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 sixty 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 First Person — Conversations with Holocaust Survivors as a podcast or listen to individual programs online.

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Displaying 1 to 10 of 25 events

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Susan Taube: Deportation to the Riga Ghetto

June 9, 2009

Susan Taube discusses her deportation from Berlin to the ghetto in Riga, Latvia and the days immediately following. Susan was deported in January, 1942 along with her mother, sister, and grandmother.

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Tags: Berlin, Deportation, Ghetto, Separation from family

Morris Rosen: Forced Evacuation

June 3, 2009

Morris Rosen discusses his evacuation and forced march on foot in February 1945 from a sub camp of the Gross Rosen concentration camp in Poland to the Theresienstadt camp in Czechoslovakia. In an effort meant to cover up their crimes and prevent prisoners from falling into enemy hands, Nazi officials evacuated prisoners from camp to camp in what became known as death marches.

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Tags: Death march, Faith, Hope, Hunger

Esther Starobin: Fate of Family that Remained in Germany

June 2, 2009

Esther Starobin and her three sisters left Germany for Great Britain in 1939 as part of a special rescue of Jewish children known as the Kindertransport or children’s transport. In this episode, Esther discusses how she learned the fate of her parents and brother who remained in Germany after she and her sisters had left.

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Tags: England, Kindertransport, Refugee, Separation from family

Manya Friedman: Death March to Ravensbrück

May 27, 2009

Manya Friedman discusses her evacuation from Gleiwitz, a sub-camp of Auschwitz, to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in January 1945. In an effort to cover up their crimes and prevent prisoners from falling into enemy hands, the Nazis evacuated prisoners in what became known as death marches.

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Tags: Concentration camp, Death march, Gleiwitz, Hunger, Poland, Ravensbrück

Gerald Liebenau: Memories of Kristallnacht

May 26, 2009

In today’s episode Gerald Liebenau discusses his memories of Kristallnacht, also known as the “Night of Broken Glass.” On November 9-10, 1938 a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms erupted around Germany, leaving Jewish owned businesses and synagogues plundered and destroyed.

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Tags: Berlin, Kristallnacht

Freddie Traum: Evacuated to England

May 20, 2009

Freddie Traum discusses life as a refugee in Great Britain during World War II. Freddie and his sister were sent from their home in Austria, to England as part of the Kindertransport, or special children’s transport that brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940. Freddie initially lived with a family in London, but was evacuated to the countryside, along with other Londoners, when Great Britain declared war on Germany in September of 1939.

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Tags: Emigration, England, Kindertransport, Separation from family, Vienna

Charlene Schiff: A Daughter's Separation from her Mother

May 19, 2009

Charlene Schiff discusses her and her mother’s escape in 1942 from the Horochow ghetto in Poland. Soon after their escape, Charlene was separated from her mother and spent the remainder of the war looking for her mother and hiding for her life in the forests

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Tags: Fear, Ghetto, Hidden children, Poland, Separation from family

Gideon Frieder: Safe Harbor Among a Slovak Family

May 13, 2009

Gideon discusses the time he spent hiding with a Catholic Slovak family. After his mother and sister perished in a German attack at Banska Bystrica, Gideon was rescued by the Slovak partisans and placed with the Strycharszyk family, who went to great lengths to hide and protect Gideon.

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Tags: Hidden children, Slovakia

Inge Katzenstein: Refuge In Kenya

May 6, 2009

Inge Katzenstein discusses fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939 and finding refuge along with her family in Kenya, where they remained during the war, thereby escaping the Holocaust.

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Tags: Emigration, Refugee

Martin Weiss: Selection at Auschwitz

May 5, 2009

Martin Weiss discusses his deportation in May of 1944 from the ghetto in Munkacs, then part of Hungary, and his arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi killing center.

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Tags: Auschwitz, Concentration camp, Deportation, Final solution, Uniforms