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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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Topic:Museum Volunteer

Displaying 1-10 of 47 Essays

  • Telling My Story

    When asked to talk about how I survived World War II, I am fortunate that in my family we talked freely about the war and what happened to us.

  • Meeting Luigi

    I’d like to share about a very meaningful day at the Museum, April 10, 2024. A group of survivors were asked to meet with a visiting photographer to participate in an ongoing project.

  • My Responsibilities as a Survivor

    I think of myself now as a survivor of the Holocaust. This was not always the case.

  • The “Untranslatable” Translated!

    For the last 20-plus years, I have been a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Here I finally learned details about the Holocaust, the enormity of it, and how lucky I am to be alive.

  • My Name Is Grace-Elizabeth Riley

    In 1965 Louis Armstrong came to Budapest, and he sang in front of 80,000 people in a soccer stadium. I was among the lucky ones who paid an inordinate amount of money for a ticket in the nosebleed section of the stadium.

  • What Makes You Tick in the Morning?

    I have been retired for more than ten years, so Friday is not my last day of the week at work; therefore, TGIF has a different meaning for me.

  • Closure, Part II

    Closure has many definitions in dictionaries, as well as professional guidelines where the word is part of the terminology or jargon. In my experience, closure means different things to different individuals.

  • Closure, Part I

    Presenting my family’s Holocaust history to a live audience is never easy. I am always looking forward to the last ten to 15 minutes of the presentation, which is a question-and-answer session.

  • The Choices We Make, Part 2

    Our life is an endless series of choices and consequences from those choices. Many choices are reversible if the outcome is not satisfactory, but at least one is not: the choice between life and death.

  • Table Tennis in My Life

    On November 21, 2009, I gave a speech as I was being inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington (JCCGW). The event was a dinner and fundraiser for children with special needs, a cause very dear to me since my son Dov has Down syndrome and has needed much help from organizations such as this one.