Oral history interview with C. J. Williams

Witness to the Holocaust: Buchenwald

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. Three young soldiers who were fighting the war in Europe came across Buchenwald almost by accident, unaware of the horrors inside. These American Gis, all with an Engineer Combat Battalion (one was the Battalion photographer), describe the inmates' weakness and starvation and how they were used for medical experiments. Includes authentic photographs taken by these men and archival concentraion camp film footage taken when the camps were liberated.

Witness to the Holocaust: Prisoners of War

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. The creator of the Witness to the Holocaust Project (Fred Roberts Crawford) narrates his personal experiences as a prisoner of war in Hungary and then in a German POW camp, Stalag Luft III from July 1944 to April 1945 and how his imprisonment, subject to the terms of the Geneva Convention, differed dramatically from the treatment of the Jews in the concentration camps. Includes his personal collection of photographs.

Witness to the Holocaust: Nazi Concentration Camp System, Ohrdruf

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. A professor of history gives an overview of the Nazi concentration camp system; how and why it was developed and a historical and political perspective of the Holocaust. A Major General with the U.S. 65th Infantry Division discusses his involvement with the liberation of Ohrdruf, a labor camp in Germany.

Witness to the Holocaust: Bergen-Belsen, US Congress Tour of Camp

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. Pictorial essay of Bergen-Belsen narrated by the daughter of the Special Messenger for the War Department who had been sent there by the Pentagon to photograph the camp which had been liberated by British forces. Also includes an interview with a former US Representative who was part of a congressional committee manded by General Eisenhower to view the camps in 1945 and report to the American public. Includes photographs.

Witness to the Holocaust: Woebbelin, Ohrdruf, Gunskirchen Lager

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. A Division Chaplain from the 8th Infantry Division discusses the liberation of Woebbelin. This show includes an interview with a witness to the camp Gunskirchen Lager and a previously videotaped segment with a Major General of the 65th Infantry Division. Includes authentic film footage of the Ohrdruf camp as well as scenes from Dachau and Buchenwald.

Witness to the Holocaust: Bergen-Belsen, Woebbelin, Gardelegen Massacre

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. A Sergent with the Royal Canadian Air Force led a group of volunteers from his unit into Bergen-Belsen with food and medical supplies. He and a witness to Woebbelin and the Gardelegen massacre, where hundreds of Jews were burned alive inside an old warehouse, describe what they saw. Includes photographs.

Witness to the Holocaust: Ebensee

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. A 1st Lieutenant with the 30th Field Hospital of the Third Army relates his experiences at the camp of Ebensee, in Austria, as his unit entered the camp to take over the medical facilities and provide care to the 36,000 remaining inmates. Includes photographs taken by the liberator himself, many of which General Patton ordered 5,000 extra copies made for his public relations department.

Witness to the Holocaust: Buchenwald-Liberator Meets Survivor

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. A liberator of Buchenwald, who was the photographer and historian of the 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion, shares memories with a Buchenwald survivor. General Eisenhower ordered every American soldier within the area to personally view the atrocious condictions in this camp to show the men what they were fighting for.

Witness to the Holocaust: Nordhausen, Dachau

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. A chaplain who travelled with a medical battalion shares his experiences at Tasha and Nordhausen. Includes an interview with a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who was the intelligence officer for the US Seventh Army. After witnessesing Dachau, he personally ordered the printing of a booklet for all the members of the Seventh Army describing the conditions at the camp and the "walking skeletons" within because he felt that "...this thing had to be documented. The future should have something that was the truth."

Witness to the Holocaust: Dachau

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. Two American Gis (one a 1st Lieutenant with the 191st Tank Battalion and one a supply officer for the 54th Field Hospital Unit) discuss the liberation of Dachau, the first concentration camp built by the Nazis, and the effect of the Holocaust has had on their lives. Includes photographs and film footage.

Witness to the Holocaust: Nordhausen

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. Nordhausen was a concentration camp which supplied the labor for a nearby German bomb factory. Two witnesses (one entered the camp just one hour after liberation) relate the horrors they observed there. Includes photographs.

Witness to the Holocaust: Auschwitz

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. A survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau relates her experiences in the camp and then turns the discussion to the currents of anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism prevalent in contemporary society. Includes photographs.

Witness to the Holocaust: Auschwitz-Two Generations

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. A survivor discusses with her duaghter her life in Poland before ghettoization, her experiences as an Auschwitz internee, and what Nazi imprisonment meant to a young Jewish girl.

Witness to the Holocaust: Woebbelin

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. The same Division Chaplin from show J of this series continues his discussion of Woebbelin, and a research associate with the "Witness to the Holocaust" Project discusses the project's goals and achievements.

Witness to the Holocaust: Religious Implications of the Holocaust

Oral History

This is an episode from the Witness to the Holocaust series. Please see Emory University for additional information. Three Religion and Theology professors discuss the meaning of the Holocaust, how it represents a realization of the worst aspects of modern society, and how the world must learn to recognize protests against the denials of rights of any people as a means of preventing future Holocausts.

Oral history interview with Harry F. Allen

Oral History

Harry F. Allen, born on January 10, 1916, describes serving in World War II from March of 1942 until April of 1946; graduating from Officer's Candidate School and being assigned to the combat engineers; training in Mississippi; being stationed in England before landing in Europe; being part of the first, third, and seventh armies; entering Dachau concentration camp; the guards surrendering immediately; being told about the camp before arriving there; conditions in the camp and speaking with the surviving inmates; taking pictures in the camp; his reaction to the camp as a Christian; and his thoughts on Germans.

Oral history interview with Bill Allison

Oral History

Oral history interview with an anonymous interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with John Henry Baker

Oral History

John Henry Baker, Jr., born in 1921 in Georgia, USA, discusses being a student at the beginning of the war; joining the army and being assigned to the 65th Division, 260th Infantry as a Captain; his lack of knowledge about the concentration camps and not remembering the first one he encountered; being part of the front-line troops, and only staying a short time in the camps; being followed by other US forces that would feed and care for the survivors; liberating Ohrdruf camp, which he describes as having large pits for the dead and a terrible odor; the nearby civilians claiming not to know anything about the camp even though it was a quarter of a mile from town and could be seen from there; how the local civilians were made to dig graves and bury the dead from the camp; the survivors of the camp, many of whom seemed not to comprehend what was happening; his group’s focus on active German soldiers, many of whom had already fled the camps; seeing bunkers and dead bodies in the camps; being assigned to the 19th Infantry, Company B in charge of providing security for the SS in prison in Dachau; not interacting with the camp survivors; the violence between the Germans and the survivors; seeing camp Mauthausen, where the survivors were roaming around and the American soldiers had to get them back into the stockades; not being particularly haunted by the experiences; not being interested in politics; the several Jewish soldiers who had stronger feelings than him about the camps; and his opinion that the Germans now regret their actions during the Holocaust.

Oral history interview with Grady M. Barker

Oral History

Grady M. Barker, born in 1913 in Georgia, USA, discusses being a truck driver before the war; serving in the 685th Ordnance Ammunition Company as a corporal and a truck driver; seeing Dachau concentration camp after liberation, but not entering the camp; seeing box cars with dead bodies in them and the ground covered by the living and the dead; the terrible odor; seeing retreating German soldiers on their way towards the camp; the Russian POWs and Jews in the camp; his view that all war is hell; having a nephew who was killed in Vietnam; and his thoughts and feelings towards the German people.

Oral history interview with William R. Barton

Oral History

William R. Barton, born in 1915 in Georgia, USA, discusses working before and after the war in Riches Department Store in Atlanta, Georgia; serving in the 222 Infantry Regiment, 42 Rainbow Division in the medical detachment as a technical sergeant; being with the first group to enter Dachau; not being prepared for what they saw; seeing boxcars filled with dead bodies; the horrible stench; the camp survivors who were only skin and bones; staying in the camp for only 2-3 hours and leaving without having much interaction with the survivors; his sympathies for the German civilians; and his current views of Germans and Japanese.

Oral history interview with William G. Bates

Oral History

William G. Bates, born in 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia, discusses being a college student at the beginning of the war; his current work as a realty manager for the Chrysler Realty Corporation; serving as a Staff Sergeant with the 830th Amphibious Truck Company and witnessing the liberation of Dachau; the condition of the survivors in the camp; the terrible odor; seeing numerous dead bodies; not entering the gates of the camp because of worries about diseases; his response to the camp; his view of wars; his view of the Vietnam War; his thoughts on the civil rights movement; and his reflections on antisemitism.

Oral history interview with Gene Benjamin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Abraham Bernstein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Frank Bezares

Oral History

Oral history interview with Henry Birnbrey

Oral History

Oral history interview with Haim Blanc

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kenneth Bowers

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ernest Braun

Oral History

Oral history interview with Zew Budansky

Oral History

Oral history interview with David Campbell

Oral History

Oral history interview with Philip Carlquist

Oral History

Oral history interview with William Cartledge

Oral History

Oral history interview with Franklin Lee Clark

Oral History

Oral history interview with Daniel Cogar

Oral History

Oral history interview with Aaron Cohn

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kenneth W. Cotton

Oral History

Oral history interview with Maurice Coursey

Oral History

Oral history interview with Dean Covington

Oral History

Oral history interview with Edward John Digilio

Oral History

Oral history interview with Roy W. Dodd

Oral History

Oral history interview with C. W. Doughtly

Oral History

Oral history interview with Joseph Drewry

Oral History

Oral history interview with W. W. Dunagan

Oral History

Oral history interview with George Duncan

Oral History

Oral history interview with John Dunn

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ari Falik

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ari Falik

Oral History

Oral history interview with Bernard Fine

Oral History

Oral history interview with Wilson Freeman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Wilson Freeman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Stanley Gaylord

Oral History

Oral history interview with Louie Gillespie

Oral History

Oral history interview with Samuel Glashow

Oral History

Oral history interview with John Glustrom

Oral History

Oral history interview with Emmet Goodman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lewis Greene

Oral History

Oral history interview with Paul Gumz

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jack Hallet

Oral History

Oral history interview with Frank Hamburger

Oral History

Oral history interview with Bernard Hansen

Oral History

Oral history interview with Denton Harris

Oral History

Oral history interview with Herman Hellerstein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Russel Hines

Oral History

Oral history interview with Edouard Victor Michel Izac

Oral History

Oral history interview with William Jucksch

Oral History

Oral history interview with George King

Oral History

Oral history interview with Joseph Kushlish

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jesse Lafoon

Oral History

Oral history interview with William B. Lovelady

Oral History

Oral history interview with Marshall Mantler

Oral History

Oral history interview with Howard Margol

Oral History

Oral history interview with James May

Oral History

Oral history interview with Eugene McPheeters

Oral History

Oral history interview with Fred Mercer

Oral History

Oral history interview with Curtis Mitchell

Oral History

Oral history interview with Miguel Montesinos

Oral History

Oral history interview with Judah Nadich

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lauren Nash

Oral History

Oral history interview with Matthew Nesbitt

Oral History

Oral history interview with Morris Parloff

Oral History

Dr. Morris Parloff, born on October 29, 1918, describes being part of the T-Force during World War II; his job to perform arrests and gather documents in Europe; his group of around 45 men; his first mission in 1944 in Aachen, Germany, where he screened people; learning of the V-2 and being eager to locate it; going to Nordhausen to investigate the V-2 and discovering the concentration camp; being eager to speak with European Jews; training at Camp Ritchie in Maryland; interrogating German civilians; his interactions with a German Jewish man, who provided him information and had also been an informant for the Gestapo earlier in the war; his views on the man’s collaboration and survival strategy; hearing rumors about concentration camps; going to Leipzig, Germany briefly; entering the camp at Nordhausen, which had already been liberated; being given a tour of the camp and seeing the crematorium; his experience being Jewish in the military; his views on the SS and the Nazis; never returning to Germany nor Europe; his children; his thoughts on the prevention of another Holocaust; returning after the war; and further details on his experiences during the war.

Oral history interview with Calvin Paul

Oral History

Oral history interview with Dwight Pearce

Oral History

Oral history interview with Robert Perelman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Leo Pine

Oral History

Oral history interview with Fred Bohm

Oral History

Oral history interview with William W. Quinn

Oral History

Oral history interview with James Reese

Oral History

Oral history interview with J. P. Reilly

Oral History

Oral history interview with Charles Reiner

Oral History

Oral history interview with George P. Ricketts

Oral History

Oral history interview with M. O. Robinson

Oral History

Oral history interview with Robert W. Russ

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sol Sadek

Oral History

Oral history interview with Richard Schifter

Oral History

Richard Schifter, born in Vienna, Austria in 1923, describes his parents being in Lublin, Poland in the early 1940s and living in the ghetto; his immigration to the United States from Vienna in December 1938 when he was 15 years old; his parents’ failed attempts to emigrate from Vienna; finishing college and joining the US Army; being in the T-Force in the 12th Army Group; training to an interrogator at Camp Ritchie in Maryland; going to England in June 1944; arriving at Omaha Beach (Normandy, France) in August 1944; being part of the 1st Infantry Division when they took Aachen, Germany in October 1944; remaining in Aachen for the winter of 1944-1945 and living in a townhouse with his group; interrogating the civilian population and his views of the Germans in Aachen; his interactions with the German military; finding the concentration camp Nordhausen; speaking Yiddish to the inmates; the inmates’ discomfort living amongst perpetrators; the crematoriums; only seeing male inmates; being involved with the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; not experimenting antisemitism while he was in the army; his views on Judaism and Israel; his political views being shaped by his early life; learning Yiddish in New York, NY; the Jewish experience and the sources of the Holocaust; the genocide of Jews, Romanies, and Armenians; speaking with former Dora inmates during the war; and his interactions with former inmates. [Note that the recording is damaged in part 2 from minute 8:25 to minute 21:00.]

Oral history interview with Richard Schley

Oral History

Oral history interview with William A. Scott

Oral History

Scott served with the 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion of the 3rd Army and witnessed the liberation of Buchenwald.

Oral history interview with Frank Spiegel

Oral History

Oral history interview with Thomas Spruill

Oral History

Oral history interview with Willie Tatum

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lawrence Thouin

Oral History

Oral history interview with James Tirey and Cantor Isaac Goodfriend

Oral History

Oral history interview with Haiden G. Turner

Oral History

Oral history interview with John Vlass

Oral History

Oral history interview with Malcolm Webber

Oral History

Oral history interview with George Wehmoff

Oral History

Oral history interview with William Weinberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Bert Weston

Oral History

Oral history interview with Albert Wildman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Dennis Wile

Oral History

Oral history interview with Howard Wiseberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Carlisle Woelfer

Oral History

Oral history interview with Edward Young

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jerome Zimmerman

Oral History