Branko Lustig, producer of Schindler’s List and our 50,000th interviewee in the Visual History Archive; recalls returning to Auschwitz during the filming of the TV mini-series War and Remembrance. Branko also describes how important it is not only to remember the Holocaust but also for future generations to learn from it.

Dario Gabbai speaks about his participation within the Sonderkommando Uprising in Auschwitz II-Birkenau on October 7, 1944. Dario explains how his group failed at their attempt to burn down Crematorium II. Other members of the Sondekommando set fire to Crematorium IV. The SS put down the revolt in the end, executed its participants, and blew up what remained of the crematorium

Mieczyslaw (Mietek) Pemper typed up the actual Schindler’s list and was saved by Oskar Schindler. Pemper speaks (in German) about Schindler and how he bribed and used personal connections to save hundreds of Jews. Pemper also describes how he came to work with Schindler and help in the creation of the list. 

Lotte Kramer reads a sonnet she wrote about her family's gentile friends Nazi controlled Germany.

Harriet H. Forster describes life in Austria just following the Anschluss in 1938 including saving her brother from deportation. Harriet later moved to the United States and became a professor at USC and was internationally known for her work in physics and astronomy. She died on September 28, 2014, she was 97 years old.

Aniko Friedberg describes how she would create sculptures out of clay while interned in the Allendorf forced labor camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald. She didn’t recall this memory until she reunited with former prisoners, who remembered her sculptures, decades later.

William recalls the joyful celebration of Simchat Torah-the holiday marking the completion of weekly Torah readings- with Rabbi Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe, holding a Sefer Torah (Torah scroll) - in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. The celebration took place even though the barrack was surrounded by German soldiers.

Eva Kor and her twin sister Miriam were experimented on by infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. She describes how one experimented had nearly killed her but she promised herself she would survive. Eva’s testimony is featured in the IWitness activity Growing Up Behind the Barbed Wire.

Kaja Finkler speaks admirably of her mother, a student of modern thought despite her orthodox Jewish background. Kaja recalls how her mother studied law in pre-war Poland with Raphael Lemkin, who later coined the term genocide.

Elena Nightingale speaks how life changed for her family in the late 1930’s when anti-Jewish laws were enforced in Italy. She describes how her father was forced out of his job and she felt like a second class citizen.

Ildephonse Gasana reflects on life after genocide including learning how to forgive and to be more tolerant of one another. Gasana’s testimony is featured in the IWitness activity, The Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Theoneste Karenzi recalls the Gacaca courts and the perpetrators he testified against.

This video reel from the IWitness activity Art in the Face of Death is a collection of artworks, including poetry, song, drawings, paintings and sculpture created by survivors in response to the Auschwitz-Birkenau experience. Some of the art pieces throughout this video are courtesy of Yad Vahsem and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

Buchenwald liberator David Pollock describes why he decided to work at the United Nations after he was discharged from the Canadian military. Pollock worked for the United Nations for nearly thirty years.  

Nathan Offen recalls when he last saw his younger sister Miriam and his mother before they were deported to a concentration camp. He also speaks about the emotional and physical toll the splitting up of the family had on his father. His testimony is featured in Lesson 5 of Echoes and Reflections

Elżbieta Ficowska, a Jewish survivor from Poland, speaks about her experience, so she will continue to remember her parents and other loved ones that perished in the Holocaust. Ficowska describes how there isn’t any physical trace of her parents except for a grave stone she found on a Warsaw Jewish cemetery. Her birth certificate is a silver tee spoon engraved with her name and birthdate, which her father gave to her babysitter on “Aryan side” of Warsaw.

Daisy Miller speaks on the importance of the Visual History Archive and how the collection of audiovisual testimonies to the Holocaust will be a valuable resource in education for generations to come.

Roméo Dallaire describes how quickly violence escalated in Rwanda in 1994 and his disappointment in the lack of support from the international community.

Herschel Balter describes the role that singing played for him while he was imprisoned in Auschwitz- Birkenau. Herschel’s testimony is featured in the IWitness activity, Auschwitz – Inner Strength, Outward Resistance.

Philip Markowicz describes when he and his brother were transported to Flossenburg concentration camp in Germany and the incredible act from a bystander, which saved their lives.