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Personal Histories

  • Contents
  • Aftermath
  • Camps
  • Children
  • Deportations
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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

    Abraham Lewent

    Born July 27, 1924
    Warsaw, Poland

    ID Card

  • Abraham Lewent

    Abraham Lewent

    Born 1924
    Warsaw, Poland

    Describes food shortages after the invasion of Warsaw
    Oral History

  • Abraham Lewent

    Abraham Lewent

    Born 1924
    Warsaw, Poland

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

  • Abraham Lewent

    Abraham Lewent

    Born 1924
    Warsaw, Poland

    Describes conditions in the Warsaw ghetto
    Oral History

  • Abraham Lewent

    Abraham Lewent

    Born 1924
    Warsaw, Poland

    Describes conditions in the Warsaw ghetto
    Oral History

  • Abraham Lewent

    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

    Abraham Lewent

    Born 1924
    Warsaw, Poland

    Describes deportation to and conditions in Majdanek
    Oral History

  • Abraham Lewent

    Abraham Lewent

    Born 1924
    Warsaw, Poland

    Describes father's death at Majdanek
    Oral History

  • Abraham Lewent

    Abraham Lewent

    Born 1924
    Warsaw, Poland

    Describes conditions in Skarzysko camp
    Oral History

  • Abraham Lewent

    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

    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

    Chaim Engel

    Born January 1916
    Brudzew, Poland

    ID Card

  • Chaim Engel

    Chaim Engel

    Born 1916
    Brudzew, Poland

    Describes arrival in Sobibor
    Oral History

  • Chaim Engel

    Chaim Engel

    Born 1916
    Brudzew, Poland

    Describes sorting clothing of Belzec prisoners killed in Sobibor
    Oral History

  • Chaim Engel

    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

    Chaim Engel

    Born 1916
    Brudzew, Poland

    Recalls the Sobibor uprising and his escape
    Oral History

  • Chaim Engel

    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)

    Shulamit Perlmutter (Charlene Schiff)

    Born December 16, 1929
    Horochow, Poland

    ID Card

  • Charlene Schiff

    Charlene Schiff

    Born 1929
    Horochow, Poland

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

  • Charlene Schiff

    Charlene Schiff

    Born 1929
    Horochow, Poland

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

  • Charlene Schiff

    Charlene Schiff

    Born 1929
    Horochow, Poland

    Describes conditions in the Horochow ghetto
    Oral History

  • Charlene Schiff

    Charlene Schiff

    Born 1929
    Horochow, Poland

    Describes forced labor in the Horochow ghetto
    Oral History

  • Charlene Schiff

    Charlene Schiff

    Born 1929
    Horochow, Poland

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

  • Charlene Schiff

    Charlene Schiff

    Born 1929
    Horochow, Poland

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

  • Charlene Schiff

    Charlene Schiff

    Born 1929
    Horochow, Poland

    Describes escaping from the Horochow ghetto
    Oral History

  • Charlene Schiff

    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

    Charlene Schiff

    Born 1929
    Horochow, Poland

    Describes her liberation by Soviet troops
    Oral History

  • Charlene Schiff

    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

    Gerda Weissmann

    Born May 8, 1924
    Bielsko, Poland

    ID Card

  • Gerda Weissmann Klein

    Gerda Weissmann Klein

    Born 1924
    Bielsko, Poland

    Describes her birthday celebration in the Bielsko ghetto
    Oral History

  • Gerda Weissmann Klein

    Gerda Weissmann Klein

    Born 1924
    Bielsko, Poland

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

  • Gerda Weissmann Klein

    Gerda Weissmann Klein

    Born 1924
    Bielsko, Poland

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

  • Kurt Klein

    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

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

  • Selma Wijnberg

    Selma Wijnberg

    Born May 15, 1922
    Groningen, Netherlands

    ID Card

  • Selma (Wijnberg) Engel

    Selma (Wijnberg) Engel

    Born 1922
    Groningen, the Netherlands

    Describes deportation to Sobibor
    Oral History

  • Selma (Wijnberg) Engel

    Selma (Wijnberg) Engel

    Born 1922
    Groningen, the Netherlands

    Describes forced labor in Sobibor--sorting clothing and possessions of those deported to Sobibor
    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

    Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

    Born 1921
    Warsaw, Poland

    Describes participating in activities of the Bundist underground
    Oral History

  • Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

    Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

    Born 1921
    Warsaw, Poland

    Describes clandestine cultural activities in the Warsaw ghetto
    Oral History

  • Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

    Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

    Born 1921
    Warsaw, Poland

    Describes smuggling activities in the Warsaw ghetto
    Oral History

  • Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

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