First Person: Conversations with Holocaust Survivors

Holocaust survivor Ernie Brod was born in 1938, the same year Nazi Germany annexed Austria. After unleashing a wave of restrictive laws, arrests, and violence targeting the Jewish community, authorities ordered Ernie and his mother, Pepi, to report to a holding facility in Vienna. But when young Ernie started coughing and crying inconsolably, a Nazi officer instructed Pepi to leave and take him to a doctor. Instead of following those orders, Pepi made the desperate decision to go to the American consulate in hopes of securing papers to escape the country with her son. Watch to discover what happened next. Submit a question for Ernie during the live discussion on Wednesday, June 18, at 1 p.m. ET by signing into your YouTube or Gmail account. Marking 25 years, First Person is a monthly, hour-long live interview between journalist Bill Benson and a Holocaust survivor on the Museum’s YouTube page, and it includes questions from the audience. This program is made possible through generous support from the Louis Franklin Smith Foundation.