hungary in 1927. She recalls about fifty Jewish people living there; commuting to a Catholic school in Abau?jsza?nto? at age ten; attending a boarding school in Budapest in 1943; German invasion in March 1944; hearing from home for a short time; forced labor with friends clearing bombing rubble; hiding briefly in a basement; being rounded-up; escaping with her friends; a Jewish agency placing them in a Swedish safe house; disbanding of the house when it became too dangerous; receiving false papers; liberation by Soviet troops; trav...

  18. Ida F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ida F., who was born in Zbaraż, Poland (presently Zbaraz︠h︡ , Ukraine) in 1921, the elder of two daughters. She recounts her father's medical practice and her mother teaching gymnasium until her sister's birth; her large extended family; attending public school; her family's focus on music and literature; cordial relations with non-Jews; attending university in Lʹviv in 1938, where she first experienced antisemitism; hiding with her sister during the war resulting in their very close relationship; assistance by Poles; and emigration to Israel when she was thirty-six....

  19. Roger B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Roger B., who was born in Nancy, France in 1910. He recalls working as a court lawyer; moving to Paris; mobilization in August 1939; service on the Maginot line; being taken prisoner by Germans in June 1940; internment as a French prisoner of war in several places, including Sarrebourg, Sarralbe, and Trier, which are described in his friend Francis Ambrie?re's book; assisting groups to stay together; receiving extra food from a guard; transfer to Amboise, then Saumur; his parents visiting once; transfer to Sankt Johann im Pongau; organizing plays and giving lectures; ...

  20. Sylvia M. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Sylvia M., who was born in Vilna, Poland (presently Vilnius, Lithuania) in approximately 1926, one of three sisters. She recounts attending a Jewish school; increasing antisemitism in the late 1930s; Soviet occupation in 1939; attending free public high school; brief Lithuanian independence; an antisemitic riot; Soviet reoccupation in 1940; German invasion in 1941; her father's forced labor; learning her uncle had been killed with many others; ghettoization in September 1941; her older sister smuggling food; transfer to Keilis due to her older sister's privileged posi...