Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Holocaust Survivor Testimonies (coll. 301), Mejer Lencow Testimony (301/805). Original in Polish.
Testimony of Meier Lenc, who lived in the Sokal Ghetto until its liquidation and then escaped to the “Aryan side”. He was captured by German police and later ran away from the grave he had been forced to dig for himself. He spent several months in…
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Kristallnacht Reports (coll. 1375), B. 307. Original in German.
A letter from an unidentified person and their mother after they emigrated from Czechoslovakia to New York City in December 1938 following the events of the November Pogrom. The author describes the destruction of synagogues and Jewish properties…
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Eyewitness testimony Collection (coll. 1656), 633. Original in French. Translated for the Wiener Library by Sue Boswell.
Testimony of an anonymous Jewish refugee from Belgium. He was arrested on the street in Brussels in 1942 and interned in the Malines internment camp, before being taken by train to Russia, near Stalingrad. He was forced to work in a camp probably run…
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Eyewitness testimony Collection (coll. 1656), 158. Original in German.
Testimony of Renate Lasker-Allais, who was deported to Auschwitz in December 1943 after one and a half years in prison. She was arrested for helping French POWs escape. She describes in detail life and death in Auschwitz. Lasker-Allais had knowledge…
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Eyewitness testimony Collection (coll. 1656), 540. Original in German
Testimony of Julia (Maria) Abraham-Stern, a trained seamstress. Her husband and son were deported, while she and her daughter were sent to the Lwów Ghetto with her parents. Her mother committed suicide to allow her to go into hiding with her daughter…
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Eyewitness testimony Collection (coll. 1656), 707. Original in German.
Testimony of Anita Wallfisch, who describes forced labor in a factory in which there were also French forced laborers and POWs. She and her sister organized fake papers for POWs to escape. Both were arrested. Wallfisch was sent to Breslau prison…
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Eyewitness testimony Collection (coll. 1656), 771. Original in German.
Account of Magda Szanto on the rapid decree of antisemitic regulations in Budapest and how they affected daily life, for example shopping and robbery by German soldiers and ethnic Germans. She describes the difficulties of communicating with her…
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Eyewitness testimony Collection (coll. 1656), 413. Original in German and English (summary page).
Testimony of Emil Carlebach, a communist activist from a prominent rabbinical family. He was instrumental in the resistance in Buchenwald. Carlebach describes corruption amongst the guards, how political prisoners gained a certain control over the…
Yad Vashem Archives, Testimonies, diaries and memoirs from the Holocaust period and regarding the Holocaust (O.33), file no. 9392546.Original in English.
Letter from Anna Schorek describing her experiences in Theresienstadt, the Christianstadt camp, and on a death march.
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Persecution of Jews in Poland: reports and statements (coll. 532), 200. Original in Yiddish.
Testimony of a 21-year-old yeshiva student, originally from Goworowo but studying at a yeshiva in Białystok and Ostrów Mazowiecka at the outbreak of the war. Upon the German invasion of Poland, he returned to his hometown Goworowo and experienced the…