Videos by Topic
DonateWomen and the Holocaust
Esther Bem
Language: English
Jewish Survivor
Esther points out the people who, even in those difficult war years, inspired great acts of altruism. She recognizes the courage and compassion of those who offered help to victims of the Holocaust.
DOB: 6/23/1930
City of birth: Osijek
Country of birth: Yugoslavia
Went into hiding: Yes
Other exp: identity concealment
Vladka Meed
Language: English
Jewish Survivor
Vladka was involved in the illegal youth organization, Zukunft, which helped to clandestinely provide literature, music and education in the Warsaw ghetto. Their contributions lifted the spirits of the ghetto inhabitants and encouraged them to believe that their current situation would eventually pass.
Gender: Female
DOB: 1/1/1922
City of birth: Warsaw
Country of birth: Poland
Ghettos: Warsaw (Poland)
Went into hiding: Yes
Other exp: displaced persons camps, identity concealmentJulia Lentini
Language: English
Roma-Sinti Survivor
Julia describes how her family’s lack of awareness of war events led to their incarceration at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Gender: Female
DOB: 4/15/1926
City of birth: Eisern
Country of birth: GermanyCamps: Schlieben (Germany), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (Poland)Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
Language: English
Jewish Survivor
Anita was selected to become a member of the women’s camp orchestra as a cellist. Despite being out of practice, she felt no danger in auditioning for this role since they desperately needed a cellist. Playing in the orchestra kept her safe during the war.
DOB: 1/1/1925
City of birth: Breslau
Country of birth: Germany
Camps: Bergen-Belsen (Germany)
Other exp: prisons, identity concealmentAgnes Kun
Language: English
Jewish Survivor
Agnes describes her experience working in the camp hospital at Auschwitz II-Birkenau and her good fortune for her work assignment as a medical assistant. She attributes her survival to her cousin, a prisoner doctor, for giving her this opportunity.
DOB: 5/3/1926
City of birth: Satu Mare
Country of birth: Romania
Ghettos: Satu Mare (Romania)
Camps: Salzwedel (Germany), Auschwitz (Poland), Braunschweig (Germany)Anna Heilman
Language: English
Anna helped to smuggle gunpowder collected from the factory where her sister worked to Sonderkommando prisoners at a crematorium in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The Sonderkommando led a revolt that destroyed the crematorium, and almost all of them were killed along with Anna’s sister and three other female prisoners who helped to organize the uprising.
DOB: 12/1/1928
City of birth: Warsaw
Country of birth: Poland
Ghettos: Warsaw (Poland)
Camps: Neustadt-Glewe (Germany), Auschwitz I (Poland), Ravensbrück (Germany), Majdanek (Poland), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (Poland)
Other exp: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, (April 19-May 16, 1943), Sonderkommando Uprising, (Auschwitz II-Birkenau, October 7,1944)Esther Bem
Language: English
Jewish Survivor
Esther points out the people who, even in those difficult war years, inspired great acts of altruism. She recognizes the courage and compassion of those who offered help to victims of the Holocaust.
DOB: 6/23/1930
City of birth: Osijek
Country of birth: Yugoslavia
Went into hiding: Yes
Other exp: identity concealment
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A series of clips featuring survivors recalling the difficulties of voting before and during the war in Europe and how it impacted their appreciation of the importance of participating in the democratic process.
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A collection of Jewish survivors and other eyewitnesses to the Holocaust describe watching the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. In preparation for the start of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Nazis in power decided to minimize the presence of anti-Semitism in the city.
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USC Shoah Foundation presents 24 stories of genocide survivors who recall their experiences as refugees in their testimonies preserved in the Visual History Archive. Each clip of testimony to inspire, inform and shed light on the impact of war, genocide and massacre forcing individuals from their homes.
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A collection of testimony clips from WWII liberators who served in the United States Armed Forces.
Special thanks to Ford Motor Company for their support of our World War II Veterans and Liberators collections.
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From April to July 1994, one of the most brutal genocides in human history occurred in Rwanda. It claimed the lives of 800,000 men, women, and children, most of whom were of Tutsi descent. Kwibuka, the official anniversary of the Rwandan Tutsi Genocide, is observed every year on April 7. Explore this selection of testimony clips of survivors and eyewitnesses to the genocide from the Visual History Archive.
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At the end of each interview the Institute recorded for the Archive, the interviewer would ask the interviewee if he or she had a special message for future generations watching the interview. The survivors and other witnesses often spoken about such themes as forgiveness, the importance of individual action, and the need to teach children tolerance. Here are a few messages from the Institute's Archive.
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Several people responded to active discrimination by helping the victims in different ways. This is a collection of clips highlighting testimony from survivors and aid givers themselves. One question that sometimes emerges in these clips is "what made you stand up to discrimination and racial intolerance?"
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A series of clips from survivors speaking about their experiences with personal as well as institutional forms of discrimination. These clips include testimonies from the European Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda collections.
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A collection of clips from the Institute Archive that focus on interviewees describing particular feelings and emotions they experienced, such as fear, gratitude, and attitudes about others.
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Possibly the most well-known example of these rescue operations involved individual British families agreeing to “host” children from Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic through a program known as Kindertransport. Through this program, organized by Sir Nicholas Winton, an estimated 10,000 refugee children, most of them Jewish, were housed in the United Kingdom during the war. These children were able to avoid ghettoization and camp experiences; in many cases, they were the only members of their families to survive the Holocaust.