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Oral history interview with Ernest Weihs

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1994.A.0447.31 | RG Number: RG-50.042.0031

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    Oral history interview with Ernest Weihs
    Transcript
    This is Wentworth Films for Holocaust Museum,
    Sandra one with Ernest Weihs camera one on January 29, 1992.
    Take one.
    And you can look at me.
    I want you to first tell me a little bit of your background
    as a Jewish child in Vienna and how you came to be baptized.
    Oh, well, I was born in Vienna in November 1908.
    My father was Jewish, my mother was Jewish.
    My grandparents on both sides were Jewish.
    And 1914 I became--
    I got a sister.
    My mother had another child.
    And when the war was breaking out--
    [PHONE RINGING]
    Uh-oh.
    OK, start with how you were born in Vienna.
    Yeah, I was born in Vienna in 1908.
    And my parents and both of my grandparents were Jewish.
    In 1914 I got a baby sister.
    And we both lived with my mother,
    because my father had to go to war, World War One.
    When the war was over and he came back, on the way back
    somehow he met another woman, and he wanted a divorce.
    So my mother gave him a divorce, and both of us,
    my sister and myself, stayed with my mother till I was 11.
    By that time my mother just couldn't
    make it raise both of us.
    So she made my father take me and his new wife to him.
    He was in another state of us there.
    And so she packed me a little suitcase
    and sent me off to him.
    He in the meantime, he married that woman.
    She was Lutheran.
    When he married her he switched his religion to a Lutheran.
    And when I came there to live with them
    he made me take on Lutheran religion.
    And it was very good because there was a lot-- in that city
    where we lived there was a lot of anti-Semitism.
    And it was better to say I'm Lutheran than I was Jewish.
    So anyway, I stayed with him from when
    I was 11 till I was 14.
    When I was 14, he tried to get me a job.
    And he was traveling all over Germany.
    He wanted me to become a nursery man.
    That means nothing children nursing,
    but nursery with greenhouses and cultivate flowers.
    So when I was 14, he found me a job in Germany
    close to the city of Munich.
    And in the meantime, when I was there a half a year
    or so his company transferred him
    and his new wife, my stepmother, back to Vienna.
    And I had to learn this craft for three years.
    And I got a room and board and no pay.
    Can you describe how different things
    were in 1938 when Hitler came?
    Can you describe the change in everyday life?
    Well, when Hitler came everybody screamed Heil Hitler.
    Nobody wanted to be against it.
    And my real mother was living in Vienna too with my sisters
    in another part of Vienna.
    She managed to marry a guy that was from Russia.
    The quota for Austrians to the United States
    was not open anymore.
    But becoming a citizen of Russia she was able with him
    and my daughter to go--
    my sister to go to the United States.
    Over here, they went each its own way.
    They divorced here right away.
    And my mother, my sister lived in New York.
    My sister got married there to a guy that also came from Vienna.
    Back in Vienna how did people feel about the Jews
    at the beginning of the war?
    Well, they were sometimes worse than the German
    were when Hitler came to power in Germany.
    And when they saw the Jewish people getting picked up
    and there was certain schools where they collected them,
    they were standing on the streets just laughing at them
    and sneaking and very, very, very bad.
    It was very bad to be Jewish.
    They had to wear a star.
    You couldn't work nowhere.
    And the people of Vienna at least 90% were for Hitler.
    So my mother was going then in 1939 she went to the United
    States with my sister.
    I myself-- yeah, my father died in '37.
    So he didn't know anything about the whole thing.
    And I stayed with my stepmother for the time being.
    And I had a job in a nursery in Vienna,
    which I could hold until the end of '38.
    Hitler came in March.
    The people I worked for never had any idea where I came from,
    that I was Jewish before.
    And they could-- they were swearing that I was Lutheran,
    so they kept me.
    And the two sons of that guy that owned the nursery
    belonged to the Nazi party.
    And sooner or later, it came about
    that I'm from Jewish parents, and I have to go.
    So they had to let me go.
    And that was in the end of '38.
    In the meantime, the [INAUDIBLE] command in Vienna,
    there is Israelites [INAUDIBLE] the place where
    all Israelites were registered, they had my birth certificate.
    And they were trying to get people to Palestine.
    But before it came to that, you had to go in a camp
    and learn how to work on a farm, do this and that,
    and milk the cows, and so on.
    I was-- except, they didn't know that I had another certificate
    that said I was Lutheran.
    So they--
    Now we got to reload.
    Roll two, take three.
    They--
    Now we got to reload.
    Roll two, take three.
    When you talked before with Linda you talked about--
    you described an experience you had helping--
    being with people when they packed to be transported.
    Right yeah.
    Can you tell me how it happened that you came to be doing that?
    Yeah.
    And how you felt about it, what you thought was happening?
    I was in that camp, in the Jewish camp to learn farming.
    In the meantime, my stepmother in Vienna got a postcard.
    I was registered in a Swedish mission
    that was trying to get Jewish people out of Austria.
    And they are writing me that I should come to this--
    it was a priest, a pastor, that was the director of the whole
    thing--
    for an interview.
    So I went back from that camp, from that farm,
    and came to Vienna and had that interview with that director.
    And he said that they are trying to get young people
    from Austria to Sweden.
    And he registered me, and found out what my profession was.
    And he said well, right now it's transport going,
    but we need somebody.
    Outside of Vienna they had a home
    for the elderly Jewish people.
    And there was a huge garden and fruit trees and everything
    there.
    If I could go there and help out until the time comes
    that I could go on a transport, that
    would be a big help to them.
    So I quit that farming, came back to Vienna,
    and went out to that home for the elderly.
    And I had made my room, my board, and everything
    and I worked there.
    And the time went by, and I never got a sign
    that I am ready to go.
    I know they needed me, and they didn't
    want to let me go until the last minute.
    In the meantime, the first woman that
    opened the gate in that big estate
    there was my future wife.
    She was working there too.
    They promised her the same thing, help us out there
    and we will try to get you out.
    Well, months went by and nothing happened.
    And the meantime, we became good friends and even engaged.
    Then in the fall of '42 I think--
    '41, the people of that little city
    where that home was insisted that that home has
    to be closed.
    They don't want any Jews living out there anymore.
    So this Swedish mission had a huge apartment building
    in Vienna where they had apartments for people that got
    kicked out of their apartments.
    And they had some--
    it used to be like a huge place downstairs
    where they had beds for the sick ones.
    And they had a little chapel there.
    And we had to close up out there in that home for the elderly.
    And we all moved in that apartment building.
    I worked there and my wife worked there--
    I mean, just at that time we were not married yet.
    And we had a room to live there, two or three rooms, kitchen
    and two rooms.
    And we stayed until the Austrian government wanted the Swedes
    to leave, go home.
    They had to close the whole thing and the Jewish--
    the sick ones they got in hospitals,
    there was a Jewish hospital--
    still there.
    And we rented a room in an apartment.
    There was a certain section in Vienna where Jews could still
    stay and live.
    We were in that apartment there, and I
    got acquainted with a Dutch mission which
    were doing the same thing.
    Feeding people, taking them out of Austria,
    and so they were still working.
    And through them-- they worked with the SS to get them.
    And in order to be able to stay they took some of us,
    we had to go out at night and pick up
    certain people for deportation.
    We had to put them some suitcase full of stuff, whatever they
    could carry, and the morning they were loaded up in trucks
    and taken to a place where they then would
    get transported to Poland.
    And that went on for a while until almost no Jews
    were left in Vienna.
    And that was '42.
    Where did you think they were going in Poland?
    They promised them labor camps.
    But then after awhile it--
    the truth came through that they killed them there.
    And they buried them in mass graves.
    I had an uncle, he lived with his wife in an apartment.
    And the SS men came and said I like that apartment,
    and I'm going to take it.
    And my uncle said you can have it,
    but I want to take my bathtub with me somehow--
    I don't know how he came in that idea.
    He didn't want to move until he can get this thing.
    And a week later, he was gone to Poland,
    so we never saw them again.
    And anyway, the time came when the Dutch people
    had to close too.
    And that was when I had to go and leave Vienna.
    My wife-- future wife stayed with her mother and father,
    because the mother was Catholic.
    She could-- she didn't have to go.
    And I left with a transport Vienna.
    I think it was October '42.
    And they drove us with the boxcars
    to Theresienstadt, that was a former military camp
    for Austrian soldiers.
    And they made a ghetto out of this city,
    just like they did in Poland made those ghettos.
    And they had these huge buildings
    where men were living, other buildings
    where women were living.
    We even had our own money and we had our own stores.
    And first of all, when we got there everything--
    they took everything off, gave us
    these old clothes and our suitcase and our rings,
    everything was-- shoes, everything was confiscated.
    And--
    Stop now, we have to put another roll of film.
    Roll three, take four.
    OK, why don't you pick up with describing Theresienstadt?
    Yeah, so we were separated in different buildings,
    but we could see each other during the day.
    And we got fed in-- we have to get all to one place
    where we get our food.
    And it wasn't too bad.
    It was really like a ghetto.
    We had our own, so to speak, government.
    But all was controlled by SS.
    So it's just we are all over the places.
    And I was lucky they gave you to certain working groups.
    And I was with a group of people that
    went out to the railroad station, unloaded the coal,
    unloaded the potatoes, or whatever
    it was, and bring it back into the ghetto, back and forth.
    In the meantime, because we did this almost every day,
    we got acquainted with some of the Czechoslovakian railroad
    personnel.
    And they got letters for us out home.
    So we actually were corresponding with our people
    at home, telling them how it was and so on.
    And my wife's father was still in Vienna.
    I was there '42, and in '43 he had to go too.
    My wife, my fiancé, wanted to go with him and come and see me.
    So she went with him on her own.
    She didn't have to, she could have
    stayed with her mother all the way through the war--
    she came.
    I was standing there unloading coal
    and here comes that boxcar, and here she comes.
    Oh, I almost fainted.
    So anyway, we were together for right about '42, '43--
    she came in '43.
    And we even got married there.
    Not officially married, but like a ghetto marriage.
    And then in the beginning of '44 they
    said they need people to work in Germany in factories,
    and whoever wants to go out of the ghetto can go.
    So a bunch of us, my friends and me, we volunteered to go.
    There was I don't know how many cars full of people.
    And instead we ended up in Auschwitz.
    And we came, it was my friend, his wife,
    his wife's little brother-- two brothers, little one
    and the older one, 17.
    We came at night, all the lights on.
    We got us out of the cars, and here was the officer.
    You go this way, you got that way, you go this way,
    you go that way.
    All the-- most of the women and kids and young people
    had to be going that way.
    Whoever looked halfway decent to work went the other way.
    And then we were--
    but my wife was still in Theresienstadt.
    And the next day we look around, half
    of the people that came with us we didn't see.
    We knew they were gassed on the next day.
    All the women that looked elderly,
    all the kids that couldn't-- young to working age,
    we never saw them again.
    Over there they stripped us again of everything we had
    and gave us these prison clothes.
    And we were in barracks.
    There's a bed here and a bed here
    all the way through and to sleep.
    A couple of days later, all women came.
    And they told them in Theresienstadt
    your husbands are working in the factories in Germany.
    If you want to join them, you can.
    They all ran and registered and followed.
    Couple of days later, we saw him through the fences.
    We couldn't talk, we could just wave-- saw
    that they are over here too.
    So we didn't know what was going on.
    We, a group of us, we stayed only a little more than a week.
    We didn't get no stamps.
    We were sorted out, said you habe
    to go to another labor camp where you can--
    where we're going to put you to work.
    So our group went to a place that was called Kaufering.
    It was a small labor camp next a railroad station
    between Munich and Kaufering.
    And there we were put in bunkers.
    The roof is grass, and you go steps down.
    And here is a wooden boards where you sleep on.
    So from up high you wouldn't probably not
    realize what's going on there.
    It looks like grass all over.
    So we were there.
    And we didn't know where our wives were, where they got.
    But later on, we found out that they took them to another camp
    in Czechoslovakia.
    So we were in Poland, they were in Czechoslovakia.
    And we found that out after the war.
    And so we stayed in the camp.
    We get our ration of bread and cabbage soup
    and whatever they feed us.
    And I was lucky again.
    I got to company, small group, they
    went out in the fields digging out the potatoes,
    bringing back the cabbage and all this stuff.
    And we had huge coats--
    overcoats, long.
    And we had big inner inside sacks.
    We put potatoes here, potatoes here,
    and we marched in the camp.
    And in each of these bunkers was a little stove.
    We heated that up at night and put the potatoes in the ashes.
    And I think that's what kept us alive beside the food we got.
    But others were not so lucky.
    I came with people friends of mine.
    There's nobody in your group as strong and as tall and strong
    as this friend of mine were.
    And a week later I saw him as skeletons.
    They became diarrhea and they just ran out.
    And it was wintertime-- it was the winter from '44 of '45.
    So what happened and they didn't last a week, two weeks.
    And it was so cold we had to bury them.
    They are only skeletons, only bones and skin
    laying there on the floor.
    And we recognized our friends, of course.
    We had to put them in a two-wheeler,
    a big bunch of them.
    And carry them out in the fields with soldiers with us.
    And we had to dig this frozen ground deep enough
    so that we could bury them.
    Soon there was no more room.
    So we had to carry them to another camp and--
    Let's go back a little bit.
    And maybe you can tell me about--
    you told about a transport in your other interview
    of strong men who came like ghosts
    and you tried to help them.
    Oh, yeah.
    There was a rumor in that camp that they
    need so and so many men in another camp for work.
    Whoever wants to go can go.
    So, they loaded up several boxcars full of people.
    And I don't think it was more than four weeks when
    they came back.
    And they were-- when they left they were like Hercules,
    you know.
    Hercules.
    They came back and I looked at these guys.
    They came in row of eight.
    And they were they looked like skeletons too.
    And they couldn't walk.
    They were just swaying like this, came against us.
    And when they were close enough to us, they fell on their knees
    begging for food and water.
    I had to give them water, you know.
    And then they-- they got in their barracks.
    And I think half of them didn't make it up again,
    you know, to live through.
    And we had to go onto the railway station
    where they came from and make sure that they all get out.
    And there was straw on the bottom of the cars.
    And already dead people laying around there
    that we had to carry out.
    And the rest had to march to the camp.
    Anyway, it was not only German and Austrian Jews.
    There were people from France.
    And the Red Cross finally was sending packages.
    And these guys were fighting for these packages.
    Ripped it open and there was only--
    there was dried beans in there.
    But they didn't cook them.
    They just ate them as they were, stone hard.
    Anyway, they were close to extinction.
    I don't remember whether they made it or not.
    But I think more than 50% didn't make it.
    So, one day came a kommando.
    We have to leave the camp.
    The camp is going to be closed.
    They gave us each a piece of bread.
    Get your clothes and start marching.
    And we had to march to Dachau.
    But in the meantime, the weeks before, there were alarms,
    you know.
    Airplanes come, American.
    The Americans were very close at that time already.
    And we had duck in the barracks and so.
    And so, we get on that march.
    It was supposed to be several days to go to Dachau by foot.
    And we had some soldiers escorting us.
    And every morning, we are less, less of these guys.
    And the other ones, they took off
    all the insignias, what they had on their uniforms,
    took everything off.
    Marched with us.
    And we came marching.
    We were pretty close to Dachau, maybe a day.
    And we were about six of us, good friends.
    We said, maybe we are afraid when
    we get to Dachau they're going to kill us there finally.
    So we were going this roads.
    And it came to a bend.
    And the soldiers didn't pay no attention anymore.
    So we said as soon as the last ones have gone,
    there was a big side dump, we jump.
    So we left the whole troop and jumped in that hole.
    Waited till everybody is gone.
    Then we got out and we marched.
    Didn't know where to go, but we marched.
    And we came to a place where they
    stored the hay and everything.
    We went up there and slept at night.
    In the morning came the people from that village or whether it
    was with the guns.
    Come down, come down, come down.
    And my friend is screaming, don't shoot, don't shoot,
    don't shoot.
    So we came down.
    They took us to the police station.
    And they let us go.
    Go ahead.
    So, we went.
    Marched and marched.
    And in the afternoon, there came a woman on a bicycle.
    Going like crazy.
    Said what, what's a matter?
    What's going on?
    She said, the army are coming.
    They called the Americans armies.
    The armies are coming, the armies.
    And she drove on.
    And we said, well, the armies are coming, good for us.
    So we walk towards that little village.
    It was actually another village.
    It was a bigger city.
    It was called [? Fersen ?] [? Feldberg. ?] And it was
    a German airfield next to it.
    And we went into that little village.
    We still here shooting like left and right.
    And we come to the middle of the village.
    And here were the Americans sitting on the tanks, smoking
    cigarettes, and laughing.
    And saying, oh, my god, is that--
    that must be it then.
    So only one of us could speak English, a friend of mine.
    And they brought us to the colonel, whoever was in charge.
    And we told them what happened.
    And he said, put them in the hospital.
    Put them in the hospital so they get taken care of.
    They put us in the hospital.
    And we were surrounded by wounded Germans,
    which are still laying with us in that hospital.
    And the nurses coming in, screaming crying.
    The armies are here.
    They're here.
    They're coming close.
    And, oh, my god.
    They were crying because a lot of these guys
    got shot and got arrested.
    Oh, we were-- but they took good care of us,
    gave us food and everything.
    We didn't have no hair and every-- they
    knew-- they must have know who we are,
    on our clothes, and on our weight, and everything.
    Let me ask you, did you--
    when you were in the camps, were you friends with Jews?
    Were they your good friends?
    My friends?
    Mm-hmm, in the camps, were they Jewish?
    Oh, yeah, yeah, the most of them,
    yeah, except for this group of French people
    that we saw in that other-- in that last camp.
    But the most of them were Jewish.
    And what kinds of things do they do?
    Did you see them ever--
    did they ever practice their religion?
    Did you ever see spiritual--
    Yeah, in the Theresienstadt, you could get marriage--
    married Jewish style.
    But what about in Auschwitz or in the labor camp later?
    No.
    Oh, no.
    Did people pray?
    No, no, no.
    The funniest thing about us, this--
    we called them kapos.
    These were Polish Jews that were they are long time,
    in charge of us from the SS.
    And they hit us more than the SS did, these guys.
    Yeah, they had these things.
    When we had to go in these bunk beds,
    they hit us more than the SS.
    But the SS--
    I got one--
    Wait, wait, let's reload.
    You were going to tell me about the SS.
    You started talking about the kapos
    and you were going to say something about the SS.
    Why don't you go on.
    Yeah, they were pretty rough too.
    I was once on the railroad unloading the coal.
    And the guy that was with us, I think
    I didn't give him the right.
    And so, he slapped me.
    I fell right on into the coals.
    But otherwise, I really didn't get hurt too much.
    I mean, I know they hit people that they had
    to go to the hospital in there.
    But I, personally, went through the whole thing pretty
    unscathed, you know.
    What kinds of choices did people have in those circumstances?
    Could you make choices that helped ensure that you
    would live instead of die?
    No, actually we didn't have any choices.
    We had to believe what they tell--
    like they tell us you go in a labor camp,
    we had to believe this.
    The funniest thing was when they told us in Auschwitz
    we're going to that labor camp in Kaufering.
    We actually-- the train actually went through Vienna.
    I don't know how come.
    And we looked out this windows.
    And we just-- if we could jump, we would have been--
    we would have been free.
    And it went from Theresienstadt through Vienna to Poland.
    We went to the inner city.
    And then out and to Germany.
    Did having been baptized as a Lutheran help you at all
    once you were in the camps?
    Did it make it easier for you?
    No.
    No.
    There was nothing they could do.
    I mean, I don't remember anything.
    A Jew was a Jew.
    There was no difference.
    There was no priest or anything.
    And I know-- like when I said, we
    were in that hospital on the end of the journey, they kept us.
    Then we finally got up.
    And they had schools where we were taken care of, sleeping.
    And we had restaurants where we could go to to eat
    and everything.
    They took care of us.
    And then there were trains come in,
    going from there to Munich, and from Munich
    wherever you wanted to go.
    Back, during the war, did you--
    were there people who tried to help you or other people
    that you saw?
    Did you see any people who tried to help in any way?
    Or particular soldiers maybe or kapos who tried to help?
    No.
    The only people that really helped us
    were these railroad personnel.
    Some of them in Theresienstadt, when
    we got outside to unload, or load, or whatever,
    they took our letters.
    We gave them money or cigarettes.
    And at Auschwitz, I know you were there only a short time,
    but tell me a little more about what it was like.
    What were the standards if you arrived
    at Auschwitz, what would happen if you were say 45,
    or if you were a kid?
    Anybody that was not able looking for work got gassed.
    That we know for sure because we never saw anybody again.
    And the ones that are still--
    that were still in good shape, they had in barracks.
    But we didn't work or anything.
    We just-- in the morning, we get our soup or whatever it was.
    And then we stayed in the open.
    And we made a big circle, one next to the other,
    and moving around like this just to keep us warm.
    And we didn't do any work, until after that week,
    they put us in a row.
    And said you, and you, and you, you can come.
    And they left for the other camp.
    So, I don't know what happened to the rest.
    I assume whoever didn't get lucky enough--
    I know a fellow that went with us, strong and gritty,
    he never came back.
    He must've died somewhere.
    I don't know where, either in Auschwitz or in another camp.
    A lot of them.
    So, I couldn't say how many got gassed and how many made it.
    I mean, from the group that I knew, 700,
    I think I know only 20 or so came back that I know.
    When we met in Vienna again, you know.
    And my wife was--
    we were actually liberated by the Americans.
    My wife was in a camp in Czechoslovakia.
    She got liberated by the Russians.
    And she came home to Vienna with a train full of Russians,
    but they didn't do-- didn't do no harm to her.
    But she was-- she was close to not make it.
    She was sick all the time.
    She had to holes here and a big hole here.
    She had no stomach, nothing.
    And--
    So people could make no choices under those circumstances?
    No.
    Even to die when they wanted to.
    You couldn't kill yourself?
    Well, they could.
    Like when I was in that little camp
    after Auschwitz, in that Kaufering was the name,
    we went to bed in the evening.
    And one of the guys, he was a lawyer, a strong guy,
    he was hanging.
    Hung himself overnight in the bunker.
    We woke up and here was--
    so, if you wanted to kill yourself, you probably could.
    So how do you think some people survived
    and some didn't survive?
    I really don't know how it happened.
    I wasn't very strong.
    There were guys there twice my weight and a head
    taller and couldn't make it.
    If they got diarrhea or something,
    couldn't hold it anymore.
    They just were running out.
    How I came back is, for me, still a miracle
    how it happened.
    I don't know.
    I was close enough several times, but I got lucky.
    I didn't-- I never got sick.
    I think I was in the hospital once, one day or something,
    that's all.
    And how it-- how this gets selected, I don't know.
    They are better guys and stronger guys that
    should live now instead of me.
    I just got lucky.
    We had all kinds.
    We had laborers.
    We had doctors.
    We had lawyers.
    We had you name it.
    And a lot of them didn't make it.
    So, I don't know.
    I always said somebody up there must have liked me,
    because I can't--
    can't figure it out that I'm here, still here.
    And I had so many close calls and still.
    I don't know.
    And my wife recuperated.
    And in 1947, our daughter was born.
    And she was so tiny, 2 pounds I think.
    That my wife was afraid to hold her.
    She used to cry, take her, take her.
    So I had to take her.
    And now she's strong, 5-foot-9 or something.
    And we always said--
    when we came over here, she was four years old.
    And she was so skinny.
    She didn't eat already nothing.
    We always said Wonder Bread made her grow,
    the Wonder Bread is what got her up.
    And now she has three of her own.

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    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.
    Interviewee
    Ernst Weihs
    Interviewer
    Sandra Bradley
    Date
    interview:  1992 January 29

    Physical Details

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

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Weihs, Ernst, 1908-

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Provenance
    Sandra Bradley, a film production consultant for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, conducted the interview with Ernest Weihs on January 29, 1992, 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.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:08:50
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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

    Oral History

    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 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 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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