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DonateReligious Holiday Observances
Nechama Ariel
Language: English
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
While in hiding in Poland, Nechama chose to sneak into the ghetto so that she could celebrate Rosh Hashanah, pray with other Jews, and hear the shofar being blown. She recalls the atmosphere in the ghetto and her interactions with family and friends who were living in the ghetto.
Gender: Female
DOB: September 10, 1929
City of birth: Wlodzimierz
Country of birth: Poland
Ghettos: Wlodzimierz (Poland)
Went into hiding: Yes
Other experiences: Displaced persons camp
Morris Ostreicher
Language: English
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
Morris talks about spending Rosh Hashanah—the holiday commemorating the start of the Jewish New Year—in a labor camp in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1944. He recalls pleading with the camp barber not to shave his hair, because it was Rosh Hashanah.
Gender: Male
DOB: July 27, 1910
City of birth: Strabicovo
Country of birth: Austria-Hungary
Ghettos:
Sevlus (Czechoslovakia)
Went into hiding: No
Other experiences: Concentration Camps: Markstädt (Germany), Märzbachtal (Germany), Auschwitz (Poland), Frankfurt an der Oder (Germany)Ruth Brand
Language: English
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
Ruth talks about the decision to fast on Yom Kippur—also known as the Day of Atonement—in Auschwitz II-Birkenau as a form of resistance.
Gender: Female
DOB: 1928
City of birth: Cuhea
Country of birth: Romania
Ghettos: Dragomiresti (Romania)
Went into hiding: No
Other experiences: Concentration camps: Auschwitz II-Birkenau (Poland), Bergen-Belsen Germany); Displaced persons campsNechama Ariel
Language: English
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
While in hiding in Poland, Nechama chose to sneak into the ghetto so that she could celebrate Rosh Hashanah, pray with other Jews, and hear the shofar being blown. She recalls the atmosphere in the ghetto and her interactions with family and friends who were living in the ghetto.
Gender: Female
DOB: September 10, 1929
City of birth: Wlodzimierz
Country of birth: Poland
Ghettos: Wlodzimierz (Poland)
Went into hiding: Yes
Other experiences: Displaced persons campRita Hilton
Language: English
Jewish Survivor
Rita describes the clandestine celebration of Kol Nidrei services on Yom Kippur in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. She remembers it to this day, especially during Kol Nidrei services on Yom Kippur.
Gender: Female
DOB: Jul 22, 1926
City of Birth: Warsaw
Country of Birth: Poland
Ghettos: Pabianice (Poland), Warsaw (Poland)
Went into Hiding: No
Concentration Camps: Auschwitz I (Poland), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (Poland), Bergen-Belsen (Germany)Esther Jungreis
Language: English
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
Esther explains how cigarettes were obtained in her barrack in exchange for a shofar. She remembers the joyful feeling upon hearing the shofar blowing during a celebration of Rosh Ha-Shana- the holiday commemorating the start of the Jewish New Year- in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.
Gender: Female
DOB: Apr 7, 1936
City of Birth: Szeged (Hungary)
Country of Birth: Hungary
Ghettos: Szeged (Hungary)
Went into Hiding: No
Concentration Camps: Bergen-Belsen (Germany), Kasztner TransportWilliam Stern
Language: English
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
William recalls the joyful celebration of Simhat 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.
Gender: Male
DOB: Jul 2, 1935City of Birth: Budapest
Country of Birth: Hungary
Went into Hiding: No
Concentration Camps: Bergen-Belsen (Germany), Kasztner TransportJacob Jungreis
Language: English
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
Rabbi Jungreis remembers the ritual circumcision, Brit Milah, performed on a baby eight days after his birth in front of the Holy Ark at the synagogue in the Szeged ghetto. Jacob relates that rather than a joyous occasion, it became a sad one in which the quorum of ten Jewish men—a Minyan—cried bitterly and pronounced that “now his fate is sealed.” The baby, however, survived the war and later became a Hasidic Rabbi in Williamsburg, New York.
Gender: Male
DOB: Feb 4, 1933
City of Birth: Derecske (Bihar, Hungary)
Country of Birth: Hungary
Ghettos: Szeged (Hungary)
Concentration Camps: Bergen-Belsen (Germany), Kasztner TransportStefan Einhorn
Language: English
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
Mr. Einhorn remembers the observance of Yom Kippur- also known as the day of atonement-at the Schwientochlowitz Concentration Camp. He explains how the candles were made and of the use of potatoes as candle holders. He recites the Jewish prayers chanted quietly and so emotionally by the prisoners in the camp. He believes that even G-d was crying with them.
Gender: Male
DOB: Feb 2, 1916
City of Birth: Bochnia (Poland)
Country of Birth: Austria-Hungary
Ghettos: Bochnia (Poland)
Went into Hiding: No
Concentration Camps: Mauthausen (Austria), Trzebinia (Poland), Gross Rosen (Germany), Schwientochlowitz (Poland), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (Poland)Manfred Strauss
Language: English
Jewish Holocaust Survivor
Mr. Strauss remembers the observance of Shabbat in Buchenwald as a form of spiritual resistance. The prisoners continued to chant the Jewish prayers even under the threat of death.
Gender: Male
DOB: Jan 15, 1922
City of Birth: Langendiebach (Germany)
Country of Birth: Germany
Concentration Camp: Buchenwald (Germany), Prisons: Hanau (Hesse-Nassau, Prussia, Germany)
Fled Nazi-controlled territory: Yes
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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.