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Personal Histories

individuals

Abraham Lewent: "Everyday you walked out in the morning, you see somebody is laying dead, covered with newspapers or with any kind of blanket they found."

Chaim Engel: "So I knew already what happened...that he went to the gas chamber with my friend and I am here separating his clothes."

Charlene Schiff: "In 1941, in the summer, all of a sudden we heard bombs and the airplanes flying overhead."

Gerda Weissman Klein and Kurt Klein: "He held the door open for me and let me precede him and in that gesture restored me to humanity."

Selma Engel: "We went three days and three nights to Sobibor."

Vladka Meed: "And I was with mine package on top of the wall, and the shooting got closer and I was sure that I, this time I am done."

Abraham Lewent: "Everyday you walked out in the morning, you see somebody is laying dead, covered with newspapers or with any kind of blanket they found."
Abraham Lewent

Born July 27, 1924
Warsaw, Poland

ID Card
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Describes food shortages after the invasion of Warsaw
Oral History
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Describes performing forced labor in Warsaw and increased Polish antisemitism
Oral History
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Describes conditions in the Warsaw ghetto
Oral History
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Describes conditions in the Warsaw ghetto
Oral History
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Describes hiding during the raid in which his mother and sisters were seized for deportation from Warsaw to Treblinka
Oral History
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Describes deportation to and conditions in Majdanek
Oral History
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Describes father's death at Majdanek
Oral History
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Describes conditions in Skarzysko camp
Oral History
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Recalls how, while ill with typhoid, he persuaded the Skarzysko doctor that he was fit to work
Oral History
Abraham Lewent

Born 1924
Warsaw, Poland

Describes the moments following his liberation from a death march from the Dachau camp
Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Chaim Engel: "So I knew already what happened...that he went to the gas chamber with my friend and I am here separating his clothes."
Chaim Engel

Born January 1916
Brudzew, Poland

ID Card
Chaim Engel

Born 1916
Brudzew, Poland

Describes arrival in Sobibor
Oral History
Chaim Engel

Born 1916
Brudzew, Poland

Describes sorting clothing of Belzec prisoners killed in Sobibor
Oral History
Chaim Engel

Born 1916
Brudzew, Poland

Describes plans for the Sobibor uprising. Chaim refers to [Gustav] Wagner, Sobibor's deputy commandant
Oral History
Chaim Engel

Born 1916
Brudzew, Poland

Recalls the Sobibor uprising and his escape
Oral History
Chaim Engel

Born 1916
Brudzew, Poland

Describes his role in the Sobibor uprising
Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Charlene Schiff: "In 1941, in the summer, all of a sudden we heard bombs and the airplanes flying overhead."
Shulamit Perlmutter (Charlene Schiff)

Born December 16, 1929
Horochow, Poland

ID Card
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes the German invasion of her town, Horochow, in the summer of 1941
Oral History
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes anti-Jewish decrees and anti-Jewish measures after the German invasion of Horochow
Oral History
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes conditions in the Horochow ghetto
Oral History
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes forced labor in the Horochow ghetto
Oral History
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes a clandestine school for children in the Horochow ghetto
Oral History
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes being caught while trying to smuggle food into the Horochow ghetto
Oral History
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes escaping from the Horochow ghetto
Oral History
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes foraging for food in order to survive in forests after escaping from the Horochow ghetto
Oral History
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes her liberation by Soviet troops
Oral History
Charlene Schiff

Born 1929
Horochow, Poland

Describes difficulties in gaining entry to the United States in the aftermath of the Holocaust
Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Gerda Weissman Klein and Kurt Klein: "He held the door open for me and let me precede him and in that gesture restored me to humanity."
Gerda Weissmann

Born May 8, 1924
Bielsko, Poland

ID Card
Gerda Weissmann Klein

Born 1924
Bielsko, Poland

Describes her birthday celebration in the Bielsko ghetto
Oral History
Gerda Weissmann Klein

Born 1924
Bielsko, Poland

Describes the Bolkenhain subcamp of Gross-Rosen and a camp leader
Oral History
Gerda Weissmann Klein

Born 1924
Bielsko, Poland

Describes liberation in Czechoslovakia by U.S. soldier
Oral History
Kurt Klein

Born 1920
Waldorf, Germany

Describes a group of death march survivors found in a Czechoslovak village
Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Vladka Meed: "And I was with mine package on top of the wall, and the shooting got closer and I was sure that I, this time I am done."
Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

Born 1921
Warsaw, Poland

Describes participating in activities of the Bundist underground
Oral History
Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

Born 1921
Warsaw, Poland

Describes clandestine cultural activities in the Warsaw ghetto
Oral History
Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

Born 1921
Warsaw, Poland

Describes smuggling activities in the Warsaw ghetto
Oral History
Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

Born 1921
Warsaw, Poland

Describes the deportation of her mother and brother from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka
Oral History
Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

Born 1921
Warsaw, Poland

Describes smuggling a description of the Treblinka camp to underground leaders on the "Aryan" side of Warsaw
Oral History
Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

Born 1921
Warsaw, Poland

Describes waiting at a train station with false documents to be smuggled into the Warsaw ghetto
Oral History
Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

Born 1921
Warsaw, Poland

Describes her reaction to the burning of the Warsaw ghetto as she watched from a building outside the ghetto
Oral History
Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

Born 1921
Warsaw, Poland

Describes reactions after the Warsaw ghetto uprising
Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC