Liberation

Liberation is typically characterized by the arrival of Allied forces. Interviewees tell of liberation from concentration camps, or during death marches, or may describe liberation upon emergence from hiding.

Gabor Hirsch on the Liberation of Auschwitz

Gabor Hirsch describes his physical condition when Soviet soldiers liberated him in Auschwitz on January 27, 1945.

  • Gabor Hirsch on the Liberation of Auschwitz

    Language: English

    Gabor Hirsch describes his physical condition when Soviet soldiers liberated him in Auschwitz on January 27, 1945.

  • Celina Biniaz on the liberation of Brünnlitz Concentration Camp

    Language: English

    Celina Biniaz, a “Schindler Jew,” remembers hearing about the end of the war while listening to an underground radio at the munitions factory set up by Oskar Schindler in the Brünnlitz concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The Brünnlitz concentration camp was liberated by the Soviet armed forces in May 1945. With the approach of the Soviets, Oskar Schindler left and arranged for several of the camp personnel to leave as well. Celina Biniaz remembers her liberation and describes her liberators.

  • Remembering the Liberation of Auschwitz

    Language: English

    Jewish survivor Paula Lebovics, Jewish survivor Howard Chandler, Jewish survivor Philip Helbling, Political prisoner Kaz Wolff-Zdzienicki, and Sinti and Roma survivor Julia Lentini recall their experiences of the evacuation and liberation of the Auschwitz camp complex in January 1945. Otari Amaglobeli of the Soviet Armed forces describes his involvement in the liberation of the camp complex on Jan. 27, 1945. This testimony clip reel was produced in partnership with The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme.

  • Sol Blaufeld on liberation of Dachau

    Language: English

    Sol Blaufeld recalls the liberation of Dachau concentration camp by American forces on April 29, 1945.

  • Language: English

    Holocaust survivor Miriam Ziegler describes her liberation from Auschwitz, first in her testimony for the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in 1987 and then in her USC Shoah Foundation testimony in 1994.

  • Charlotte Chaney

    Language: English

    Charlotte shares her experience as a U.S. Army nurse who participated in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in May 1945. Charlotte Chaney was born Charlotte Ellner on October 15, 1921, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Charlotte was trained as a nurse and then volunteered for the Army Air Corps in 1944. That same year she married United States Navyman Bernard Chaney. In May 1945, Charlotte was sent to Europe as a part of the Red Cross, not knowing she was about to take part in the liberation of Dachau concentration camp. Charlotte, who was Jewish, was among a group of nurses who accompanied American soldiers when they entered Dachau concentration camp. There, she helped clean up the camp and nurse survivors back to health. Charlotte returned to the United States in August of 1945, where she continued her career in nursing. At the time of her interview in 1995, Charlotte was living with her husband in Miami, Florida, and had one daughter and two grandsons.

  • Alan Brown on Life After Liberation

    Language: English

    After liberation from a forced labor camp in Austria, Alan Brown returned to his home in Budapest, Hungary. Alan speaks about recuperating from typhus and learning about Auschwitz and the gas chambers from other survivors.

  • Felix Flicker on the liberation of Majdanek

    Language: English

    Jewish survivor Felix Flicker joined the Soviet Armed Forces in 1943. Flicker recalls arriving at Majdanek concentration camp after it was liberated in July 1944. He describes the prisoners looking like skeletons and the arrests and executions of the camp guards.