On June 5, 1942, the Nazis reported having killed 97,000 Jews in specially constructed gas vans. Friedrich August Jeckeln — who served as an SS and police leader in the occupied Soviet Union during World War II — testified in 1945 that Reich Leader Heinrich Himmler, who organized the mass murder of Jews, told him shootings were too impractical, so gas vans were devised as a more efficient system. The method was initially used against the mentally insane in Polish hospitals in 1939. By 1942 the Nazis had begun to deploy more than 36 of these specially designed and equipped vans.

English translation: “As steel is forged by punches so is our personality. Punches harden and teach us to fight, to continue to fight, to meet challenges, to find new ones and overcome them.  I think that my message in this interview is that such is life. It means to overcome and to forge ahead. Punches can come from where we least expect and we must not fall down—if we do, we must get up. Not all people are bad. The Polish people were not all Antisemitic. Many were good people. And what I have to say to people is to be aware and to use reason.

Jewish Survivor Helen Fagin decribes the 'cultural resistance' through education in the Radomsko ghetto in Poland. She explains how reading a Polish translation of Gone With the Wind allowed her and her students to at least temporarily dream of a different world outside the reality of the ghetto.

Jewish Survivor Romana describes growing up in a small Polish town after the war and how her family had to give up most of the space in their home according to Communist rule. They were forced to live together with a family that had an abusive father who tried to attack Romana and her mother.

November 8, 2012: Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda spoke at the institute's Sexual Violence Against Women During the Holocaust Symposium, co-sponsored by Equality Now. Ms.

Biographical Information about Hilda Eisen Born April 24, 1917Izbica (Lódz, Poland), Russia/Soviet Union Date of Interview June 18, 2001 Location of Interview California, U.S.A. Length of Interview 2:09:07 Ghetto(s) Miedzyrzec (Lublin, Poland: Ghetto) Went into hiding Yes Member of underground, resistance or partisan group

Barbara Reichmann survived the Holocaust by going into hiding and concealing her identity. In order to survive, she volunteered to work as a Polish forced laborer, which brought her eventually to Ulm, Germany. She was liberated by French armed forces. In Munich, she met her husband, Leon Reichmann, and had a daughter. They eventually emigrated to the United States.

Jewish Holocaust Survivor Interview language: French Interned in the camp of Beaune-la-Rolande (France) after the Vélodrome d’Hiver roundup, Simon witnessed the deportation of his mother at the beginning of August 1942. He describes the difficulty that his mother experiences in being separated from her children. Some days later, Simon’s brother was deported. His mother and brother were gassed upon arrival in Auschwitz.

Rose describes her realization that the war had ended and her experience of being liberated from Ober Altstadt labor camp in Czechoslovakia in May 1945. Rose Kaplovitz was born Rozia Zaks on September 6, 1930, in Sosnowiec, Poland. Rose remembers her childhood in the Jewish community on the Polish-German border as relatively happy and secure. However, on the second day of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Rose witnessed her brother’s execution by German officers.

Jewish Holocaust SurvivorInterview language: PortugueseMiriam Nekrycz describes the first few days upon arrival with her family at the Luck Ghetto, Poland, in 1941. She remembers the inadequate housing accommodations and the overcrowded conditions in which her family lived. She also recalls the extreme cold weather and the pervasive hunger in the ghetto due to lack of food.

Simon Drucker was born in 1924 in Paris, France, in a Jewish family of Polish origin. His parents, Abraham and Thérèse, left Poland in 1921. Simon had a youngerbrother, Isidore. Engaged in the French Foreign Legion during the outbreak of the war, Abraham was arrested in June 1942 and deported first to Pithiviers, and later to Auschwitz, where he was murdered.

Bella Arnett (née Froman) was born on September 6, 1917 in Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland). She had three brothers and two sisters. Bella’s father, Chaim,was a shoikhet, performing the ritual slaughter of animals according to Jewish tradition. He observed Ger Hasidism and was a respected member of the local community. Before the war, Bella attended a Polish school and received Jewish education at home.

Download video Download Host Kit   About Kurt Thomas Kurt Thomas was born in the city of Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1914. He grew up in Boskovice, a small town with a famous medieval Jewish quarter. Kurt was drafted into the Czechoslovak Army, where he received military training.

Armenian Genocide Survivor Hovsana Kumjian sings the ballad Der Zor Chollerende (Desert of Der Zor). During the genocide victims sang this song in Turkish while on the forced marches into the Syrian Desert. The song is often from a child’s perspective and describes violent scenes and feelings of hopelessness. Kumjian states she sings this song in memory for the victims, every April 24, the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Kumjian is a survivor of the death march from Kilis, Turkey. English Translation of Der Zor Chollerende

The murder of extended families, the targeting of community leaders, the critical role of eyewitnesses--each of these factors surfaces in Haigas Bonapart’s interview. These tactics are all too familiar to those of us who study the crime of genocide and the strategies employed by its perpetrators. By destroying communal ties and eliminating those individuals who might rally a group in self-defense, civilians under systematic assault are made much more vulnerable to isolation and mass violence.

Howard Cwick was born in the Bronx, New York, on August 25, 1923, to Samuel and Sarah Cwick, both Polish immigrants. Howard had an older sister, Sylvia. TheCwick family spoke both English and Yiddish, kept a kosher home, and attended synagogue three times a week. Howard went to school at P.S. 100 in the Bronx beforegoing on to Brooklyn Technical High School. When he was seven years old, Howard received his first camera and became interested in photography.

Howard Cwick was born in the Bronx, New York, on August 25, 1923, to Samuel and Sarah Cwick, both Polish immigrants. Howard had an older sister, Sylvia. TheCwick family spoke both English and Yiddish, kept a kosher home, and attended synagogue three times a week. Howard went to school at P.S. 100 in the Bronx beforegoing on to Brooklyn Technical High School. When he was seven years old, Howard received his first camera and became interested in photography.