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Personal Histories

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liberation

"I was 17. I was free, but what it meant I wasn't sure."

"A skeleton covered with skin, with big blue eyes. And as I turned to look whose reflection I saw, I realized that was my reflection."

"We took wagonload after wagonload of bodies out to the grave site."

"They couldn't drink anything, so we had to feed them with medicine droppers."

"There were women scattered over the floor on scraps of straw, some, some of them quite obviously with the mark of death on their faces."

  • "I was 17. I was free, but what it meant I wasn't sure."

  • Norbert Wollheim

    Norbert Wollheim

    Born 1913
    Berlin, Germany

    Describes liberation at Schwerin, in northeast Germany, in May 1945
    Oral History

  • Edwarda Kleinfeld Rorat

    Edwarda Kleinfeld Rorat

    Born Warsaw, Poland

    Describes emotions upon liberation
    Oral History

  • George Salton

    George Salton

    Born 1928
    Przemysl, Poland

    Describes liberation by American forces
    Oral History

  • Abraham Klausner

    Abraham Klausner

    Born in the US

    Describes postwar efforts to reunite survivors
    Oral History

  • Fela Warschau

    Fela Warschau

    Born 1926

    Describes, while in a DP camp, reading lists of names to find surviving family members
    Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

  • "A skeleton covered with skin, with big blue eyes. And as I turned to look whose reflection I saw, I realized that was my reflection."

  • Nesse Galperin Godin

    Nesse Galperin Godin

    Born 1928
    Siauliai, Lithuania

    Describes her appearance at liberation
    Oral History

  • Nesse Galperin Godin

    Nesse Galperin Godin

    Born 1928
    Siauliai, Lithuania

    Describes seeing her reflection in a mirror upon liberation
    Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

  • "We took wagonload after wagonload of bodies out to the grave site."

  • Raymond Buch

    Raymond Buch

    Born 1920
    New York City

    Describes forcing civilians to bury the dead
    Oral History

  • Colonel Richard R. Seibel

    Colonel Richard R. Seibel

    Born 1907
    Defiance, Ohio

    Describes U.S. army procedures for burial of the dead after liberation of Mauthausen
    Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

  • "They couldn't drink anything, so we had to feed them with medicine droppers."

  • Pat Lynch

    Pat Lynch

    Born United States

    Describes condition of surviving camp inmates upon liberation
    Oral History

  • Colonel Richard R. Seibel

    Colonel Richard R. Seibel

    Born 1907
    Defiance, Ohio

    Describes food distribution after liberation of the Mauthausen camp
    Oral History

  • Colonel Richard R. Seibel

    Colonel Richard R. Seibel

    Born 1907
    Defiance, Ohio

    Describes aid given to survivors after liberation in Mauthausen and their plans for emigration
    Oral History

  • Pat Lynch

    Pat Lynch

    Born United States

    Describes the establishment of a hospital to care for liberated camp survivors
    Oral History

  • Pat Lynch

    Pat Lynch

    Born United States

    Describes caring for starving and critically ill camp survivors
    Oral History

  • Pat Lynch

    Pat Lynch

    Born United States

    Describes treating survivors in a subcamp of Dachau
    Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

  • "There were women scattered over the floor on scraps of straw, some, some of them quite obviously with the mark of death on their faces."

  • Henny Fletcher Aronsen

    Henny Fletcher Aronsen

    Born 1924
    Kovno, Lithuania

    Describes liberation from a death march from Stutthof
    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

  • Alan Zimm

    Alan Zimm

    Born 1920
    Kolo, Poland

    Describes liberation from Bergen-Belsen
    Oral History

  • Charlene Schiff

    Charlene Schiff

    Born 1929
    Horochow, Poland

    Describes her liberation by Soviet troops
    Oral History

  • Dr. Harold Herbst

    Dr. Harold Herbst

    Born 1912
    New York City

    Describes meeting a prisoner on the verge of death (known as a "Muselmann") in Buchenwald
    Oral History

  • Herbert A. Friedman

    Herbert A. Friedman

    Born 1918
    New Haven, Connecticut

    Describes finding two child survivors after liberation
    Oral History

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024-2126
Main telephone: 202.488.0400
TTY: 202.488.0406

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