First Person Podcast Series

This podcast series features excerpts from interviews with Holocaust survivors presented at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s public program First Person: Conversations with Holocaust Survivors. More than 65 years after the Holocaust, hatred, antisemitism, and genocide still threaten our world. The life stories of Holocaust survivors transcend the decades and remind us of the constant need to be vigilant citizens and to stop injustice, prejudice, and hatred wherever and whenever they occur. Subscribe to the First Person podcast series or listen to individual programs online.

Displaying 1 to 10 of 48 events

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Holocaust Survivors' Reflections and Hopes for the Future

September 29, 2010

In today's episode Holocaust survivors share their thoughts on the importance of speaking about their experiences. It is our tradition at First Person that each guest speaker ends the program with their "final words." In our final podcast of the series, we close with those thoughts, reflections, and hopes for the future.

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Tags: Faith, Hope, Legacy

Estelle Laughlin: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

August 11, 2010

Estelle Laughlin discusses the Warsaw ghetto uprising. German forces intended to liquidate the ghetto on April 19, 1943, but were stunned when faced with an armed uprising from Jewish fighters. Estelle and her family hid in an underground bunker during the uprising but were eventually captured and deported.

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Tags: Deportation, Fear, Ghetto, Poland, Resistance, Warsaw

Theodora Klayman: Shelter in Ludbreg

July 13, 2010

Dora Klayman discusses surviving the war in hiding with her brother in Ludbreg, Yugoslavia. After her parents were deported in 1941, she spent the war first with her maternal aunt and then, after her aunt was denounced and deported, with non-Jewish neighbors.

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Tags: Neighbors, Separation from family, Yugoslavia

Steven Fenves: Neighbors in Subotica

June 8, 2010

Steven Fenves discusses being forced into a ghetto immediately following the German occupation of his hometown of Subotica, Yugoslavia, in March 1944. As his family was forced out of their home, they encountered a range of responses from their non-Jewish neighbors.

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Tags: Auschwitz, Ghetto, Humiliation, Neighbors, Yugoslavia

Alfred Münzer: Difficult Decisions in the Occupied Netherlands

May 11, 2010

Al Munzer discusses the difficult decisions his parents, Dutch Jews, had to make after learning in early 1941 that they were expecting a child. Germany had invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 and conditions were growing increasingly difficult for Jews by the time Al was born.

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Tags: Fear, Spiritual resistance, The Netherlands

Josiane Traum: Hiding in a Convent in Brugge

April 27, 2010

Josy Traum discusses her memories of life in hiding at a Carmelite convent in Brugge, Belgium. In 1942, as conditions grew increasingly more dangerous for Jews living in German-occupied Belgium, Josy’s mother, Fanny, arranged to have Belgian nuns hide her three-year-old daughter in the convent.

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Tags: Belgium, Hidden children, Hiding, Separation from family

Henry Greenbaum: Attempting Escape from a Slave Labor Camp

August 26, 2009

Henry Greenbaum discusses his attempt to escape from a slave labor camp near Starahowice, Poland, in July 1944. Henry attempted the escape along with his sister Faige and a Jewish policeman.

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Tags: Escape Attempt, Poland, Separation from family

Haim Solomon: Hiding during the Pogrom in Iasi

August 19, 2009

Haim Solomon discusses hiding during the pogrom in Iasi, Romania. Within days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Romanian authorities staged a pogrom against the Jewish population in Iasi. Haim and his family hid in various different locations across the city. In all, at least 4,000 Jews were murdered in Iasi during the pogrom.

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Tags: Fear, Hiding, Pogrom, Romania

Margit Meissner: Flight from Paris on a Bicycle

August 12, 2009

Margit Meissner discusses her flight from Paris just before the city fell to the Germans in June 1940. Margit and her mother were Austrian citizens living in Paris, which meant they were considered “enemy aliens” because Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938. They were ultimately separated and Margit was left with the responsibility of getting safely out of Paris on her own.

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Tags: Fear, Paris, Refugee, Separation from family

Gerald Schwab: A German Jewish Refugee Returns as an American Soldier

August 5, 2009

Gerald Schwab discusses his experience being drafted into the US Army in 1944 after fleeing Nazi Germany just four years earlier. After the war, Gerald went on to assist with the trials of leading German officials before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.

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Tags: Emigration, Nuremberg Trials

Displaying 1 to 10 of 48 events

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5