Ed Mosberg

The Tenacity of Testimony

Edward Mosberg was born in Krakow and survived the Krakow ghetto, Plaszow and Mathausen concentration camps, and slave labor at the Hermann-Goering factory. His entire family was murdered in the Holocaust.

He endured further tribulations before sharing his testimony with USC Shoah Foundation. A nearly fatal auto accident prevented him from his first scheduled interview, while a stroke forced him to postpone the second.

Having long shared his memories of the Holocaust as a public speaker, Mosberg remained determined to find a lasting audience through the Visual History Archive, and he was finally able to record his testimony in October 2016. He also shares his story as one of 12 survivors chronicled in the documentary Destination Unknown.

As the sole member of his family to survive, Mosberg feels a duty to speak on behalf of their long-stilled voices. “My two sisters, and my wife’s sister, were killed in Stutthof on the night before liberation,” he recalls. “We must never forgive and we must never forget. I lost my whole family. So this is my duty, to go and talk and talk. Not just because of my family but also the 6 million Jews who were murdered. I go to schools, any place they need me, I am available. As long as I will live, to my last day I will go and talk about it, so the Holocaust will not be forgotten.”

“The United Nations declared January 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day,” he adds. “For me, it is every single day.”

“Steven Spielberg woke up the whole world,” Mosberg said. “He is the greatest hero because up to that point people tried to forget. He brought the whole world to know about the Holocaust.” The work goes on, he said, with Smith and the mission of USC Shoah Foundation which he proudly supports.