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Oral history interview with Shony Braun

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1994.A.0447.7 | RG Number: RG-50.042.0007

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    Oral history interview with Shony Braun
    Transcript
    This is sound roll number one, Wentworth Films,
    Holocaust [INAUDIBLE] IPS, 60-cycle sync, March 9, 1992,
    in Los Angeles, California.
    Camera roll one is up, sync take one is up.
    And the following is interview with Shony, S-H-O-N-Y, Braun,
    B-R-A-U-N. And then the hum that you hear is just on the slating
    mic.
    So the height will be the right.
    OK Wait a sec, wait a sec.
    Are you shy?
    Yeah.
    I think we can deal with this.
    Just after--
    False start.
    Take two is up.
    Actually, we'll keep one, we'll repeat one.
    Yeah, you can hear him.
    I want you to describe the transport and then
    the arrival at Auschwitz.
    And why don't you, as you describe it,
    give me your age and who you were with?
    Well, the transport was approximately four days
    as we were.
    And there were so many.
    So many things happened even before the transport
    that probably I will skip it and go right into what you--
    to answer your question.
    We had no water, we had very little food, just the food
    which we took from home before we had to board the cattle car.
    And there were a lot of people died, mainly
    children and older people.
    For instance, we were so compact, it was like sardines.
    If you sat, you couldn't get up.
    Or vice-versa.
    But on the fourth night, we arrived to Auschwitz.
    And we had to wait.
    And the train was waiting.
    Then all of a sudden, the doors opened, slid open,
    and we were ordered out.
    As we stepped out, head prisoners, called Kapos,
    rushed at us using their whips, and so did the SS.
    They were beating them, kicking them, hitting
    everyone they could reach.
    Then we were ordered to form a line, stand in line.
    Men in one, women and small children in the other.
    While the whip, and the kicking, and the beating
    was going on, after we lined up, I
    noticed that a high-ranking SS officer approached.
    That was the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele,
    the Angel of Death, the man who would decide our fate.
    Instant death in a gas chamber or lingering life
    of torture and slavery.
    We had to file by him.
    As we did, I noticed that he had a slender stick.
    Actually was a conductor's baton.
    Being a musician, even at 13, so I recognized it.
    And he was waving it to the right or to the left.
    He was pointing which way each individual who filed by him
    to go.
    My mother and younger sister, Goldie,
    who was only nine years old, she was
    motioned to the left along with my mother.
    My older sister, Violet, was motion to the opposite side,
    to the right.
    My brother, Zoltan, who was 15, and my father--
    they next were in line, they were also
    motioned to the same side where Violet, my older sister.
    By the way, Violet was 18.
    I don't know if you had mentioned it or not.
    When my turn came, to my great surprise,
    Mengele stopped me, motioned to stop.
    And he says, tell me, little boy, how old are you?
    I'm 13, I replied.
    Previously coached to say more than I was because this way,
    I had a better chance to survive and being sent to work,
    rather than being sent immediately to the gas chamber.
    Mengele was sort of looking at me with a suspicion,
    suspiciously.
    Because I really didn't look--
    not even 13.
    My frail body and pale.
    You know, I didn't go out to play football,
    soccer with the boys, but I was always practicing the violin.
    But miraculously, he was motioning me
    to the group where my father and brothers were.
    After the selection was over, my mother, my younger sister,
    and the group that they were in were led away.
    I didn't know that I've seen them the last time.
    They were taking direct to the gas chamber.
    And they were told that you have to take a shower.
    In order to camouflage really what they wanted to do,
    the SS will issue a towel and a bar of soap.
    We've got to stop for the siren.
    Sorry.
    After the selections were over, my mother, my younger sister,
    and the group they were in were led away.
    I didn't know that I have seen them for the last time.
    They were taken directly to the gas chamber.
    There was actually a house where was written the words [GERMAN],,
    means bath.
    And each one of them were issued a bar of soap and a towel.
    And then they said, you have to go in there and take a shower.
    But in reality, that was the gas chamber room.
    As soon as they went in, the doors were locked behind them.
    And then the gas was flowing.
    And everybody in it died.
    The terrible thing, maybe to add to that, I should say,
    was that then the SS would send some of us
    prisoners to go and pick up the dead bodies and cart them away.
    When we were just getting to ourselves what happened,
    we were taken to another barrack,
    we were stripped completely, and had to take a real shower.
    And the very same gas chamber where these wonderful people
    and the poor, poor children were taken and were gassed,
    we really took a shower.
    While the gas where they're flowing through the pipes,
    now, they let water through.
    I know because I was in it also to shower in reality.
    Then we were assigned to a barrack.
    We managed somehow to stay together.
    My father, my brother Zoltan, and me.
    And one night, as we were standing in line to be
    counted-- that was the final count--
    a Kapo, which means head prisoner--
    I'm going to refer from now on as a Kapo--
    came to our line.
    And he was speaking business for what
    they call a Sonderkommando.
    And among other prisoners, he picked me, too.
    A Sonderkommando had to go around the camp
    and pick up the dead or nearly dead bodies
    and cart them up to the crematorium.
    Now, being in the Sonderkommando,
    that meant separation from my father and brother.
    I was assigned to a different barrack.
    And one occasion, as I was picking up a body,
    I noticed that this man was not dead at all.
    And I turned to the Kapo, and I said,
    Herr Kapo, if we would give a little food or a little water,
    this man would survive.
    And then he turned around and hit me with his fist in my face
    so hard that I fell over.
    And he said, you are not here to tell me who would survive.
    We're not here to make people survive.
    Now, if you not going to keep your mouth shut,
    I am going to put you in the crematorium also.
    Now pick up that body and put him up.
    And we did it.
    I didn't say no more anything.
    But all my life, even today, even as I am telling you this,
    I have the most awful feeling that I really
    had to burn my fellow prisoners, had to go
    and cart them off to the crematorium
    so that they would be burned.
    And they were alive.
    So we were doing this for about oh, maybe six days.
    Now, in that group where I was working, the Sonderkommando,
    there was another Kommando, a father, who had--
    Now, we do have to reload.
    Yeah.
    That's a good stopping place.
    We'll just back and forth.
    You have to forgive me if I am not so--
    but to my great surprise, Mengele
    stopped me and talked to me.
    And he was asking, tell me, little boy, how old are you?
    I said, I'm 16 and I can prove it.
    And I was gesturing to go into my pocket
    because I had this birth certificate,
    of a falsified birth certificate.
    Because previously, my father, when we were still home--
    I have to qualify that we were told
    that unless you do your minor children, like I was 13,
    before coming, before we're taken, you know.
    And my sister was nine years old.
    So unless he's getting a different birth certificates,
    we're not going to survive.
    Now, we children didn't know about it, but our father did.
    So paid a lot of money for that.
    But we did get the certificate.
    So I pulled out.
    But he was looking at me.
    And miraculously, he waved me to the group
    where my father and my brother were.
    Now, in the Sonderkommando, there
    was a man who was about the same age as my father.
    And he had a son who was in the same barracks
    where my father and brother were.
    And his son was about the same age, maybe a year or two older
    than I.
    And he heard-- word came to him that the very same
    barrack where his son was going to be evacuated
    and they're going to go to France the very next day.
    So he contrived an ingenious plan,
    and he says, listen, I tell you what.
    Because you like to be with your father and brother,
    and I certainly love to be with my son,
    now, when you see that all these prisoners running
    from every direction to regroup the final count in the evening,
    go into the line where my son is.
    And my son is going to take, get into this line,
    where this barrack line is.
    And nobody the wiser.
    Because we were only numbers.
    So the plan worked.
    He was reunited with his son and I got back in the barrack
    where my father and brother were.
    Next morning, next day, we were off to France.
    I found out later that the very same day when
    we were transported to France, that all the Sonderkommandos
    were killed because the SS feared if one of the Kommandos
    were not--
    and specifically the Kommandos--
    would escape, would tell the world of the atrocities,
    of the terrible things which the SS did to humanity.
    Because we were more witnesses to their machine,
    you know, death machine, than any other prisoners.
    Because we were the ones who were picking up dead bodies and
    took them and burned them on their order.
    And I tell you, the image of this father and son
    will haunt me for the rest of my life.
    Now, even when we arrived in France,
    I was put to work in an ammunition factory.
    And in that factory, they were making--
    it was being built a--
    I don't know exactly if the V2 rocket.
    But a rocket which was designed specifically
    to shoot airplanes.
    And of course, mainly the Americans and the Russians.
    And that was such a tremendous force.
    They would all the airplane, if it's
    got a contact with a rocket, it would be torn to pieces.
    I was scouting past to that rocket.
    Then later, I was put to a machine
    which automatically filled explosive capsules
    with gunpowder.
    One day, a French prisoner approached me and he says,
    what would you do to stop Hitler's madness?
    Would you give up your life?
    Without hesitation, I said yes.
    Now, I was operating a machine at that point,
    as I think I mentioned that.
    Which beside filling with gunpowder--
    we have to go back to that, I'm sorry.
    OK.
    We're going to have to go back.
    Yeah?
    Can I do that now?
    Yeah, yeah.
    This French captain-- forgive me.
    This French man, as I forgot to tell what his rank was,
    he was actually a captain in the underground resistance
    movement who was smuggled among us as a prisoner.
    And he organized a sabotage movement.
    So this is how he approached me.
    And if I would be-- because to him,
    I was the most important person by working
    on that machine which filled gunpowder,
    the capsules with gunpowder.
    And he said to me, I tell you what, you see those civilians?
    Those are all Frenchmen, electricians.
    They were working around the ammunition factory.
    And he says, I tell you what you do.
    Now, these men will supply you sand.
    And I want you to put in this capsule which
    you're filling with gunpowder sand and very little gunpowder.
    So the machine that I was working
    would be filling the gunpowder automatically, as I just told.
    All I have to do just pull the arm.
    But now, I had to put sand and mix it with the gunpowder.
    And it worked.
    I mean, it was fantastic how easy it really was to do that.
    One day, some new transport came with new prisoners.
    And another prisoner was put in that very near me, the machine,
    working cutting parts.
    And it turned out that that was an SS spy.
    Wanted to know.
    They already detected, they found out
    that this weapon, the second stage and impact did not work.
    And that was the idea.
    I didn't know that.
    I found out later that the sand was needed to
    how can I say that?
    To stop the second stage from exploding.
    And our leader was identified, this French captain.
    He was hanged.
    And all of us who were around that area had to watch him die.
    And we were not allowed to avert our eyes from him,
    nor move away.
    After that, about 60 of us were put in a horizontal line
    and asked to stand still.
    Order was [GERMAN].
    Or stand in attention, maybe, in English.
    And an SS officer was going down the line,
    picking prisoners at random.
    He passed me.
    And then was coming back and passed me again.
    And picked right the one next to me.
    And a third time, he still went down the line,
    just looking at prisoners which he sort of wanted to kill,
    and passed me again.
    Three times, I was to be taken to be shot to death,
    and all three times, I was passed by.
    Now, the ones that were chosen, they had to step out of line.
    They were taken out of the camp and shot to death.
    We were sent back to the barracks.
    And then we were sent some couples.
    And we had a beating that I can't tell you.
    Our face and body were puffed up.
    And many of them, their ribs were broken in.
    Because we were around that area.
    Now, I was a saboteur.
    And I got a sort of a form like a half circle
    written on my back, saboteur.
    And the captain, also.
    Everybody was from there.
    No, if you can just start with I was a saboteur.
    I was a saboteur.
    And then go on from there.
    Go ahead.
    So I was a saboteur.
    And I was marked as such in the jacket on my back.
    And every time a couple would pass by me
    or an SS officer or SS guard either would spit at me,
    spit on me, or kick me.
    So I believe in God because God saved my life so many times.
    That I was not picked yet, in spite of all the three times
    that SS went by picking people at random and passed me by.
    I don't believe that was a coincidence.
    And it was God's way of protecting me.
    At any rate, about two weeks later
    that I had that saboteur jacket, all the jackets
    were taken from everybody.
    And for that, I couldn't believe it.
    We had back new jackets, which was cleaned.
    And the word saboteur disappeared from my jacket.
    So I was again not molested anymore as a saboteur,
    but freely could walk back and forth or where I was working.
    So I also give credit to God for that.
    Now, I must tell you something is extremely interesting.
    And maybe one of the million, or 10 million, or 100 million that
    can happen.
    I have to go to Cleveland, Ohio for a second
    because we are still with the sabotage things.
    When I was in Cleveland in 1950, early, about 1950,
    I was studying in the university.
    And one of my colleagues gave me a check.
    Now, he was an American.
    Hungarian and Jewish, like myself,
    except I was not American, unfortunately.
    And he gave me a check to pay up a debt, which
    I had been paying, paying, and never got smaller.
    So he says, go in any bank and cash it.
    But you see, he didn't have an account in that bank
    or any bank in that area.
    And I didn't have an account anywhere at any bank.
    So in fact, I didn't even speak English.
    Very little.
    And I said to him, now, how do I do this?
    I mean.
    Oh, no, he says, it's very simple.
    Here's the check, all you do, go up to the teller, and just say,
    cash, cash, give me cash.
    I said, that's all?
    He says, yeah.
    Now, I ran into a-- looked around, where is a bank?
    And I'm coming from around lunchtime, you know.
    And I had certainly had to go back to school in the afternoon
    classes.
    So I saw a bank.
    So I go in there.
    Cleveland Trust, I remember now.
    And I went up to-- waited in line
    and went up to where was the teller.
    Put down.
    And I said, cash, cash.
    And he looked at me.
    Saw that it was--
    we couldn't communicate.
    So he was a compassionate man, he said, OK, just a second.
    He came from his window and escorted me
    to the president's office.
    Now, he spoke several languages.
    Now, we're going to find out what this foreigner wants,
    he thought, probably.
    So I started with--
    I spoke to the president of the bank, and I said, [FRENCH],,
    [GERMAN],, [HUNGARIAN],, in Hungarian.
    He says, [GERMAN],, I speak German.
    Thank god.
    So we start.
    We waited a little because the teller
    had to find out if there is money on this account.
    And he says to me, well, why did you ask me if I speak French?
    Are you French?
    I said no, I'm a Transylvanian.
    But I was in France.
    And they're looking at my violin case being next to me.
    He says, did you study music there?
    I said, no.
    But then I related what I was doing in France,
    that I was doing sabotage and putting sand instead of--
    filling up with sand, you know, the gunpowder.
    And when actually, one of these planes,
    how the plane would be obliterated.
    And he stood from--
    he sprang up from his chair, ran to me, grabbed my hand,
    god bless you.
    God bless you.
    I said, thank you.
    Thank you.
    I mean, blessing comes always well.
    So I thank you for it.
    Says, no, please.
    He saw my puzzled face.
    He says please, let me explain.
    My son and nine crew--
    he was a captain over nine crew and they
    were bombing around that area where
    the ammunition factory was.
    And they were shot with one of these rockets, which
    penetrated the airplane, but did not explode.
    I think they were caught in the wing or in the tail, whatever.
    And when they got back to their bases, very carefully,
    they took that weapon that broke it apart
    to see why it did not explode.
    They found sand in the capsule.
    So we both hugged and started to cry.
    And I knew then that if I would have been killed and died,
    it would not be in vain.
    Because I knew that at least 10 people or nine,
    plus the captain--
    10 lives were saved because of my sabotage.
    I want to jump to the incident in the salt mine.
    Yes.
    OK.
    About my father?
    And cutting the electric wire, that resistance incident,
    before we run out.
    OK.
    Go ahead.
    In September, we were transferred from France
    into Kochendorf, which was a large salt mine.
    And it was a terrible, grueling work.
    And the day of Yom Kippur, all of a sudden,
    the whole area of the salt mine became dark, completely dark.
    And we put our hammers down and sat down immediately.
    A little rest, at least a little rest.
    We thought it was God's will.
    Get on Yom Kippur, at least, sending us something,
    darkness, that we can rest.
    And one of the prisoners started chanting the Kol Nidre.
    And honestly, I can hear it.
    I can hear it now.
    Like then the other one got in, too.
    And then another one.
    We were also about 60 to 80 persons around there.
    And we're sitting.
    And then even those who did not know the words,
    and they did not probably even know the melody,
    but they were humming along.
    And in a minute or two, the entire section
    was full of the Kol Nidre, the song of the Yom Kippur.
    We didn't know that the SS--
    we were not aware of it that SS were listening in.
    Within 10 minutes, the whole problem was found, restored,
    and the light came on.
    Then we found out what was the source of the darkness.
    One of us, in fact, he was which I did not put in my booklet,
    was a Hungarian Jew who used to show--
    he had secretly hidden his wives and his little son's picture.
    And that gave him a little bit of will of living.
    Because constantly, we had to talk him
    out of committing suicide, constantly.
    And my father was the one who always says, no, you
    see, you going to survive.
    And you know.
    But he couldn't stand it any longer.
    And he went and cut the wire with a spoon made into--
    sharpened it like-- it was like a knife.
    He was beaten severely, until he fell unconscious.
    Then we had to form another line, exactly
    like it was in France.
    And one was picked, the other one was let go,
    then he passed, the SS passed two,
    then picked the third one, the fourth, then again.
    So here, half of them were picked, taken out,
    and shot to death.
    I also, again, was bypassed.
    So you have to puzzle, you have to think,
    how come I was saved one day before I would
    be killed as Sonderkommando?
    Then in France, I was bypassed three times.
    Now, again.
    Coincidences, maybe.
    Who knows?
    I believe differently.
    So we were severely beaten.
    The ones that we were not picked.
    Still in Kochendorf, in February, my father turned 42.
    Wait.
    We are going to run out.
    And we should just start this on a new--

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    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Shony Braun discusses his transport by train to Auschwitz concentration camp and his encounter with camp doctor, Josef Mengele, during a selection; the death of his mother and younger sister, Golda, in the gas chamber at Auschwitz; his selection to work on a Sonderkommando; his transport to a camp in France with his father and his brother, Zolton, where they worked in an ammunition factory and his work to sabotage bullets in the factory by mixing sand with gun powder; his transfer to Kochendorf concentration camp, a subcamp of Natzweiller concentration camp in France, where he labored in a salt mine; the death of his father in Kochendorf after a severe beating from SS guards and Kapos; his transport to Dachau concentration camp; volunteering to play the violin for camp personnel in exchange for food; how he was shot in the chest during the confusion of Dachau's liberation; how mental and spiritual strength played a role in his survival; his thoughts on his acts of sabotage as a form of heroism; and his "Symphony of the Holocaust," and how composing it helped him cope while in the camp.
    Interviewee
    Shony A. Braun
    Interviewer
    Sandra Bradley
    Date
    interview:  1992 March 09

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    3 film reels : color ; 16 mm.
    5 sound tape reels : analog, mono ; 7 in..
    2 videocassette (D2) : sound, color ; 3/4 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. The interviewee restricts the use of the interview, in all formats, to educational purposes.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Provenance
    Sandra Bradley, a film production consultant for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, conducted the interview with Shony Braun on March 9, 1992, in Los Angeles, Calif., in preparation for the making of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibition film, "Testimony." The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch received the films and tapes of the interview in August 1994. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the films and tapes of the interview via transfer from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch in February 1995.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-08-25 12:29:52
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    Oral history interview with Harry Alexander

    Oral History

    Harry Alexander discusses his memories of persecutions suffered by Jews in his hometown of Leipzig, Germany, and the events of Kristallnacht in 1938; his flight to Milan, Italy after Kristallnacht and his experiences there with other Jewish refugees; his memories of receiving a one-day visa through the French embassy in Milan and his attempt to escape to France by train; his memories of the "St. Vemo incident" when fisherman from the village of San Remo, Italy attempted to ferry the refugees around a blockade that stopped the train he was on from entering France; his arrest in France and time in prison; his time in Antibes concentration camp in France, and later in a Marseille prison; his escape from a transport between concentration camps; hiding in a forest and his arrest there; being in Di Agilis concentration camp and his transport from there to "Jaffa" (Djelfa) concentration camp in Algeria, where he and other prisoners worked to build a railroad passage across the Sahara Desert; the types of torture in Djelfa; his memories of the various acts of defiance by prisoners in Djelfa and the role that humor played in surviving the camp; his liberation from Djelfa by British troops and his time in British military intelligence after liberation; his reflections on the cruelty of camp and prison guards that he encountered; the role that his mother played in his survival; the loss of his entire family in the concentration camps; his thoughts on survival as a form of heroism; and his thoughts on why more Jews didn't "fight back" and defend themselves against the Nazis.

    Oral history interview with Sam Bankhalter

    Oral history interview with Sam Bankhalter

    Oral History

    Sam Bankhalter discusses his memories of antisemitism in Poland in the 1930s and the activities of "Endeks" or Polish Nazis; the various types of persecutions suffered by Jews in Poland; the German invasion of Poland in 1939; his time living in the ghetto in Łódź, Poland; his transport to Auschwitz in 1940 where he participated in the construction of the camp; his recollections of various aspects at Auschwitz including the gas chambers, the crematoria, and selections by Josef Mengele and other doctors in the camp; the mistreatment of rabbis and priests in Auschwitz; the gassing of Romanies infected with typhus; the suicide of his brother, Chaim, and his own attempt at suicide; his memories of the arrival of his parents and sister in Auschwitz in 1944 and seeing them just before they went to the gas chambers; his death march from Auschwitz through Germany to Buchenwald concentration camp; his thoughts on the systematic nature of extermination in Auschwitz; the massacre of many camp prisoners at Buchenwald shortly before liberation; his thoughts on Holocaust survival as a type of heroism; his thoughts on humor as a way of coping in the concentration camp; his memories of the Sonderkommandos in the ghettos and in Auschwitz; and his time working in the crematoria at Auschwitz.

    Oral history interview with Frank Blaichman

    Oral history interview with Frank Blaichman

    Oral History

    Frank Blaichman discusses his memories of hard labor and various persecutions suffered by Jews when Germany invaded Poland at the beginning of World War II; his time in a ghetto in Poland; his escape to and time in hiding in a forest in Poland; his involvement with a group of Jewish partisan fighters in the forests of Poland where he was a key figure in acquiring firearms and organizing acts of sabotage against the Germans; avoiding capture by Germans and Polish collaborators; his memories of a visit by General Rolojemerski, head of the Polish Partisan Support; and his reflections on the choices Jews faced during the Holocaust and how those choices impacted survival.

    Oral history interview with Leo Bretholz

    Oral history interview with Leo Bretholz

    Oral History

    Leo Bretholz discusses the underground resistance movement in France and its two parts, the Forces Françaises de l'intérieur (FFI) and the Francs-tireurs et partisans français (FTPF); his involvement in the Armee Juive; his various arrests and escapes from prison during his time in the Jewish resistance movement in France; his use of false identification documents to avoid deportation; his time in Rivesaltes concentration camp; his time in hiding in various locations including the attic of a cousin's home; his reflections on being transported by cattle car and the horrors endured by people on the transport; his memories of the Anschluss in Austria in 1938; his witness to the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre in June 1944; his memories of Kristallnacht in 1938; and the fate of his immediate family during the Holocaust.

    Oral history interview with Chaim Engel

    Oral history interview with Chaim Engel

    Oral History

    Chaim Engel discusses his transport by train to Sobibór concentration camp; his time on a work detail to sort the clothing of gassed prisoners in Sobibór; his job cutting the hair of female prisoners in Sobibór before gassing; his thoughts on the differences between concentration camps and death camps; his experiences with the extreme cruelty of the Sobibór guards; his acts of sabotage while on the clothes sorting work detail; the massacre of an entire transport of prisoners from Belzec concentration camp; his participation in the murder of a German Kapo; the prisoner revolt in Sobibór in October 1943; his escape after the prisoner revolt and his time in hiding with other Sobibór escapees; his relationship with his girlfriend, Selma Engel, also a prisoner from Sobibór, and their time in hiding on the farm of a Polish farmer; his thoughts on the choices made by Jews in order to survive during the Holocaust; and his thoughts on heroism as part of the prisoner revolt in Sobibór.

    Oral history interview with Selma Engel

    Oral history interview with Selma Engel

    Oral History

    Selma Engel discusses her arrival in Westerbork concentration camp; her transport from Westerbork to Sobibór concentration camp; her participation in a work detail sorting the clothing of gassed prisoners in Sobibór; her first meeting with her future husband, Chaim Engel; her recollections of the three separate camp areas in Sobibór; the mistreatment of Dutch prisoners in Sobibór; the extreme cruelty of the SS guards in Sobibór; her acts of sabotage while sorting the clothing of the gassed prisoners; the prisoner revolt in Sobibór in Oct. 1943; her escape from Sobibór during the prisoner revolt; her time in hiding with Chaim Engel, her future husband, on the farm of a Polish farmer; her reliance on Chaim for survival; and her reflections on the German and Ukrainian guards in Sobibór and the choices they made to be cruel to the prisoners there.

    Oral history interview with Paulette Fink

    Oral history interview with Paulette Fink

    Oral History

    Paulette Fink discusses her involvement in the resistance movement in France during World War II and her sabotage activities; the French Jewish Scout movement in France (Eclaireurs de France); the saving of many Jewish children by a French Huegenot pastor and other citizens in the town of La Chambon-sur-Lignon, France; the amount of risk and fear that she lived with during World War II; getting fake ID cards made; her marriage in 1934 and the death of her husband, a member of the French resistance, in 1944; her thoughts on her resistance activity as a form of heroism; her involvement in the illegal immigration of thousands of Jewish displaced persons to Israel after World War II; and her continued dedication to and support of the State of Israel since World War II.

    Oral history interview with Sam Goldberg

    Oral history interview with Sam Goldberg

    Oral History

    Sam Goldberg discusses his use of the false name Sigmund Kamkowsky in order to avoid persecution; his time working with the underground movement in and around Warsaw, Poland; his time living and working in the Warsaw ghetto; his escape from the Warsaw ghetto to the Pietkov ghetto in order to locate family members; his acts of smuggling and encounters with the SS; the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto and his subsequent transport by train to Birkenau concentration camp and his eventual move to Auschwitz; hearing about Josef Mengele's medical experiments in Auschwitz; working in the "Canada" commando, sorting the clothing and valuables of prisoners near the gas chambers in Auschwitz; working in the commando assisting prisoners upon arrival at the Auschwitz train platform; his experiences with Kapos and Blockälteste in Auschwitz; the prisoner revolt in the Auschwitz crematoria in October 1944; his evacuation from Auschwitz by train; his participation on a death march; his friendship with a young boy named Herbie; his time in Flossenbürg concentration camp after a death march and his memories of the various colored triangle badges he saw there; his transport to Mittendorf concentration camp near Munich, Germany via Prague, Czech Republic; his experiences during Allied bombing raids on Mittendorf; his memories of the liquidation of the Romani camp in Auschwitz; his acts of sabotage while working on airplanes; his thoughts on spiritual resistance; his liberation by American troops during a transport; how telling jokes and singing songs helped to lift the spirits of fellow camp inmates; his memories of the meeting between Josef Mengele and Chaim Rumkowski, head of the ghetto in Łódź, Poland upon Rumkowski's arrival in Auschwitz; his thoughts on the choice of German Kapos and soldiers to be killers; his reflections on the nature of humanity considering his Holocaust experiences; and the selection process that took place upon the arrival of new transports in Auschwitz.

    Oral history interview with Siegfried Halbreich

    Oral history interview with Siegfried Halbreich

    Oral History

    Siegfried Halbreich discusses his desertion from the Polish Army in October 1939 and his brief time working as a pharmacist in Oświęcim, Poland; his imprisonment in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and the cruel treatment of prisoners that he witnessed there; his time in Gross-Rosen concentration camp and his work in a stone quarry near the camp; his experiences with Blockälteste in Gross-Rosen; his time in Auschwitz concentration camp and his work as a nurse in the camp hospital; his role as Blockälteste at one time in Auschwitz; his participation in a death march after the evacuation of Auschwitz; the camp personnel hierarchy in Auschwitz from the SS guards down to the Kapos; his thoughts on the role of mental resistance as a part of survival; the support he received from friends and family while in the concentration camps; his memories of religious practice and celebration in Sachsenhausen; his role as teacher and leader of young Jews for religious education in Auschwitz; the various types of torture he witnessed in Sachsenhausen; and his thoughts on taking revenge on Germans after liberation.

    Oral history interview with Isadore Helfing

    Oral history interview with Isadore Helfing

    Oral History

    Isadore Helfing discusses his arrival in Treblinka concentration camp and his work burying the bodies of persons who died during the transports in mass graves in the camp; his recollections of the physical layout of Treblinka and how prisoners were led through the gassing process; his recollections of many people dying inside the railroad cars while waiting to unload in Treblinka; his experiences with Kapos in the camp; his participation in the prisoner revolt in Treblinka and his escape to a nearby forest; his time in hiding after his escape from Treblinka; his witnessing the murder of a German camp guard by a fellow prisoner and his thoughts on the murder as an act of revenge; how German and Ukrainian guards in the camp made choices to follow orders; the attempts of some prisoners to pray in the camp; participating in soccer games on Sundays, a free day in the camp; the suicides of several persons from his barracks; the orchestra in the camp and a boxing match that took place one day; and the fate of his parents in Treblinka the day before his arrival in the camp.

    Oral history interview with Kurt Klein

    Oral history interview with Kurt Klein

    Oral History

    Kurt Klein discusses the political situation in Germany during the early 1930s and how Jews did not take the Nazi rise to power seriously; his thoughts on why the Nazi party gained power so easily; the persecutions suffered by Jews and the boycott against Jewish businesses in the early 1930s; his withdrawal from school and his apprenticeship in the printing business; his immigration to the United States in 1937; how he learned of Kristallnacht events through newspaper reports in the United States; his service with the Fifth US Infantry Division of the Third Army during World War II and his assistance to Jewish women abandoned by their German guards in a factory building in Volary, Czechoslovakia; his first meeting with his future wife, Gerda Weissmann Klein, in the factory and the development of their relationship after World War II; and his participation in the interrogation of Erich Kempka, a former chauffeur for Adolf Hitler.

    Oral history interview with John Komski

    Oral history interview with John Komski

    Oral History

    John (Jan) Komski discusses the German invasion of Poland; his involvement in the resistance movement in and around Kraków, Poland; his imprisonment at Auschwitz concentration camp in June 1940; the different types of prisoners in Auschwitz and the various identification badges and triangles used to mark the prisoners; the museum and orchestra in Auschwitz; how he planned and prepared a successful escape from Auschwitz by disguising himself as an SS guard and using false identification documents; the types of mental and spiritual resistance used to survive in Auschwitz; his thoughts on how some Auschwitz prisoners utilized special talents and skills to survive in the camp; the gassing of children and their mothers immediately upon arrival in Auschwitz; his memories of Palietsch, the official executor in Auschwitz; the tattoos used to identify prisoners in Auschwitz and the tattoo he received when he entered Birkenau concentration camp; and how families were treated differently from individuals upon arrival in Auschwitz.

    Oral history interview with Stefa Kupfer

    Oral history interview with Stefa Kupfer

    Oral History

    Stefa Kupfer discusses the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and the persecutions suffered by Jews during the German occupation; being 10 years old when the war started; her memories of the Gestapo and their dogs; how the Germans used citizens from her town for forced labor; the confiscation of Jewish property by the Germans; her mother's refusal to register the family with the German authorities, thereby saving them from a round up; her family's time in hiding in the attic and basement of an apartment building in Krosno, Poland, and how she and her family were protected and ultimately saved by Penny Olefska, a Christian woman; the various ways she and her family occupied themselves while in hiding; her thoughts on living in constant fear while in hiding; the assistance her family received from Mr. Vishbitsky, a Polish farmer; her thoughts on those who risked their lives to rescue and hide Jews during World War II; her recollections of the many possessions she and her family lost during the war; and the responsibility of each Holocaust survivor to tell his or her story in order prevent another Holocaust.

    Oral history interview with Cecilie Klein-Pollack

    Oral history interview with Cecilie Klein-Pollack

    Oral History

    Cecilie Klein-Pollack discusses the deportation of her family from the ghetto in Hust, Hungary (now Khust, Ukraine) to Auschwitz concentration camp; her and her family's experiences upon arrival at Auschwitz, encountering Josef Mengele, and the death of her mother and young nephew in the gas chambers shortly thereafter; her experiences with Kapos and Blockälteste in Auschwitz and Birkenau; her sister's desire to commit suicide and her attempts to keep her sister alive; her memories of a young ballerina in her block who was forced to dance for the SS camp guards; her witness to the beating death of the ballerina and a poem that she wrote to memorialize the young dancer; her many delousing experiences in Auschwitz and Birkenau; her transport to Nuremberg where she and other female prisoners worked in a munitions factory; her time in Holleischen concentration camp in Czechoslovakia; the types of spiritual and religious resistance that she experienced in the camps; the cruel beatings that she and other prisoners received from SS guards in the camps; her time in Budapest, Hungary after World War II; and her memories of her mother as she was before her death in the Auschwitz gas chamber. During the interview, Cecilie Klein-Pollack recites her poem, "Ballerina," and reads a letter she wrote to her mother (a copy of the letter is located in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives).

    Oral history interview with Abraham Malnik

    Oral history interview with Abraham Malnik

    Oral History

    Abraham Malnik discusses the German invasion of Lithuania; his family's life in the Kovno ghetto; how his father, Josef Malnik, rescued him and his mother from a selection of elderly, children, and handicapped persons, thereby saving them from the massacre at the Ninth Fort near the ghetto in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania; his time hiding in a cellar in the Kovno ghetto to avoid capture during a "Kinder aktion" by the Germans; the liquidation of the Kovno ghetto during which many of the remaining Jews were massacred by Lithuanian collaborators; his family's transport to Stutthof concentration camp and subsequently to Dachau, Flossenbürg, and Leitmeritz (Litomerice) concentration camps; how he and his father participated in forced labor in a mine in Leitmeritz; the yellow star and number insignia the Germans assigned to him in Leitmeritz; his experience with Polish Kapos in Leitmeritz; his time spent in the Leitmeritz hospital with typhoid fever; his "walk" to Theresienstadt concentration camp in April 1945 and his liberation there by the Soviet Army; his thoughts on taking revenge against the Germans for their brutality during the Holocaust; and the special bond he and his father shared throughout their Holocaust ordeal.

    Oral history interview with Lilly Appelbaum Malnik

    Oral history interview with Lilly Appelbaum Malnik

    Oral History

    Lilly Appelbaum Malnik discusses her time in hiding in Belgium; her forced labor in a factory; her neighbors in her apartment building who denounced her and her aunt and uncle to the Germans; her family's arrest and their time in the Malines detention camp in Mechelen, Belgium; her family's transport from Belgium to Birkenau concentration camp and her encounter with Josef Mengele upon arrival; the tattoo number she received on her arm; volunteering for work in Birkenau; her transfer to Auschwitz concentration camp and her work in the kitchen there; the transports of new prisoners into Auschwitz and how many prisoners were sent immediately to the gas chambers; contemplating suicide while in Auschwitz; how some prisoners in Auschwitz prayed as a form of resistance; her time on a death march from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; her friendship with a young girl named Christian while in Bergen-Belsen; Christian’s death from typhus; and her thoughts about how the young had a better chance of survival in concentration camps.

    Oral history interview with Ludmilla Page

    Oral history interview with Ludmilla Page

    Oral History

    Ludmilla Page discusses being arrested with her mother and members of the Polish intelligentsia in November 1939; their transport to Kraków, Poland, where they spent time in a fortress prison; her thoughts on the similarities and differences between the Kraków and Warsaw ghettos; her relationship with Oskar Schindler and how he protected the Jews working in his factory; how Schindler compiled his list of names of prisoners from the Płaszów concentration camp; Schindler’s attempt to persuade a fellow factory owner, Julius Madrich, to save the Jews working in his own factory; how Jewish workers in Schindler's Bruennlitz concentration camp factory sabotaged bomb shell casings; an incident in which she and other female Schindler Jews were transported to Birkenau by mistake instead of going directly to Bruennlitz; how some of the Schindler Jews used gold fillings to fashion a gold ring for Schindler on his birthday in April 1945; Schindler’s friendships with the Jews he rescued; and his designation as Righteous Among the Nations.

    Oral history interview with Leopold Page

    Oral history interview with Leopold Page

    Oral History

    Leopold Page discusses his first meeting with Oskar Schindler and Schindler's physical appearance; how Schindler rescued several female prisoners from Auschwitz (Birkenau) concentration camp and male prisoners from Gross-Rosen concentration camp after they were misrouted on the way to Bruennlitz concentration camp; the establishment of the Kraków ghetto and resistance activities he witnessed there; how he and his wife, Ludmilla Page, escaped from the Kraków ghetto during the liquidation action; how he and other prisoners kept statistics on the number of prisoners killed each day in Plaszów concentration camp; his memories of Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszów concentration camp; how the prisoners of Plaszów prayed as a form of resistance; how friendships among the prisoners helped them survive; how the Schindler Jews sabotaged bomb shell casing while working in Schindler's factory in Bruennlitz concentration camp; Schindler helping the Jews disarm and imprison their German captors in Bruennlitz; how Schindler attempted to persuade Julius Madrich to save the Jews working in his own factory; Russian soldiers liberating the Schindler Jews in Bruennlitz; Oskar Schindler receiving the award of Righteous Gentile for his efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust; his memories of Kristallnacht in November 1938; and how some prisoners in Bruennlitz fashioned a ring from gold fillings as a birthday gift for Schindler in April 1945.

    Oral history interview with Esther Raab

    Oral history interview with Esther Raab

    Oral History

    Esther Raab discusses her transfer from a forced labor camp to Sobibór concentration camp; how Sobibór commandant Wagner selected her and other girls to work sorting the belongings of people gassed in the camp; how the SS camp guards processed arrivals of new prisoners in the camp; the extreme cruelty of two camp guards, Frenzel and Wagner; how she and other workers found notes among the belongings of prisoners from Treblinka and Belzec concentration camps and how the notes mentioned revenge against the Germans; how she and other Sobibór inmates planned and executed the revolt in the camp; escaping into the woods near the camp during the revolt and receiving a gunshot wound during the escape; how the Sobibór camp guards punished prisoners who attempted to escape; her thoughts on the differences between a concentration camp and a death camp; how she and other Sobibór escapees received food and shelter from a Polish farmer; her memories of life in Poland before World War II; her time in "Stafnovushulke" forced labor camp; her thoughts on her actions during the Sobibór revolt as being actions of heroism; the types of spiritual resistance that occurred in Sobibór; and how her mother prepared her for World War II by telling her stories of life in Poland during World War I.

    Oral history interview with Agi Rubin

    Oral history interview with Agi Rubin

    Oral History

    Agi Rubin discusses being age 14 when she and her family were deported to Auschwitz; her family's arrival in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 and her separation from her mother during a selection; being registered and tattooed in Auschwitz; her work on a special commando sorting the belongings of recently gassed prisoners; how she and others in the commando sabotaged the clothing they sorted and tied into bundles; how the camp guards in Auschwitz singled out certain commandos for certain tasks; her observation of the gassing and cremation processes in Auschwitz and Birkenau; her experiences with a Kapo in Auschwitz; her memories of the "Garnerlager" or so-called "Gypsy" camp in Auschwitz; her observations of the selection process conducted by Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz train platform; her thoughts on how the crematoria in Auschwitz affected her senses; how some prisoners recited prayers on their way to the gas chambers; her experiences with lice; her time in Ravensbrück concentration camp; being sent on a death march in January 1945; and her thoughts on heroism as a part of survival. At the end of the interview, Rubin displays and discusses photographs from a family photo album.

    Oral history interview with Bart Stern

    Oral history interview with Bart Stern

    Oral History

    Bart Stern discusses his experiences on a cattle car transport from Hungary to Birkenau concentration camp with his brothers; his subsequent move to Auschwitz concentration camp; his time working in a coal mine near Auschwitz; how religious celebrations became a form of resistance in Auschwitz; how he and other prisoners told jokes as a way of coping; his experiences with Kapos in Auschwitz; his thoughts on humanity in light of his Holocaust experiences; his thoughts on revenge; and how many Jews resisted and did not go willingly to their deaths.

    Oral history interview with Tina Strobos

    Oral history interview with Tina Strobos

    Oral History

    Tina Strobos discusses her experiences during the German invasion of the Netherlands and how life changed for the citizens of Rotterdam; the role of Arthur Seyss-Inquart in the Nazi-occupation government of the Netherlands; the role of the Gestapo during the German occupation of the Netherlands; her involvement in an underground resistance group in the Netherlands lead by Johann Brower; her time in hiding and the hiding place she used inside her own home; the underground work of the "Lomlok Organization" to help Jews find hiding places; how she and her family rescued other Jews by letting them hide in their Rotterdam home; and how some Nazi sympathizers in the Netherlands denounced and betrayed their Jewish neighbors.

    Oral history interview with Emanuel Tanay

    Oral history interview with Emanuel Tanay

    Oral History

    Emanuel Tanay discusses how life changed for the Jews in Miechów, Poland, after the German invasion in 1939; how the Germans increased persecutions against Jews with collaboration by Ukrainians and Lithuanians; his thoughts on the differences between Polish Jews and Jews from Western Europe; his family's time in the ghetto in Miechów, Poland; hiding in a monastery in Mogila, Poland, where he posed as a novice for the priesthood; the assistance he received from the monastery's prior, Father Kuhar; his flight from the monastery when the Gestapo raided his cell; how the Germans imprisoned Father Kuhar and other priests from the Mogila monastery in Auschwitz concentration camp for giving assistance to people in the underground resistance; his thoughts on how being a teenager helped him to survive; how he and his family fled to Hungary in 1943 using false identification papers; his time in a prison in Budapest, Hungary, and subsequent escape; volunteering to the Gestapo to be executed and how the Gestapo failed to carry out the execution; his brief time in the ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, just before the uprising; and his thoughts on what special qualities a person needed to be a survivor.

    Oral history interview with Bella Tovey

    Oral history interview with Bella Tovey

    Oral History

    Bella Tovey discusses how life changed in Sosnowiec, Poland, and persecutions increased for Jews after the German invasion; how the Germans established a ghetto in Sosnowiec; how members of the intelligentsia started to disappear and how others went to work camps; being taken to a work camp and her parents gained her release by having her younger sister, Pina, replace her in the camp; the liquidation of the Sosnowiec ghetto and her family's move to a smaller ghetto called Srodula; her time in Gräben (a.k.a. Gräen) concentration camp near Striegel, Germany, where the prisoners worked in a flax mill; her experiences with a Kapo in Gräben labor camp; how the Germans incorporated Gräben into the camp system of Gross-Rosen concentration camp; her time on a death march to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and her bouts with typhus and typhoid while in the camp; the various friendships that she had with other girls during her time in the camps; her thoughts on spiritual resistance in the camp; her reaction to hearing about what happened to Jews in Auschwitz; the liberation of Bergen-Belsen by British troops in 1945; and her loss of faith in God during the Holocaust and how she regained her faith and began her Jewish and religious studies later in life.

    Oral history interview with Helen Waterford

    Oral history interview with Helen Waterford

    Oral History

    Helen Waterford discusses her family's time in hiding in the Netherlands and how she and her husband decided to hide their daughter with another family; her family's relationship with Joe Fisch, a rescuer of many Jews in the Netherlands; her and her husband's arrest and deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp via Westerbork concentration camp; her experiences during a selection upon her arrival in Auschwitz; her thoughts on the lack of resistance in Auschwitz; how at one time she was in a barracks with Anne Frank and Anne Frank's mother; her memories of Josef Mengele in Auschwitz; her move from Auschwitz to work in a factory in Czechoslovakia; and her opinions on humankind in light of her Holocaust experiences and how she does not consider survival to be an achievement.

    Oral history interview with Ruth Webber

    Oral history interview with Ruth Webber

    Oral History

    Ruth Webber discusses her memories of the Germans invading Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, Poland, in 1939; her time in Botsohov (Bodzechów) work camp with her parents; moving to the ghetto in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, Poland with her mother; their escape from the ghetto and return to the Botshohov work camp; her time in Austrowiec (Ostrowiec) concentration camp; her time in Starachowice concentration camp; her transport to Auschwitz concentration camp; her arrival in Auschwitz and her memories of the registration process; her time in the Auschwitz infirmary suffering from measles; her memories of the Auschwitz crematoria and her realization of what was happening to the prisoners there; what it was like to be a child among mostly adults in Auschwitz; her move to the "children's block" in Auschwitz after her mother moved to another camp; the special care and protection she received from her mother while in Auschwitz; how she considers her mother to be a hero; and her thoughts on humanity in light of her Holocaust experiences.

    Oral history interview with Ernest Weihs

    Oral history interview with Ernest Weihs

    Oral History

    Ernest Weihs, born in Vienna, Austria in November 1908, discusses his conversion from Judaism to Lutheranism at age eleven; the changing situation for Jews in Vienna, Austria in 1938; the aid that he and his future wife received from Swedish missionaries in Austria; his imprisonment in Theresienstadt in 1942; his marriage while in Theresienstadt; his escape from a death march on the way to Dachau concentration camp; his experiences with Kapos; the religious practices that took place in Theresienstadt; his brief time in Auschwitz concentration camp; and his witness to a suicide while in Kaufering concentration camp.

    Oral history interview with Norbert Wollheim

    Oral history interview with Norbert Wollheim

    Oral History

    Norbert Wollheim discusses his parents' deportation from Berlin, Germany in 1943 and his deportation with his wife and son to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943; how some prisoners prayed and celebrated Sabbath while on the transport to Auschwitz; his arrival in Auschwitz and his separation from his wife and child; his registration and tattoo; the role of the SS in Auschwitz; his time working in the Buna factory near the camp; his work as a welder in Auschwitz; his friend Fritz Schaeffer who committed suicide while in Auschwitz; his experiences with Kapos; his thoughts on spiritual resistance in the camp; his memories of Kristallnacht in Germany in 1938; his involvement in a Kindertransport of children from Berlin to England shortly after Kristallnacht; his memories of life in Berlin before 1933 and how conditions changed for Jews after the Nazis came to power; his memories of the voyage of the St. Louis; his thoughts on revenge; his feelings at the time of liberation; his thoughts on the different types of concentration camps; his thoughts on forced labor and work camps used during the Holocaust; the choices he made in order to survive; how he relied on the friendships with other inmates for support and how he befriended British prisoners of war while in Auschwitz; how age and gender played a role in who survived the Holocaust; and his memories of the "Appel" in Auschwitz.

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