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Oral history interview with Agi Rubin

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1994.A.0447.24 | RG Number: RG-50.042.0024

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    Oral history interview with Agi Rubin
    Transcript
    [BEEP]
    I want you to begin by describing the deportation
    to the brick factory courtyard.
    And I want you to give a context--
    your age, your town, who it was, and roughly what time it was,
    and how you went there, what you thought was happening.
    In 1944, April, at the time when families
    were without fathers' protections,
    my father was in a forced labor camp already,
    unattended only by women to tell their children,
    meaning my mother, my aunt.
    It came very suddenly although the atmosphere was there.
    I mean, we sensed that things weren't
    right from the beginning of the year already.
    Schools were closed.
    Life was just not what it used to be.
    We wore yellow stars to be singled out as Jews.
    And when the Germans occupied-- this was Hungary at the time.
    The Germans took over the city.
    And in no time we were just told to pack a 5-kilo package.
    And they marched us on foot to the brick factory
    in our own hometown.
    We lived there under very meager circumstances.
    My aunt, I remember, improvised a sled for a bedroom.
    We had our own pillows and slept under the sky,
    but we had the sled to protect us from the sides.
    By brick, we built up the bricks.
    And I remember my mother's concern
    that her child had to work so hard.
    And we stayed there for four weeks.
    One night, which was in April--
    and everything always happened when it was dark out--
    we were ordered to line up.
    Before we knew, we were in the cattle cars,
    taken to work per se.
    Unknown to us, they arrived to famous Auschwitz.
    We still didn't know where we were going.
    My mother's only concern on the trip to Auschwitz in the cattle
    car was that we had our own little corner, my mother,
    my aunt, my brother, who was six years old at the time.
    Her only concern was my father's well-being and myself.
    And her words were, I hope you don't have to starve
    or you don't have to be hungry ever,
    because I know you get headaches, my child.
    Seemed like she had a premonition
    that my father and myself will be the only survivors.
    As it happened, we were.
    But that's a later story.
    We arrived to Auschwitz.
    The impression was unbelievable.
    There were these striped-clothes people, dogs, German soldiers.
    And it was very, very chaotic.
    We were ordered very quickly to get off or jump off the cattle.
    I was still with my mother, and lined up five or six in a line,
    holding on to each other.
    And as I said, things just happened so quickly.
    You didn't have a chance to think
    or to know what's happening to you, or what's awaiting you.
    My first impression was of the stripe-clothed people.
    I said, this must be the crazy unit.
    These were the workers, the Jewish workers that
    did the job for the Germans.
    After the line up, we came up, again, as I said, very quickly.
    Came to the selecting, where Mengele
    was standing, overpowering, very tall, looking down on us,
    and nodding with his finger--
    left and right.
    To live, to die.
    I was the only one from the row which was, as I said,
    five or six of us, to be sent to the other side.
    But I ran back three times, wanting to be with my mother.
    I needed her protection.
    I was only 14 at the time.
    And Mengele threw me back three times.
    He practically literally threw me to the ground.
    It still didn't faze me to the bit.
    I still ran to my mother.
    The third time when the gravel hit me,
    my mother obviously worried about her child.
    Said, go my child, go.
    With the nod of her hand and her permission to go,
    I did, whatever Mengele threw me down and ordered
    me to go to that site, unknown to me as to my fate.
    And this is how I live all my life, with my mother's nod
    of her hand-- go my child, go.
    And I went.
    Tell me a little more about Mengele.
    How did you know it was Mengele?
    I didn't know at that time that he was Mengele.
    He was just the overseer.
    He was the one that decided your fate, whether you will
    go straight to the crematorium.
    I mean, that was unknown to us, because we were told
    that we will see each other.
    And as long as you have hope, the panic is not so great.
    Because the hope is an unbelievable strength.
    Even though it's not real, but you make it real.
    We didn't know where we were going
    or why was I separated from my mother,
    that I'll never see her again.
    I just wanted to cling on.
    I just wanted to stay with her.
    Who Mengele was, I didn't know at the time.
    I only found out afterwards.
    So really, Mengele was very good to me.
    He wanted me to live.
    He threw me on the other side.
    I was still young.
    And I guess I looked healthy enough to get some work out of.
    And the rest was history, obviously.
    Tell me about registration.
    At the camp?
    Well, we were chosen, some of us, this particular transport.
    First of all, we were lined up, thrown to a barrack,
    and we were tattooed.
    Well, not everybody.
    They chose us to go and work to the Brzezinka or Birkenau,
    whichever name you are familiar with.
    This was the place in Auschwitz next to the crematorium,
    where people arrived.
    They went in and never came back again.
    Also, the people that were doomed to live in misery,
    they were given bath, undressed.
    They were very hygienic about the whole process,
    because you had to remove your shoes, if you still had one.
    We were given, again, the striped clothes.
    Now I knew what the crazy unit meant.
    Our heads were shaven completely.
    And when we approached each other with our friends,
    nobody recognized each other.
    After the selection, we selected again
    to this transport which was unknown to me at the time.
    It was called the Sonderkommando.
    Sonder means special.
    The Sonderkommando was one group, the men,
    that worked in the crematorium, cremating and burning
    sometimes their own brothers and sisters or families,
    unknown to them.
    We were the ones that selected the clothing
    that people undressed.
    We sorted those clothes that went back to Germany.
    So we had to sort the clothes--
    clothing, jewelry, and so on.
    I even found my very own clothes there one day
    while I'm sorting clothes.
    I found my aunt's coat who went to the gas chamber
    with my mother.
    And doing it day in and day out, I still
    didn't believe I was gazing at the flames, the torch which
    was forever burning.
    And I was as far from the crematory
    as far as I'm sitting from you practically, a few feet.
    And I didn't believe it.
    I says, not my mother.
    Not my brother.
    I mean, I was still waiting for them to come out.
    In other words, I pulled down the shade,
    and I said it doesn't exist.
    That was my only defense of my own personal survival.
    I kept on pretending.
    Realistically, we knew after being there
    a year that people went in and marched in,
    and they just never came out.
    So your mind is really become so blank at times.
    Maybe it's helpful or not.
    Our job was, as I told you, sorting clothes.
    Sometimes outdoors, sometimes indoors.
    We had our own sleeping quarters which consisted of the--
    we called it the [NON-ENGLISH],, a step up,
    a narrow piece of cot that five or six people slept.
    So if one moved, everybody had to move.
    We used our cup, a tin cup, for a pillow.
    And we had one utensil, maybe a spoon.
    We have to reload.
    [INAUDIBLE]
    Brett?
    [BEEP]
    I want you to try to give me a basic picture of Auschwitz,
    how big it was.
    And then I want you to describe to me your work.
    And describe it to me as though you didn't already
    tell me about it.
    Explain to me how it was separate
    and how different it was from other parts of the camp,
    if you can.
    As I mentioned before, we were chosen
    to be the Sonderkommando, which meant
    that after every six months they would change up
    the Sonderkommando.
    Because we were the ones that knew too much for the world
    to know.
    And the Germans, as tedious as they were about their own work,
    they knew that.
    We were the inside people.
    We knew exactly how people came and never came out
    of the crematorium.
    We were part of their work schedule,
    as far as we knew that those things were sent to Germany--
    the clothing that was being separated, the jewelry that was
    sewn into people's clothing.
    We found many times in the pants where
    the waistband is long jewelry.
    I mean, it had no value to us.
    Well, it did, because we could get a slice of bread
    for it because we could do some business with each other.
    So it was worthless to us.
    Of course, the way we worked, there were two Germans always
    watching the barracks, that we should work properly and fast,
    because you couldn't stop for one minute.
    We, in turn, had our own watchmen
    to see when the German was coming.
    And we had a password, which was geshem,
    which means rain in Hebrew.
    And whenever we heard geshem, then everybody
    was working very diligently.
    And otherwise, in our own way, we sabotaged.
    If we could, we cut up everything to shreds.
    Not that it helped, but it was good for us.
    We were no human beings anymore.
    We were stripped of our humanity, our dignity,
    our pride, our existence.
    But we had to have some sort of a strength within.
    This was some of our way of resistance.
    I know it wasn't much, but it made
    us feel like we're doing something.
    And the minute, as I said, that we heard geshem,
    everybody was doing the right thing in the right.
    That was sorted out, put into bundles,
    and stacked up in the barracks.
    So there were mountains of it.
    And once, towards the end of the week,
    a big truck would come and take all the bundles away.
    And then we would get a reload of new transports coming in.
    This place wasn't even ready for occupancy
    because they were just building the hotel when we arrived.
    So for the time being, we were stationed at Camp C, the lager.
    A Lager, excuse me.
    Not C. And we were called the white kerchief transport.
    They gave us white babushka or kerchief.
    How would you call it?
    And we marched every day.
    And we passed the crematorium going to Brzezinka,
    not realizing what's going on inside.
    But it was always very solemn when we passed it.
    I mean, nobody spoke.
    Nobody dared to move, really, when
    we passed that area, even unknown to us
    this is what it was for.
    Maybe we didn't want to accept the reality.
    We didn't.
    I know we didn't.
    And after a month, they built up these barracks,
    and we were able to be housed there.
    And we remained there till January,
    until the camp was disassembled.
    In other words, there was resistance.
    The Sonderkommando that I was telling you
    about who worked the men group, among them
    was a very close friend of ours from our hometown.
    We talked to him one morning through the barbed wires.
    He said, we have it too good.
    We are being fed well, and we sleep under beautiful covers.
    I mean, why that made such a difference to him,
    but silk covers.
    This is exactly what he said.
    This means the end, end for us.
    But they are not going to gas us.
    And just then, a German approached.
    And he had to run away because we weren't
    allowed to talk to each other.
    Next morning we were awakened by gunshots.
    And the whole barrack had to go out.
    And we were shown all the dead bodies
    right at the barbed wires, to show what deserters are doing.
    These were the deserters, the ones
    that refused to be cremated.
    So they shot them to death, and then they cremated them.
    Among them was this friend of ours from our hometown,
    who told us that he knew what their fate was.
    So that was the changeover.
    By then, there was also another conspiracy that we heard of.
    There was another camp in the city of Auschwitz.
    This was Birkenau.
    There was a city.
    There was another crematorium.
    And people had jobs.
    For instance-- and I'm ashamed to tell you,
    but I have to say the way it is--
    Scheisskommando, which was the sanitary group
    that was transporting it from camp to camp.
    They had an access to visit different camps because
    of their so-called job, dignified job.
    And they were able to bring news.
    And the conspiracy was that this crematorium and the one
    in the city, they will burn it.
    The inmates.
    They were planning on it.
    Well, from then on the crematorium stopped.
    I don't know how successful they were,
    but partly they damaged it so they
    weren't able to use it anymore.
    Now, by then, the Russian and the American planes
    were flying over us.
    You know what?
    I still don't understand up to date.
    I remember they were taking pictures.
    The planes were so low as the ceiling.
    We could see the pilot out of there.
    And still they didn't bomb the area.
    That was already in December.
    End of November.
    They knew where the camps were.
    They spotted us.
    And we still went through from January
    until the cremations stopped in Auschwitz.
    We were again put through the different transports.
    Before we were taken to the road,
    which was called the famous death march,
    from January till April on foot in the--
    Wait, let's back up before we go into that.
    In your work in sorting clothes, how close
    were you to the crematorium?
    I mean, were you part of the Sonderkommando?
    Or were you another group?
    And tell me how your life was and how you were treated.
    We were not part of the crematorium Sonderkommando.
    This was another unit, the working unit
    of separating the clothes.
    We were treated like animal inmates because
    of the Zehlappell, which meant to be lined up every day, rain
    or shine.
    They forever counted us.
    We were very valuable for them.
    And if you looked bare or weak, you
    were transported elsewhere, which meant the crematorium.
    They only kept the people that were able
    to, in their estimation, work.
    Now, we were a foursome with my girlfriend,
    her sister, and her mother, who I claim was my strength.
    To be able to aid her and give her strength
    gave me strength to go on, because I
    felt whatever I would have done for my mother
    I could do for her.
    She gave up living the minute she got into camp.
    There was no will there.
    After her hair was shaved and started growing back
    it was white.
    And she was pitch black her hair.
    I remember because she was maybe 36 years old at the time.
    To me she was an old lady.
    When the hair started growing, it was pure white.
    She looked like a 75-year-old old lady.
    Not 75 young, but 75 old.
    And when we would stand in Zehlappell, in this lineup,
    we got beets for food.
    That was our delicacy at times.
    We kept the beets just to put makeup on her face
    that she should look healthy.
    We rubbed the beets on her face.
    And we would just try to put her in the back
    that she shouldn't be too noticeable.
    And we carried on.
    I mean, we kept her alive for as long as--
    up until the very last minute, which--
    We have to reload.
    Is somebody upstairs?
    Yeah.
    Interview with Agi Rubin.
    February 25, 1992.
    Detroit, Michigan.
    Is she moved too much?
    [BEEP]
    [BEEP]
    Can you again tell me the story of the people
    who ended up being shot, who knew that the end was coming?
    And tell it to me with the background of who they were,
    how you met them at the fence and they
    tried to tell you what they thought was going to happen,
    and why you think that happened, what they were planning.
    This friend of ours who was our family doctor
    and a friend of the family, we were
    in the back of their fence.
    Our back yard faced the crematorium.
    The barracks where we were sleeping in.
    Not working, where we were sleeping in.
    Inmates were not allowed to speak to each other.
    So it was just in a glance.
    And this friend of ours came very close to the barbed wires
    and told us in a hush-hush way, we have it too good.
    They are feeding us well.
    We sleep under beautiful covers.
    They are feeding us up to kill, because we
    are next to be cremated.
    But I promise you that we are not going to be cremated.
    They will shoot us.
    Next day, we woke up for the sounds of the guns.
    They forced us out.
    They lined us up right in front of the barbed wires.
    All the men, the whole group, was shot to death.
    And we had to witness their death there
    with a warning that this is what deserters become,
    shot to death.
    So in other words, if we would attempt anything heroic,
    we should just forget about it.
    They knew, and they were going to die a heroic death.
    And in my book, in my estimation,
    they were the heroes of survival, the heroes of camp.
    Where there was no way of fighting back,
    this was their resistance.
    Like in our unit the resistance was
    to cut clothes to shreds that it shouldn't get to Germany
    or to slow it down.
    This was their way of defiance.
    Without ammunition, without strength,
    without human physical ability, but they were resisting.
    That was the last time, of course.
    As I told you, we saw them dead on the floor.
    And I was faced with a meeting with this doctor's son,
    who lives in Washington.
    And he dedicated his life to the memory
    of his father and his friends, almost in a sickening way,
    because where I'm seeing it, it became an obsession with him.
    What were his father's last words?
    And then there wasn't really much I could tell him.
    This was it what I'm telling you.
    But he sent me numerous tapes.
    I should tape it for him.
    I met him when we had the Holocaust
    reunion in Washington.
    He went back to the camps to look for his father.
    In other words, he never accepted his father's
    disappearance or death.
    Again, talk about how you resisted
    facing what was going on and how you finally came to realize it
    and accept it.
    And how you felt.
    Accept?
    We had no choice but accept.
    It wasn't an acceptance.
    It was-- well, I accepted it, but by pulling down the shade.
    That was my way.
    It's not happening.
    I can't realistically say, now that I'm looking back,
    whether I was hopeful to be liberated,
    but we still talked about it.
    The lady that I mentioned to you who became so old overnight
    and she was the pillar of my strength,
    in as much as I was for her, I feel
    that she was mine more than I was hers,
    because while we worked and went--
    what are we going to eat when we go home?
    What is your favorite meal?
    And we would go over everybody's.
    But she always cooked my favorite meal,
    which was chicken paprikash with lots of good bread in it.
    Up today, when I make chicken paprikash,
    I don't have the heart to eat it with bread because--
    I mean, if I make it, I make it because of her.
    I shouldn't say because, but I have her
    in mind every time when I make it.
    And I didn't know how to cook at the time,
    and she was going to make my favorite meal.
    These were our most important pastimes.
    We didn't read books.
    We listened to music because in Brzezinka they
    had the first group of inmates that comprised
    of an entertaining committee.
    When the groups would arrive, we were awaited with culture.
    There was a band of musicians that
    greeted us, to show the mass that things are great here.
    That was a very smart way for the Germans
    to-- because people didn't go crazy immediately.
    They were just getting to it.
    So the quorum was kept by trying to create a calm atmosphere.
    So we even had that.
    But aside, among ourselves.
    the most important thing was survival.
    How far can we stretch one slice of brown bread, which
    was like brick.
    How far will it go?
    Because we never knew if we got one next day.
    Or when we would line up for soup, if you were the very end
    they probably ran out of it, which was only water.
    I don't know what was in it, but it
    must have been the peel of the potato, if any.
    Something was floating in it.
    I can't tell you the taste, but it was something like water.
    And you lined up and they poured in like the prisoners
    here, except it was not food.
    And they talk about the future or the past,
    what we did at home, how were the holidays, how
    were the families.
    We fortified ourselves with nice things.
    And if you had nice things in the past,
    that does fortify you at your present misfortune
    or for the future, because that foundation nobody can take away
    from you, which is your inner strength.
    Again, what gives you inner strength
    is if you possess something before.
    If you possess the feeling prior to it, that will carry you on.
    In my case, it was a beautiful childhood.
    And I always look back to it as my virtue of my strength,
    because I was able to have a nice childhood.
    I didn't look at it that this was a temporary existence,
    but I didn't think beyond that.
    Only towards the very end of the war, when
    we were at the death march, that I
    had a secret feeling or a premonition about my father
    being alive, because in one point, as we were marching--
    and it's hard for me to describe to you that march,
    or I would have to open a different chapter to that
    altogether.
    People that hardly walking because energy-wise we were
    [NON-ENGLISH].
    Shoes, oversized shoes.
    If I wore a 37 shoe in European number,
    it was 42, if I found one, which you were wiggling
    back and forth.
    On snow-covered roads, and if you were to step aside from
    the road that you were supposed to line up and go march
    directly like--
    [PHONE RINGS]
    Anyway, if you stayed out of the line, you were shot.
    So you had to behave yourself.
    You had to be strong.
    The way we slept, five people in the row, four held on to one.
    We took turns sleeping.
    One slept five minutes, then we woke each other up
    while walking.
    That was our existence.
    And that lasted from January till practically the end
    of the war.
    But when I saw the German truck and the soldier,
    I identified my father as a soldier
    because he was, as I told you in the beginning,
    he was in forced labor camp.

    There is no transcript available for this track

    There is no transcript available for this track

    I want you to define kapo for me again
    but this time I want you to make it clear that kapos
    could have also been Jews.
    And just pretend that you didn't do it before.
    Just do it as if we haven't done it before.
    What is a kapo?
    A kapo was chosen, the Jewish inmate
    was chosen by the Germans to be their police force actually,
    the overseer of their fellow inmates, prisoners.
    They were the ones that gave orders through the Germans.
    Some of them enjoyed their work more than others.
    Some really took the liberty of even hitting you
    if you weren't as fast as they wanted you to be.
    And some would say in a nice way, please line up now.
    But mostly, it was, again, like it was their duty or their job
    to be accounted for, to say appell,
    to keep your barracks immaculately clean, or just
    for anything.
    Just to be reprimanded for talking to somebody
    if you weren't allowed to speak at that particular time
    of the day.
    Or to go to work, they would give the bar, rise and shine.
    Not in a very pleasant way.
    This were their, I would say, their general duties.
    To oversee, to carry out their demands to the prisoners.
    Could kapos also participate in rescuing?
    Could they help people?
    Yes, in their own way.
    I told you their story that kapo who rescued her own sister.
    They could, I mean, if they had the opportunity.
    And some used, some were better than others.
    Some enjoyed their authority.
    I was beaten once by a kapo and she enjoyed it.
    Of course, she was going to show to the German overseer
    that how capable she is.
    And that particular kapo, I swear
    that I saw her after the war and I followed her for days
    and I lost her.
    But I heard she was alive.
    And she was being prosecuted.
    Lots of them were.
    But as the years went by, people forget
    or they accept they had to do it because of this.
    Now this is where I differ with the general public were
    I don't forgive people that were mean there.
    To me, they remained whatever they stand for today.
    They could be in politics, they could
    be the president of the United States,
    God forbid, or any professional person that had a past
    and you don't know about it.
    And to me, there's no excuse, Whether it's Jewish
    or not Jewish.
    Talk about how Germans used Jews in various capacities
    to do things they didn't want to do.
    In the workload?
    Yeah.
    Well, they didn't do any days.
    Just work, coming from--
    they did factory work.
    They did work outdoors.
    They gathered the dead bodies to be cremated.
    They were in charge of it but they didn't do the--
    they were there to push the button,
    to tell you to push the gas.
    They didn't do any physical work if that's what you're asking.
    They were their servants.
    They were toying with us to their delight.
    If I'm just going to use an example,
    I was being punished once and the punishment
    was that I had to kneel on the stone overnight
    and the German would walk around with a smile around me
    all night long and I had to stand erect
    and it was raining, because I was a daredevil.
    I mean, I wasn't afraid because they had nothing to--
    I didn't have second thoughts about it.
    I was stupid.
    And I ran out somewhere where I wasn't supposed to be.
    It was forbidden or [NON-ENGLISH] it was that time.
    And I was out in there and that was my punishment.
    They took pride and delight in people suffering and this
    I'll never forgive them for.
    We lived and they ask the question.
    This is a new generation.
    And by all means, a child cannot be responsible
    for their father's deeds.
    But who is that child going to believe?
    My story or his father's story?
    Why are we here talking about the Holocaust
    what we want to forget about?
    This wasn't a conversation for us for many, many years
    until we were to realize that if we don't
    speak about it, some of us, the remnants of the Holocaust,
    who will?
    And then the stories started coming out that this is a hoax.
    Then how can we allow this to happen?
    They put our personal feelings aside.
    Whatever it may cause and it's not
    easy but that's the least that we can do
    for the sake of our loved ones.
    I feel that this is really the least that we
    should keep their memory alive.
    And to talk about it as history because very well, in the '50s
    and even in the early '50s, in the dictionary,
    there was the Second World War happened, period.
    If I wanted to look at the Second World War,
    I had to read the Mein Kampf.
    You wrote a line soon after the war and this is what you wrote,
    I feel like a dead, degraded, cowardly Jew.
    Do you remember that line?
    Yes.
    Can you tell me about it?
    I felt defeated.
    Very defeated.
    With all the losses, and what would be appropriate?
    I felt very hallow.
    That's the only way I can describe it, hollow inside.
    And I felt if I didn't let it out, in some way,
    I would burst.
    I was hallow.
    I was angry.
    I was angry at God.
    If you are a God, how do you allow this to happen?
    In the same breath while I argued with God,
    I asked for forgiveness, at the same breath, but I was angry.
    I was angry because this was my realization of what happened.
    Up until then, I lived and I walked around
    with the shadow pulled down.
    Pull down the shadow, I'll cry tomorrow.
    But this prevailed.
    Reality was there.
    People weren't there.
    I had to start a new life.
    I didn't know if I liked it.
    Things didn't happen the way I would
    have wanted my life to go.
    And it was a terribly hollow, empty feeling.
    People talk about heroism in connection with survival,
    how do you feel about that?
    Heroism?
    I don't see it as such really.
    I mean, with some people that were heroes, yes.
    I feel this was an individual survival trade.
    Whether that's heroism, I don't know.
    I don't think so.
    There were some heroes.
    To me, a hero is who salvages the world
    or salvages the situation or saves a human life.
    That's a hero.
    Well, although, it's said that to save your own self,
    you are a human being too, so what's the difference?
    Who are you saving?
    If you save yourself, you're a human being.
    And I tend to tell people, I say,
    I haven't got time to do such and such for myself.
    Just pretend you are somebody else
    and you are doing it for somebody else,
    then you'll do it.
    Because for yourself, you don't to do things.
    So by saving yourself, in my estimation, it's not heroism.
    It's just an instinct.
    But going out of your way and doing a heroic thing
    by jeopardizing yourself, that's my definition of heroism.
    That we are all heroes, I think we are just lucky survivors
    to the extent that we are here.
    It took many years and many, many routes
    to come to the point where we say
    that we are lucky survivors because from my personal,
    I didn't call myself lucky.
    When you live with that guilt complex, why me,
    I still question when I said that I was hollow.
    I still didn't feel like I was a deserving human creature.
    How come I endured the unendurable?
    That was my point of acceptance.
    But then as years go on, you have so many responsibilities,
    you forget about your all.
    OK.
    Go ahead.
    This is a picture of my family taken in 1938.
    My father's side of the family, my aunt's wedding.
    These are my parents, my mother and father, myself,
    and my father's brothers and sisters.
    From the whole picture that is still here
    to talk about the wedding is my cousin in New York,
    my uncle in California, and myself.
    Nobody else was able to tell the stories of the Holocaust
    from this picture.
    These are my parents, their engagement picture, which
    must have been in 1926 or '27.
    My father is a soldier.
    All right.
    Let's go back and just pause for just a minute and just keep it.
    Just wait for a second.
    OK.
    It's very lucky to be able to find this only album
    that I have from my past.
    This is, again, my parents' wedding.
    My mother's parents, my grandparents,
    and the other set of grandparents
    from my father's side.
    Their wedding picture.
    The outcome of the wedding, number one,
    and number two, my brother.
    Family pictures.
    This in 1942 or so.
    My parents, my brother.
    They said at age of six, he was cremated.
    Myself as an athlete, a fat one too.
    A playmate.
    How old were you here?
    I must be about nine.
    Nine maybe 10.
    Something like that.
    OK.
    My great grandmother whom I don't remember.
    My mother and her sister, who they went to get--
    they were cremated the same time because they
    stood in the same line.
    I'm in the middle of them.
    I was very close to my aunt and my mother was very, very close.
    They were very, very close friends.
    This is my aunt from my father's sister
    and from my mother's sister and the children.
    By this picture I'm told, this is my only surviving aunt
    who wasn't in concentration camp but she
    was imprisoned in Budapest and that's
    how she was able to survive, but these
    are her children that perished.
    Her husband is no longer.
    And this is a tale that we are told about her winning a beauty
    pageant contest.
    This is my father and my mother.
    I think this was one of the last pictures that
    was taken before deportation.
    It must have been in 1942, the latest, or '43.
    But that was about me when I was taken to camp a year
    or two later.
    Uncle and an aunt.
    Children in the yard.
    My aunt's family.
    My most favorite cousin was shot right
    at the time of liberation.
    And her sister who lives in New York.
    These are all, how should I say, goners.
    Nobody exists.
    Then I was telling you that people were not only
    [NON-ENGLISH] they had a life.
    They had a future at the time.
    And this is what was before.
    This was an uncle, my aunt at her wedding,
    and my cousin's graduation picture from--
    I think it was high school.
    And this I call the girls because my mother
    and her friends.
    And that's my treasure from the past.
    Unfortunately, I don't have too many more
    left but I hold on to it for dear life.
    Is it OK to turn the page?
    Yeah.
    OK.
    The perished children because nobody on this page
    exist except myself, which is here and here,
    none of the other.
    This little cousins, brother and cousin and cousin
    from other cities, I mean, neighboring cities
    that they lived in.
    This was Zori, Yunji, and Nivs.
    Well, these were already after the war pictures
    so I don't think I'm will go into those.
    Show me you after the war, right after the war.
    This was my first professional picture after the war.
    This one was taken in 1946 or end of '45
    in the Czechoslovakia.
    Tell me about the little picture on the rock.
    That was the outings we used to have around the city, around
    [PLACE NAME] where I lived after the war
    and we did a lot of outings by foot.
    It must have been one of those excursion trips, which
    those are the same.
    See, outdoor living.
    This is where I lived after the war at my aunt's place.
    Let's go back to this page.
    Are others on this?
    I guess somebody either took it out.
    These are friends or friends from those times.
    Somebody must have snatched this one from it.
    I don't know.
    Do we need room tone from this place?
    Sure.
    OK.
    Yeah.
    Room tone.

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    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.
    Interviewee
    Agi Rubin
    Interviewer
    Sandra Bradley
    Date
    interview:  1992 February 25

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Genre/Form
    Photographs.
    Extent
    4 film reels : color ; 16 mm.
    6 sound tape reels : analog, mono ; 7 in..
    3 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 non-commercial uses.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Rubin, Agi, 1929-

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Provenance
    Sandra Bradley, a film production consultant for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, conducted the interview with Agi Rubin on February 25, 1992, in Detroit, Mich., 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 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:
    2022-07-28 19:52:08
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn505577

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    Time Coded Notes (2)

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    Also in Testimony oral history collection

    Contains oral histories interviews with 32 Holocaust survivors from the United States

    Date: 1992

    Oral history interview with Gerda Weissmann Klein

    Oral history interview with Gerda Weissmann Klein

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    Gerda Weissmann Klein discusses her memories of the German invasion of Poland; her time in the Bielsko ghetto; her deportation to a transit camp in Sosnowiec, Poland; her time working in slave labor as a weaver and loom operator; her friendship with Susie Kuhn and the bet they made together while on board a transport train on their way to Bolkenhain concentration camp; her memories of Frau Kligler, a guard in Bolkenhain; how she and a friend wrote and performed a play in their barrack at Bolkenhain; her memories of crafting a menorah from potatoes and celebration of the Jewish holidays in the camp; how she used her imagination as a defense against her captors; her move from Bolkenhain to Maerzdorf concentration camp where she worked harvesting flax from a swamp for linen production; how she celebrated her 18 birthday; her experiences on a death march through Germany; the death of her friend Susie Kuhn, shortly before liberation; and her memories of her liberation by American troops at a camp near Volary, Czechoslovakia.

    Oral history interview with Agnes Mandl Adachi

    Oral history interview with Agnes Mandl Adachi

    Oral History

    Agnes Mandl Adachi discusses her time spent in Switzerland shortly before the start of World War II; her memories of the takeover by the Arrow Cross Party (Nyilaskeresztes Párt); how she obtained Swedish citizenship through the Swedish embassy in Budapest; the mistreatment of mixed-marriage couples in Hungary, and how many committed suicide instead of divorcing; her baptism by the Protestant Bishop of Hungary; her work with Raoul Wallenberg and his many heroic efforts to rescue Hungarian Jews, his work with children and orphans in Budapest, and his successful attempt to persuade Adolf Eichmann to call off a massacre of 70,000 Jews in the Budapest ghetto; Wallenberg's disappearance in 1945 and subsequent searches for him in Russia; her reflections on the honors given to Raoul Wallenberg since World War II; and her personal thoughts on her role as a rescuer working with Wallenberg.

    Oral history interview with Edward Adler

    Oral history interview with Edward Adler

    Oral History

    Edward Adler, born in 1910, discusses his memories of the early days of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s and his involvement in anti-Nazi activities in Hamburg, Germany; his memories of anti-Jewish boycotts; his memories of joining a military training camp and one experience when he was assigned to a guard detail for Adolf Hitler; his discharge from the military camp when it was discovered that he was Jewish; his arrest by the Gestapo for having a relationship with a Gentile girl; his imprisonment in Oranienburg concentration camp from June 1938 and his release from the camp the following September; his memories of Kristallnacht in Hamburg, Germany in 1938; his flight to the Netherlands with his family shortly after Kristallnacht and their subsequent immigration to the United States; his reflections on how Jews were unable to "fight back" and defend themselves against the Nazis; his memories of antisemitism in Germany in the 1930s; his recollections of the fate of his parents during the Holocaust and how his mother died in Treblinka concentration camp; and his memories of a visit to Hamburg, Germany in 1982 and the emotions he experienced during his stay there.

    Oral history interview with Harry Alexander

    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 Shony Braun

    Oral history interview with Shony Braun

    Oral History

    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.

    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 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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