This downloadable video contains clips from testimonies of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust from the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive who were born and grew up in the Polish city of Oświęcim, now infamous as the location of Auschwitz camp system created there by the occupying Nazi German administration.
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Ralph Leeser and his family fled to the United States from Nazi Germany in 1939. A few years later he joined the United States armed forces and helped liberate Buchenwald concentration camp. After the liberation Leeser and his fellow soldiers went to Braunau, Austria and entered Hitler's home.
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
Interview language: Hungarian
Éva explains how she survived a roundup of Jews by Hungary’s Arrow Cross party members in Budapest in winter 1944. A young Hungarian Nazi came to take Eva, but spared her at the last minute due to Eva's father's quick thinking. Years after the war, she encountered the man again, this time as a high-ranking political police officer in then-Communist Hungary.
Paul Engel was born into a middle-class Jewish family on May 4, 1922 in Vienna, Austria. He had a younger brother, Robert. When World War I broke out in 1914, his father, Eduard, was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army. Captured as a prisoner of war, he spent six years in Siberia working in a coal mine, finally reuniting with his family in 1920. In Vienna, Eduard owned a perfume wholesale business. Before the war, Paul attended a primary school and was accepted to a Gymnasium in the 14th district of Vienna.
Joseph Steiner remembers when Nazi Germany invaded his home country, Hungary. He speaks on the anti-Semitism he experienced from neighbors, which he said was influenced by Nazi propaganda and hatred.
As a young girl Hedy Epstein returned home from school in Nazi Germany to find her house empty, locked and her parents nowhere to be found. She describes the terrifying confrontation with a Nazi when looking for her parents.
Henry Laurant remembers the first time he experienced antisemitism in Nazi Germany. He was targeted by other children who were influenced by Nazi rhetoric. His testimony is featured in the multimedia professional development program, Echoes and Reflections.
Henry Laurant remembers the first time he experienced anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. He was targeted by other children who were influenced by Nazi rhetoric. His testimony is featured in the multimedia professional development program, Echoes and Reflections.
Trudy Coppel describes how Jews were forced to wear the Yellow Star on their clothing in Nazi Germany. Trudy’s was considered Aryan, however her father was born Jewish and according to Nazi laws, Trudy and her brothers were Jewish and were forced to wear the Yellow Star beginning in September 1941.
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
Interview language: Italian
Piero Terracina recalls January 1945 in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, where he witnessed SS guards leaving the camp. Upon their return, he was forced to participate in a death march where he managed to escape his wardens and seek refuge in Auschwitz I. On January 27, 1945, he recalls the first arrival of the Soviet armed forces in the camp and describes the first inmates' reaction to the liberators.