Oral history interview with Harry Heller

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 2017.163.161 | RG Number: RG-50.919.0174

Overview

Interviewee: Harry Heller
Date: interview: 1986 February 09
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education

Physical Details

Extent: 2 videocassettes (VHS).

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
Conditions on Use: Restrictions on use. Restrictions may exist. Contact the Museum for further information: reference@ushmm.org
Copyright Holder: Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Jews.
Personal Name: Heller, Harry.

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: Andrea Winograd, on behalf of the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education, donated oral history interviews to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in April 2016.
Funding Note: The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Special Collection: The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive

Record last modified:: 2023-11-16 09:36:34
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn558290

Download & Licensing

Request Copy
See Rights and Restrictions
Terms of Use
This record is digitized but cannot be downloaded online.

In-Person Research

Available for Research
Plan a Research Visit

Contact Us

Give Feedback

Also in Oral history interviews of the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education collection

Oral history interviews of the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education collection.

Oral history interview with Herman Zierwg

Oral History

Oral history interview with Eva K.

Oral History

Oral history interview with Tony Van Renterghem

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gerta Lehman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Dr. Saltzman

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lewis Schloss and Trudy Schloss

Oral History

Oral history interview with Albert Kimmelstein

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rabbi Salomon Carlebach

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gerda Wasserman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sophi Leslen

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sandor Katz

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jupp Levi

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ruth Katz and Kurt Katz

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Inge Heiser

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Harry Hess

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ruth Wolfenheim

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ludwig Willner

Oral History

Oral history interview with Harry Seuger

Oral History

Oral history interview with Abraham Klawasky

Oral History

Oral history interview with Margot Stere

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Margo Hine

Oral History

Oral history interview with Steven Springfield

Oral History

Oral history interview with Herbert Simon

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Bella Funkelstein

Oral History

Oral history interview with M. Margaran

Oral History

Oral history interview with Larry Pick

Oral History

Oral history interview with Walter Schuitz

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Lui Greenberg

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ernst Uber

Oral History

Oral history interview with Ernst Hart

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with unknown interviewee

Oral History

Oral history interview with Regina Prima Briemer

Oral History

Regina Prima Briemer (née Harf), born on January 8, 1920 in Wickrath, Mönchengladbach, Germany, describes her early years growing up in Wickrath with her brother Siegfried; her father building a big house where they moved in December 1932; the rise of Hitler to power in Germany; her father who was traditional, and her mother who was more orthodox; her brother Siegfried immigrating to Palestine in 1936; working in Cologne, Germany as a housemaid for Dr. Ochs for three years; the events of Kristallnacht in November 1938 when their home was plundered; her father losing his job; being in Gehringshof Hashgacha (Bachad) from September 1939 until September 1941; being deported with her parents in December 1941 to Riga, Latvia; hearing about the massacres of Jews for the first time; her work shovelling the deep snow; being transferred to Kommando Rosenberg, where she sorted Jewish books that were brought in from Riga’s Jewish homes; the murder of her parents in the Riga ghetto in March 1942 during a raid; having an operation on her appendix in the Riga ghetto; being sent to Kaiserwald concentration camp; contracting typhus; being transported to ABA (Arbeitskleidung Anstalt); her work rolling barrels and disassembling batteries; being sent to Spilva (Spilwe), building the Spilva airport; being sent to Mühlgraben, where she worked with laundry; hurting her knee and reporting to the ghetto’s hospital, and how this saved her life because she avoided a raid that happened that day at the camp in 1944; the August 1944 deportation of prisoners to Stutthof, during which she hid; being sent with 200 prisoners to Libau (Liepaja) by boat; her work loading and unloading ships in Libau; being sent to Germany by boat in February 1945; being sent to a women’s prison in Hamburg, Germany (possibly Fuhlsbüttel); being forced to march from Hamburg to Kiel, which took four days; her work clearing the bombed town of Kiel; being given civil clothes, which were full of lice, and transported to Flensburg; joining a full train coming from Ravensbrück; going to Malmo, Sweden, where they were welcomed by the Red Cross on May 2, 1945; living in a school that was transformed into a temporary home for the survivors; and immigrating to Palestine in February 1947.