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Survivor Reflections and Testimonies

Echoes of Memory

Read reflections and testimonies written by Holocaust survivors in their own words.

These essays and testimonials come from our guided writing workshops for Holocaust Survivors. Learn more about our Writing Workshop for Holocaust Survivors.

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Author:Nesse Godin

Displaying 1-10 of 11 Essays

  • The Kindnesses

    In June 1941, the Germans occupied Lithuania within three days. Shauliai, the town where we lived, was taken over on the third day. We had heard what had happened to the Jews in Kaunas and in other cities. My brother Jecheskel was a student at the university in Kaunas and he had told my parents that the Nazis and their collaborators were looting Jewish homes. Jecheskel suggested that my parents try to ask some of their Lithuanian friends to hold some of our valuable things for safekeeping. My parents asked a few friends and some agreed to help us.

    Topic: Ghettos, Mass Shootings, Rescuers, Selection
    Volume: Volume 6

  • Mama Picking My Husband, Jack

    In January of 1945, we were lined up for roll call, expecting to go to work as usual. Instead we were ordered to get our blankets and our dish for food and to come back. As we stood there lined up five in a row, we were told that we were leaving the camp. We assumed that we would be going to another labor camp, but instead we started off on foot. Later this would be known as a “death march.” We marched through the towns and villages of Poland and Germany, leaving many women behind, some who died from exhaustion and starvation and some who were shot to death. We marched this way until the middle of February. We stopped then outside of a little town called Chinoff, where we were pushed into a barn. How many women were there I do not know. Many women died of typhus and hunger in that barn.

    Topic: Death Marches, Life After the Holocaust, Family
    Volume: Volume 6

  • How Did I Get from There to Here?

    My name is Nesse Godin and I am a survivor of the Holocaust.

    Topic: Death Marches, Life After the Holocaust, Occupation, Museum Volunteer
    Volume: Volume 5

  • Spiritual Resistance—The Hanging

    Nineteen forty-three was a very cold winter. Life in the ghetto was very difficult. People did not have wood to heat their rooms; they burned every piece of wooden furniture to keep warm. The hunger was great—the small ration that was given to us could not keep us alive.

    Topic: Ghettos, Jewish Resistance, Gestapo, Jewish Councils
    Volume: Volume 4

  • Searching for My Father's Ashes

    For many years I have been sharing memories about my life as a prisoner under Nazi occupation during the time we call the Holocaust. I do so with the hope that humanity will learn the truth of what happened and, most of all, so they will not allow it to happen again to any human beings regardless of how they pray or how they look or where they came from. People always ask questions. They ask if I am still Jewish or if I believe in G-d. People also like to know if I went back home to Siauliai, Lithuania.

    Topic: Life After the Holocaust, Selection, Crematoria
    Volume: Volume 4

  • I Never Knew Their Names

     I am a Holocaust survivor. I lived through a ghetto, a concentration camp, several labor camps, and a death march. When I share memories of those four years, people from the audience ask questions.

    Topic: Remembrance, Jewish Resistance, Death Marches
    Volume: Volume 3

  • Dear Papa

    Dear Papa, During the day I think about you. In the night I dream about you.

    Topic: Memory, Remembrance, Jewish Communities Before the War

  • Where Do I Go?

    It must have been a few days after the Soviet soldier dropped me off in that house in the small town of Chinow when other soldiers came to take us to the school that was converted into a hospital. When I arrived there I saw some familiar faces, women who recognized me from the camps and the barn. Some of them were helping and translating what the soldiers were saying.

    Topic: Liberation
    Volume: Volume 3

  • The Reflection in the Window

    On March 10, 1945, the Soviet Army found us in the barn. We had been there for three weeks. The Soviet soldiers told us that the Germans were losing the war, that the Nazis were retreating. They informed us that they had already found other camps and some survivors.

    Topic: Memory, Friends, Liberation
    Volume: Volume 3

  • The Russian Prisoner of War

    It was dark in the barrack where more than a hundred Russian prisoners of war were kept. About a dozen of them gathered in the dark to finalize the plan to escape. They have been planning it for months, checking all kinds of possibilities.

    Volume: Volume 1

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Survivor Reflections and Testimonies
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Survivor Reflections and Testimonies

Listen to or read Holocaust survivors’ experiences, told in their own words through oral histories, written testimony, and public programs.