Category: Oral History

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  • Thomas Buergenthal describes the plight of refugees today

    Oral History

    Judge Thomas Buergenthal was one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. Judge Buergenthal devoted his life to international and human rights law. He served as chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience; was named the Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at the George Washington University Law School; and served for a decade as the American judge at…

    Thomas Buergenthal describes the plight of refugees today
  • Thomas Buergenthal discusses whether it is ever too late to seek justice

    Oral History

    Judge Thomas Buergenthal was one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. Judge Buergenthal devoted his life to international and human rights law. He served as chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience; was named the Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at the George Washington University Law School; and served for a decade as the American judge at…

    Thomas Buergenthal discusses whether it is ever too late to seek justice
  • Aron (Dereczynski) Derman describes partisan activities near Vilna

    Oral History

    Aron was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Slonim, a part of Poland between the two world wars. His parents owned a clothing store. After studying in a technical school, Aron worked as a motion-picture projectionist in a small town near Slonim. The Soviet army took over Slonim in September 1939. War broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union in June 1941. Aron returned to Slonim. The Germans soon occupied Slonim, and later forced the Jews into a ghetto. Aron was forced to work in an armaments…

    Aron (Dereczynski) Derman describes partisan activities near Vilna
  • David (Dudi) Bergman describes liberation by US Army in mountains near Innsbruck

    Oral History

    The Germans occupied David's town, previously annexed by Hungary, in 1944. David was deported to Auschwitz and, with his father, transported to Plaszow. David was sent to the Gross-Rosen camp and to Reichenbach. He was then among three of 150 in a cattle car who survived transportation to Dachau. He was liberated after a death march from Innsbruck toward the front line of combat between US and German troops.

    Tags: liberation
    David (Dudi) Bergman describes liberation by US Army in mountains near Innsbruck
  • Ernest G. Heppner describes learning about the Holocaust and the fate of his relatives

    Oral History

    Ernest's family owned a factory that made matzah, the unleavened bread eaten during Passover. In February 1939, three months after Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass" pogroms), Ernest and his mother fled to Shanghai, one of few havens for refugees without visas. His father and sister stayed behind in Germany; they perished during the Holocaust. A brother escaped to England. Ernest and his mother found work in Shanghai. In 1947, he came to the United States with his wife, whom he met and married in…

    Ernest G. Heppner describes learning about the Holocaust and the fate of his relatives
  • Wilek (William) Loew describes forced evacuation from Auschwitz

    Oral History

    Wilek was the son of Jewish parents living in the southeastern Polish town of Lvov. His family owned and operated a winery that had been in family hands since 1870. Wilek's father died of a heart attack in 1929. Wilek entered secondary school in 1939. Soon after he began school, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland. Lvov was in the part of eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. Although the Soviets took over Wilek's home and the family business, Wilek was able to continue his…

    Wilek (William) Loew describes forced evacuation from Auschwitz
  • Ivo Herzer describes a roundup (from which he was released) of Jews by Croatian collaborators in 1941

    Oral History

    Ivo grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in Zagreb. He experienced little overt antisemitism until the Germans and their allies invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941 and installed a fascist Ustasa government in Croatia. The Ustasa regime began killing Jews, Serbs, and Roma (Gypsies). Ivo's family escaped to Italian-occupied territory, where the Italians tried to protect Jewish refugees. Ivo lived in Italian internment camps, including the Rab island camp, before moving to mainland Italy in 1944. He worked…

    Ivo Herzer describes a roundup (from which he was released) of Jews by Croatian collaborators in 1941
  • Alisa (Lisa) Nussbaum Derman describes a dangerous journey to reach partisan territory in the Naroch Forest, Poland

    Oral History

    Lisa was one of three children born to a religious Jewish family. Following the German occupation of her hometown in 1939, Lisa and her family moved first to Augustow and then to Slonim (in Soviet-occupied eastern Poland). German troops captured Slonim in June 1941, during the invasion of the Soviet Union. In Slonim, the Germans established a ghetto which existed from 1941 to 1942. Lisa eventually escaped from Slonim, and went first to Grodno and then to Vilna, where she joined the resistance movement. She…

    Alisa (Lisa) Nussbaum Derman describes a dangerous journey to reach partisan territory in the Naroch Forest, Poland
  • Charlene Schiff describes the Soviet occupation of Horochow after the outbreak of World War II

    Oral History

    Both of Charlene's parents were local Jewish community leaders, and the family was active in community life. Charlene's father was a professor of philosophy at the State University of Lvov. World War II began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Charlene's town was in the part of eastern Poland occupied by the Soviet Union under the German-Soviet Pact of August 1939. Under the Soviet occupation, the family remained in its home and Charlene's father continued to teach. The Germans…

    Charlene Schiff describes the Soviet occupation of Horochow after the outbreak of World War II
  • Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun describes the death of his father in Kochendorf, a subcamp of Natzweiler

    Oral History

    Shony was born to religious Jewish parents in a small Transylvanian city. He began to learn the violin at age 5. His town was occupied by Hungary in 1940 and by Germany in 1944. In May 1944, he was deported to the Auschwitz camp in Poland. He was transferred to the Natzweiler camp system in France and then to Dachau, where he was liberated by US troops in April 1945. In 1950, he immigrated to the United States, and became a composer and a professional violinist.

    Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun describes the death of his father in Kochendorf, a subcamp of Natzweiler

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