Floyd Dade served with the 761st Tank Battalion of the U.S. Army, an independent battalion consisting mostly of Black soldiers. He fought in six countries and was attached to the 71st Infantry Division when it liberated the Gunskirchen concentration camp in May 1945. Here he reflects on segregation within the US Army.

As a member of Kibbutz Be’eri’s stand-by unit, Yair Avital left his wife and children in a safe room as he went to the defense of his neighbors. Yair was hit by a bullet and grenades, and saw many friends ruthlessly murdered. While being wheeled into surgery, he learned that his family had survived.

Ron Segev and his younger brother were at the Nova music festival on the morning of October 7. When the attacks began they ran and took cover on the side of a hill, where they came face to face with terrorists. After a narrow escape, they found a jeep and rescued eight people.

Dorin Cohen hid with her husband and two small children in their safe room in Kibbutz Kfar Aza as the Israeli army battled terrorists inside her home. The family was rescued by the Israeli military, who were shocked that anyone had survived the assault and destruction that hit the home.

Ruth Crane survived two ghettos and five concentration camps. Here, she describes how watching her father pray and her mother light Shabbat candles in their home in pre-war Siemianowice, Poland, brought her comfort and peace throughout her life.

Hannah Kaye was at the Chabad of Poway with her parents on Passover in 2019 when an antisemitic gunman entered. Hannah’s mother, Lori Gilbert Kaye, was killed. In this clip, Hannah remembers the sounds and smell of the shooting, and wondering, “where is my mom?”

In 2016, at the age of 25, activist and social entrepreneur Erin Schrode made headlines as she ran for Congress to represent Marin County in Northern California. During the campaign and after, she was targeted by one of North America’s leading neo-Nazis with relentless antisemitic doxing.

Joe Samuels survived the 1941 Farhud, a Nazi-inspired pogrom in Baghdad. With antisemitic restrictions and violence increasing in Iraq with the establishment of the state of Israel, he and his younger brother were smuggled out of Baghdad in 1949. Here, he reflects on the power of accepting one’s destiny.

Rabbi Isaac Levy served as senior Jewish chaplain in the British army, and participated in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In this clip, he describes how on a trip to Berlin in 1945, he tried to help Jewish survivors contact relatives around the world.

Charlotte Knobloch, born in Munich in 1932, survived the Holocaust disguised as a Christian child on a Bavarian farm. After the war, she reunited with her father and remained in Germany, eventually dedicating her life to combating antisemitism. The XR Experience “Inside Kristallnacht” centers on her story.  In this message to her grandchildren, Dr. Knobloch emphasized the importance of taking pride in one’s Judaism in an era of antisemitism and misinformation.

Holocaust survivor Clara Isaacman  recalls the cross-cultural joy of the holiday season when she was growing up in Antwerp, Belgium.

Made possible by the generous support of the Epstein Family Foundation.