More than 70 years after the Holocaust, hatred, antisemitism, and genocide still threaten our world. The life stories of Holocaust survivors transcend the decades and remind us of the constant need to be vigilant citizens and to stop injustice, prejudice, and hatred wherever and whenever they occur.
This podcast series features excerpts from 48 interviews with Holocaust survivors conducted at the Museum as part of our First Person public program. Listen to these interview excerpts below. You can also watch video recordings of interviews from our First Person seasons here.
First Person is made possible by generous support from the Louis Franklin Smith Foundation with additional funding from the Arlene and Daniel Fisher Foundation.
Katharina von Schnurbein is the European Commission’s Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism. Von Schnurbein works with EU Member States, the European Parliament, civil society organizations, and academia to strengthen policy responses to antisemitism, as well as to hate crimes and discrimination more broadly.
Born in Iran, Maziar Bahari is a journalist, filmmaker, and human rights activist. He has made two films on the Holocaust: one about the refugees aboard the St. Louis and, most recently, about Iranian diplomat Abdol Hossein Sardari, who saved Jews in occupied France. Bahari was imprisoned by the Iranian government from June to October 2009.
Sarah Wildman is a journalist and the author of "Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind." In her book, Wildman documents a journey to find her grandfather’s girlfriend Valy Scheftel, who stayed behind in Vienna in 1938 when he immigrated to America. The book is a detailed portrait of one young woman’s experience during the Holocaust, but also a deliberation about this generation’s role in preserving memory.
As a child of survivors, Raya Kalisman first experienced the Holocaust as a family tragedy, and a deeply personal narrative. As a young teacher, she was among the first generation to bring Holocaust studies to the classroom, as a historical narrative for Israeli students. But ultimately, Kalisman began to view the Holocaust as human narrative to be shared and studied across cultures. And in 1995, she founded the Center for Humanistic Education at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum in Israel.
After a deadly attack on a Copenhagen synagogue in 2015, Niddal El-Jabri felt compelled to act. Inspired by expressions of non-violent solidarity happening as part of the Arab Spring, El-Jabri decided to organize a “peace ring” around the synagogue.
James Loeffler is an associate professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Virginia. He is a trained pianist, musicologist, and specialist on Jewish classical music. He serves as scholar-in-residence at Pro Musica Hebraica in Washington, DC, and has curated concerts at the Kennedy Center.
Edward Serotta founded Centropa in 2000 to preserve memories of Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust. Centropa has trained thousands of schoolteachers to bring this material into classrooms from Gastonia, North Carolina, to Vilnius, Lithuania. A strong believer in the power of personal narrative, Serotta hopes that Centropa stories will resonate with new generations, who may never have the opportunity to engage with a survivor in person.
Sara Lipton is a professor of history at SUNY Stony Brook. In her book "Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography," Lipton traces the development and evolution of antisemitic images in Christian art. She explores the way negative imagery can actually fuel a cultural shift toward hatred.
Norman Eisen became known as the “ethics czar” through his work as Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform under President Obama. In 2011, Eisen was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic. And today he tells the story of the Ambassador’s residence in Prague, which echoes both Eisen’s personal family history and the arc of twentieth-century history.
When he was only in his mid-twenties, Ilja Sichrovsky started the Muslim Jewish Conference to create a space for Muslims and Jews to discuss stereotypes, misconceptions, and issues that affect both communities. Sichrovsky says that real change begins with listening, and he encourages participants to surrender their talking points and soundbites.
Listen to or read Holocaust survivors’ experiences, told in their own words through oral histories, written testimony, and public programs.
