Through First Person: Conversations with Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust survivors have had the opportunity to share their remarkable personal stories of hope, tragedy, and survival. In the interview style program, survivors who volunteer at the Museum have shared stories about their childhood, how they experienced the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust, how they have rebuilt their lives, and more. Each conversation ends with a “final word,” in which survivors express their hope that by listening to their story and its lessons, our future will be different than their past.
Featured Conversations
German authorities deported Ruth and her family to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center when she was a teenager. She endured two more camps, forced labor, and a serious illness before liberation.
Steven Fenves was born in Subotica, Yugoslavia, on June 6, 1930. Steven survived Auschwitz, Niederorschel, and a death march before he was liberated at Buchenwald.
Irene Weiss was born in Bótrágy, Czechoslovakia, in 1930. Irene survived Auschwitz and Ravensbrück before being liberated by Soviet forces in 1945.
Access the Entire Collection
First Person began as an onsite program for visitors to the Museum. Later, it became a virtual offering that can be viewed on the Museum’s YouTube channel. The recordings live online in the Museum’s collection and are available for researchers, teachers, and the public in perpetuity.
Additional Survivor Testimonies
Read pieces from Echoes of Memory. This program provides survivors who have volunteered at the Museum with a powerful outlet to share their experiences and memories—through their own writing. Additionally, watch testimonies from Holocaust survivors in the Museum’s Monna and Otto Weinmann Eyewitness to History Video Library.
This Section
Listen to or read Holocaust survivors’ experiences, told in their own words through oral histories, written testimony, and public programs.