Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

A Jesuit priest, who during the war was a seminarian in Hungarian-occupied Košice, now Slovakia, vividly describes two personal encounters with the suffering and horrors of the Holocaust, and laments his inability to intervene or protest on behalf of the victims. A religious Jew from Poland describes the liquidation of the Jews of his town, including the murder of his grandmother, which he witnessed. He speaks of his experiences in slave labor and concentration camps, and tells how he was able to retain his faith and humanity in spite of his wartime experiences.

A physician, Fred O. recalls the health problems resulting from pervasive lice in the Warsaw and Hrubieszów ghettos. He describes his futile attempt to save his parents and the last time he saw them before their murder at a mass grave outside of Hrubieszów, then discusses his sadness at liberation, and others taking revenge on their guards. 

A survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, Majdanek and Auschwitz relates her wartime experiences and describes her postwar reunion with her husband, whom she had married in the ghetto at the age of 16. She emphasizes her determination to survive as an act of defiance against Hitler, a decision she reached when her younger brother died in her arms in the cattle car en route to Majdanek. The theme of resistance, both passive and active, recurs throughout her testimony. Ms. K.

A survivor from eastern Czechoslovakia relates her wartime experiences in an emotionally powerful and unusually poetic way. She tells of her family's evacuation to a brick factory, their train journey to Auschwitz, and their separation upon arrival. She describes her life in Auschwitz and later in Salzwedel, where she worked as a cook for the SS. Ms. P. recounts the joy of liberation by American soldiers and concludes by expressing her distress at her own, and the world's complacency while suffering and inhumanity continue.