Archival Descriptions

Displaying items 48,461 to 48,480 of 58,923
  1. Ruth F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ruth F., who was born in Brzeziny, Poland. She recalls her affluent family; German invasion and bombardment; her older brother's draft into the Polish army; anti-Jewish measures; public hanging of Jewish men at the end of 1939; ghettoization; forced labor at a munitions factory; the ghetto's liquidation; transfer with her family to ?o?dz?; her father's deportation (she never saw him again); separation from her mother upon arrival at Auschwitz/Birkenau in August 1944 (she never saw her again); prisoner observance of Rosh ha-Shanah; becoming ill; transfer to the hospita...

  2. Edyta S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Edyta S., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1929 to an affluent, assimilated family. She recounts her parents' divorce; living with her maternal grandparents and uncle; their Polish patriotism; her mother's remarriage; her grandmother's death in 1937; German invasion; briefly fleeing east; her grandfather's death in 1940 from abusive Germans; ghettoization; attending privately organized classes; stepping over the dead in the street becoming "normal"; lice infestation despite their cleanliness; Jewish police saving her from round-ups; her uncle's deportation; her paren...

  3. Fishel Y. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Fishel Y., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1921, one of four children. He recounts his father's bakery; German invasion; fleeing with his family to his paternal grandparents in Rejowiec; Germans compelling them to work; smuggling themselves into the Łódź ghetto two months later; working in his father's bakery; one brother's deportation in September 1940; his deportation to Grunow three days later; slave labor building the Reichsautobahn; adequate food, access to showers, and clean barracks (better conditions than the ghetto); corresponding with his brother through...

  4. Rachel R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rachel R., who was born in Dzia?oszyce, Poland in 1910. Mrs. R. tells of her home town; the German occupation; her marriage in 1940; and the birth of her child in 1941. She describes her escape from the first Aktion in Dzia?oszyce; her capture a few weeks later; and her transfer to Krako?w, where she and her husband worked in P?aszo?w while her mother and son were interned in the Krako?w ghetto. The liquidation of the Krako?w ghetto, during which Mrs. R.'s mother and infant son were killed, is recalled. Mrs. R. also relates her husband's transfer to Flossenbu?rg; her ...

  5. Jolly Z. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Jolly Z., who was born in Uz?h?horod, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1926. She tells of leaving her hiding place in order to be with her parents; their transfer to the ghetto shortly thereafter; and their deportation, a few weeks later, to Auschwitz. She recalls their total ignorance upon arrival; aspects of daily life in Auschwitz; her and her mother's transfer to Hamburg for slave labor; and the mistreatment she suffered; the birth of a child;and a German killing the baby. She relates her transfer to Bergen-Belsen, where she was put to work digging mass grave...

  6. Else D. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Else D., who was born in Bielsko-Bia?a, Poland. She describes moving to Krako?w at age twenty-five; German invasion; ghettoization; round-ups in the ghetto; transfer to P?aszo?w (her husband perished there); random killings and public executions; being placed on Oskar Schindler's list due to her cousin's influence; transfer to Auschwitz/Birkenau, then to Bru?nnlitz, with the other women on Schindler's list; knitting socks to trade for extra food; liberation by Soviet troops; staying briefly in Prague; returning to Bielsko-Bia?a; difficulties reclaiming family property...

  7. Samuel T. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Samuel T., who was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1922. He recalls entering the United States military in 1942; serving with the Third Army in France and Germany; noticing the beautiful countryside and a terrible odor as he approached Gunskirchen with the 71st Infantry Division; being told not to feed the prisoners since they could die; knowing what he was seeing, but being unable to characterize it; speaking with a few prisoners; moving forward the next day; and meeting Soviet troops. Mr. T. discusses having no idea what a concentration camp was prior to entering Guns...

  8. Gabriel D., Sylvain D., and Danielle H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of three siblings born in Paris, France: Gabriel D. (1937), his brother Sylvain D. (1939), and their sister Danielle H. (1936). They recount their grandparents' emigration from eastern Europe; their father's United States citizenship and their mother's British (she was born in Palestine); German invasion; their father's arrest in December 1941, after the U.S. entered the war; his privileged status as a U.S. citizen; visiting him; receiving financial support from relatives in Palestine; assistance from non-Jewish neighbors; applying to join their grandparents in Palestine...

  9. Moses F. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Moses F., who was born in Debrecen, Hungary in 1930, one of ten children. He recalls his family moving to Hajdúhadház; their orthodoxy; his father working as a teacher; his mother's business selling milk; his older brothers' draft into Hungarian slave labor battalions; an older sister moving to Budapest; round-up with his parents and younger sister to the Hajdúhadház ghetto in spring 1944; his bar mitzvah there; transfer to the Debrecen ghetto; deportation to Austria; a forester taking his family, including cousins, aunts, and uncles, to cut trees; having to fill ...

  10. Henry L. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Henry L., who was born in Radom, Poland in 1927. He recalls antisemitic violence in school; German invasion; his father's arrest; his return three days later, beaten; anti-Jewish regulations; separation with his father from his mother and brothers in a 1942 selection; deportation with his father to Majdanek; assignment to a machine shop; receiving extra food from political prisoners; transfer in November 1943 to P?aszo?w; his father's death; transfer to Wieliczka, Mauthausen, then Gusen; assignment to a machine shop, a privileged position; liberation in May 1945; reco...

  11. John P. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of John P., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1904. Mr. P. describes the atmosphere and political conditions in Vienna; prewar antisemitism; his family's desire to assimilate; his marriage in 1933; early observations of changing conditions; watching a boycott against Jews from a rooftop in 1938; his mother's refusal to leave because she was the widow of a World War I veteran, was married to another at that time, and was reluctant to leave her art collection; and his escape with his wife to Paris. He relates their incarceration in a French jail for one month; release and...

  12. Berl G. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Berl G., who was born in Vilkija, Lithuania in 1919. He recounts moving to Kaunas; his younger brother's death; belonging to Betar; Soviet occupation; German invasion in 1941; fleeing with his family to Ukmerge?; returning to Kaunas; mass killings by Lithuanians; ghettoization; forced labor at the airport; a mass killing on October 28, 1941 which included his parents; remaining with his brother and sister-in-law; their assignment to a work brigade outside the ghetto; organizing resistance with assistance from the Judenrat and Jewish police; escaping with a small group...

  13. Marc S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Marc S., who was born in ?an?cut, a small town in Poland in 1914 and grew up in ?o?dz?. He notes his Jewish education, beginning with cheder at the age of three. He tells of his flight after the German occupation to Russian-occupied Bia?ystok and of his return, with the help of non-Jews, to ?o?dz? to rejoin his mother, sister, and brother. He describes the ?o?dz? ghetto, particularly its Jewish administration, for which he worked until his deportation to Auschwitz in August 1944. Mr. S. was the representative of the revisionist Zionist organization on the Jewish Counc...

  14. Eugene R. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Eugene R., who was born in Abau?jsza?nto?, Hungary in 1922. He recalls the second class status of Jews despite a comfortable life; attending Yeshiva in Miskolc and gymnasium in Budapest while learning the leather trade; his brothers' compulsory service in labor battalions (they did not survive); German invasion; and forced labor outside Budapest in 1944. Mr. R. recounts chaos following Hungary's attempt to withdraw from the war; efforts by a battalion officer to prevent their deportation in late 1944; transport to Ferto?rakos; digging trenches and bunkers; horrendous ...

  15. Rose B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Rose B., who was born in Da?ma?cus?eni, Romania in 1928, one of seven children. She recounts her family's affluence and their orthodoxy; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions, including her expulsion from school; deportation to the Dej ghetto, then Auschwitz in 1944; separation from her family (they were killed except for one brother); hospitalization; a nurse helping her; slave labor in the kitchen; encountering her brother; transfer to Kaufering in September; disposing of dead bodies during an epidemic; transfer to Dachau; liberation by United States troops...

  16. Toby Z. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Toby Z., who was born in Ulano?w, Poland in 1918. She recounts her mother's death; her father's remarriage; a good relationship with her stepmother; the births of five siblings; moving to Tarno?w; increasing antisemitism; German invasion in September 1939; ghettoization; forced labor outside the ghetto as a seamstress; smuggling food; deportation of her family except her older brother; her deportation to P?aszo?w; public hangings of food smugglers; transfer to Skarz?ysko-Kamienna; slave labor with a poisonous chemical in a munitions factor; assistance from other priso...

  17. Joseph K. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Joseph K., who was born in W?oc?awek, Poland in 1922. He recalls German occupation in 1939; ghettoization; extreme overcrowding and hunger; community efforts to feed the children and maintain their dignity; public hanging of a man who tried to bring food into the ghetto; and burning of the synagogue while Poles desecrated the Torah. Mr. K. recounts forced labor in Kolmar and Usch; deportation to Birkenau in 1941 where he stayed briefly; transfer to Jawarzno; slave labor building an electric plant and in coal mines; a failed escape by twenty-six prisoners; their exhort...

  18. Ellen S. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Ellen S., a non-Jew who was born in Bohemia. Mrs. S. describes her life in Plzen?; her limited yet positive contact with Jews; the German occupation and increasing restrictions on her freedom; her apprenticeship to a dressmaker; and her peripheral knowledge of the Jewish situation. She relates the shock of seeing a deportation train full of abused prisoners, and her thwarted attempts to feed them; her subsequent attempts to aid people when possible; and the inability of the church to address the immediate situation. She also speaks of meeting the American G.I. who was...

  19. Esther H. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Esther H., who was born in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1927. She recounts her parents were Polish immigrants; seeing Hitler twice; anti-Jewish restrictions; visiting her grandparents in Poland in 1934; visiting an aunt in Berlin; her father being beaten and their home and store plundered on Kristallnacht; traveling to Antwerp via Aachen to live with a maternal aunt; her parents joining her; German invasion in May 1940; fleeing to Paris via Lille; assistance from the Joint; moving to Toulouse, then Saint-Loup; French soldiers being billeted in the house where they were st...

  20. Paula B. Holocaust testimony

    Videotape testimony of Paula B., who was born in Vilna, Poland in 1925. She recalls her much older brother and sister; a pleasant childhood; Soviet occupation; learning Russian folksongs; German invasion; ghettoization; food shortages; forced labor; participating in a chorus which gave her strength; her brother not returning from work (they never saw him again); her brother-in-law being taken in a round-up; her sister leaving with her child; public hanging of a friend; separation from her parents in a selection; deportation to Kaiserwald; slave labor with a friend (they remain in touch to t...