Jewish Museum in Prague, Terezín Collection, inv. no 343. Original in Czech.
Testimony of Edita Ornsteinová, which became a part of the “documentation campaign” in Prague. Ornsteinová describes the history of Theresienstadt from its beginning to the liberation of the ghetto by the Red Army. The core of her testimony revolves…
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), 23. Original in English.
Testimony of “Miss X”, whose mother was “Aryan” and whose father was Jewish. Her parents divorced for personal reasons and her mother married an “Aryan”. She describes her school, not being allowed to go to university, having to absolve a…
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, The Ball-Kaduri Collection: Contemporary testimonies and reports regarding the Holocaust of the Jews of Germany and Central Europe, 1943-1960 (O.1), file no. 3549264.Original in English.
Personal report by Max Mannheimer, born in 1918, regarding his experiences in Amsterdam, The Hague, Westerbork, Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz.
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…
The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Persecution of Jews in Poland: reports and statements (coll. 532), 107. Original in Yiddish.
A long, very detailed report by a 38-year-old female social activist about the situation of Jews in Łódź (and surrounding towns) in the first months under German occupation. She left Łódź on December 30, 1939.
Ilya Ehrenburg (ed.), Merder fun felker (Moscow: Der emes, 1944), pp. 28–31. Original in Yiddish.
Testimony of Yefim Leynov, a Jewish Red Army soldier, who was imprisoned in four POW camps in Novgorod-Siverskyi, Babruysk, Gomel, and Minsk, and recounts his experiences as a POW in the camp in Minsk. He also relates the German treatment of Jewish…
JHI, 301, Relacja Niusi Białoszer (301/317) Original in Yiddish.
Testimony of Niusia Białoszer on the capture of Vilnius by the Germans and the confiscation of Jewish shops and houses. She recalls the synagogue and ritual objects burning, the imposition of badges with the Star of David, and the early executions of…
