First Person Podcast

Holocaust Survivors’ Reflections and Hopes for the Future

September 29, 2010 14:00 - 13.8 MB

In today's episode, Holocaust survivors share their thoughts on the importance of speaking about their experiences. It is our tradition at First Person that each guest speaker ends the program with their "final words." In our final podcast of the series, we close with those thoughts, reflections, and hopes for the future.

Estelle Laughlin: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

August 11, 2010 14:00 - 8.71 MB

Estelle Laughlin discusses the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when German forces, intending to liquidate the ghetto on April 19, 1943, were stunned by an armed uprising from Jewish fighters. Estelle and her family hid in an underground bunker during the uprising but were eventually captured and deported.

Theodora Klayman: Shelter in Ludbreg

July 13, 2010 14:00 - 6.53 MB

Theodora (Dora) Klayman discusses surviving the war in hiding with her brother in Ludbreg, Yugoslavia. After her parents were deported in 1941, she spent the war first with her maternal aunt and then, after her aunt was denounced and deported, with non-Jewish neighbors.

Steven Fenves: Neighbors in Subotica

June 08, 2010 14:00 - 6.1 MB

Steven Fenves discusses being forced into a ghetto immediately following the German occupation of his hometown of Subotica, Yugoslavia, in March 1944. As his family was forced out of their home, they encountered a range of responses from their non-Jewish neighbors.

Alfred Münzer: Difficult Decisions in the Occupied Netherlands

May 11, 2010 14:00 - 5.12 MB

Alfred Munzer discusses the difficult decisions his parents, Dutch Jews, had to make after learning in early 1941 that they were expecting a child. Germany had invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 and conditions were growing increasingly difficult for Jews by the time Al was born.

Josiane Traum: Hiding in a Convent in Brugge

April 27, 2010 14:00 - 6.49 MB

Josiane (Josy) Traum discusses her memories of life in hiding at a Carmelite convent in Brugge, Belgium. In 1942, as conditions grew increasingly more dangerous for Jews living in German-occupied Belgium, her mother, Fanny, arranged to have Belgian nuns hide her three-year-old daughter in the convent.

Henry Greenbaum: Attempting Escape from a Slave Labor Camp

August 26, 2009 14:00 - 8.62 MB

Henry Greenbaum discusses his attempt to escape from a slave labor camp near Starahowice, Poland, with his sister Faige and a Jewish policeman in July 1944.

Haim Solomon: Hiding during the Pogrom in Iasi

August 19, 2009 14:00 - 11.5 MB

Haim Solomon discusses hiding during the pogrom that Romanian authorities staged against the Jewish population in Iasi, Romania, within days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Haim and his family hid in various different locations across the city. At least 4,000 Jews were murdered in Iasi during the pogrom.

Margit Meissner: Flight from Paris on a Bicycle

August 12, 2009 14:00 - 14.9 MB

Margit Meissner discusses her flight from Paris just before the city fell to the Germans in June 1940. Margit and her mother were Austrian citizens living in Paris, which meant they were considered “enemy aliens” because Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938. They were ultimately separated and Margit was left with the responsibility of getting safely out of Paris on her own.

Gerald Schwab: A German Jewish Refugee Returns as an American Soldier

August 05, 2009 14:00 - 8.86 MB

Gerald Schwab discusses his experience being drafted into the US Army in 1944 after fleeing Nazi Germany just four years earlier. After the war, he assisted with the trials of leading German officials before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.

Helen (Lebowitz) Goldkind: A Grandfather’s Humiliation

July 28, 2009 14:00 - 7.07 MB

Helen Goldkind discusses the humiliation she and her family experienced as they were forced by the Germans to move from their hometown of Volosyanka to the Uzhgorod ghetto in Czechoslovakia in 1944.

Emanuel (Manny) Mandel: Wearing the Yellow Star as a Child in Hungary

July 22, 2009 14:00 - 6.09 MB

Manny Mandel discusses wearing a yellow star as a young boy in Budapest. Hungary fell increasingly under the influence of Germany in the 1930s and joined the Axis alliance in 1940. During this time, Jews in Hungary were increasingly subjected to discriminatory anti-Jewish laws modeled on those in Germany.

Estelle Laughlin: Post-Liberation Struggles

July 21, 2009 14:00 - 9.16 MB

Estelle Laughlin discusses her liberation by Soviet troops in January 1945 from the Czestochowa concentration camp in Poland. In the days immediately following liberation, she and her mother and sister encountered both hostile and helpful people as they traveled through Poland and struggled to rebuild their lives.

George Pick: Antisemitism in Hungary

July 15, 2009 14:00 - 5.92 MB

George Pick discusses experiencing antisemitism as a young boy in Hungary in the early 1940s. Hungary fell increasingly under the influence of Germany in the 1930s and joined the Axis alliance in 1940. During this time Jews in Hungary were increasingly subjected to discriminatory anti-Jewish laws modeled on those in Germany.

Frank Liebermann: Changes in Germany After Nazi Rise to Power

July 14, 2009 14:00 - 7.17 MB

Frank Liebermann discusses life in Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933. Shortly after taking power, the Nazis began to eliminate individual rights and freedoms for Jews in Germany. This changed daily life for Frank and his family in many ways. Frank's father was a physician and it became increasingly difficult for him to practice medicine after 1933.

Regina Spiegel: Separation at Auschwitz

July 08, 2009 14:00 - 8.74 MB

Regina Spiegel discusses her deportation from the ghetto in Pionki, Poland, and her arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi killing center. She and her boyfriend, Sam, were deported together in 1944 but were separated upon arrival at Auschwitz.

Julius Menn: Flight from Invading German Troops

July 01, 2009 14:00 - 8.3 MB

Julius Menn discusses his family's flight eastward from advancing German troops invading Poland in September 1939. Julius's family escaped from Bialystok, Poland, to Vilna, Lithuania, eventually making their way through the Soviet Union to Palestine, where they had previously lived.

Isak Danon: Attack on the Synagogue in Split

June 30, 2009 14:00 - 7.25 MB

Isak Danon discusses the attack on the synagogue in his hometown of Split, Yugoslavia, in the summer of 1942. Germany had invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, and shortly after Split was occupied by the Italians, allied to Nazi Germany.

Fritz Gluckstein: Berlin in the Aftermath of World War II

June 24, 2009 14:00 - 5.88 MB

Fritz Gluckstein discusses life immediately after World War II in Berlin and his eventual immigration to the United States. Born to a Jewish father and Christian mother, he was classified under Nazi law as Mischlinge, of mixed ancestry, or part Jewish. He spent the war in Berlin assigned to various forced labor battalions.

Helen Luksenburg: Forming a Friendship in Gleiwitz

June 23, 2009 14:00 - 4.82 MB

Helen Luksenburg discusses forming a close friendship with Welek, now William Luksenburg, a fellow prisoner in Gleiwitz, a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Louise Lawrence-Israëls: First Days of Freedom

June 17, 2009 14:00 - 5.41 MB

Louise Lawrence-Israëls discusses her first memories of freedom after over two years spent in hiding with her family in an apartment in Amsterdam. In May 1945, Canadian forces liberated Amsterdam. Louise was three years old and initially had difficulty adjusting to the world outside the apartment, having never been outside for the duration of the hiding.

David Bayer: Life After the German Invasion of Poland

June 16, 2009 14:00 - 6.59 MB

David Bayer discusses life in his hometown of Kozienice after the German invasion of Poland in September, 1939. Shortly after the invasion David and his family were harassed, humiliated, and subjected to acts of violence by the German occupiers and their collaborators.

Susan Taube: Deportation to the Riga Ghetto

June 09, 2009 14:00 - 6.54 MB

Susan Taube discusses her deportation from Berlin to the ghetto in Riga, Latvia, and the days immediately following. She was deported in January, 1942, along with her mother, sister, and grandmother.

Morris Rosen: Forced Evacuation

June 03, 2009 14:00 - 5.35 MB

Morris Rosen discusses his evacuation and forced march on foot in February 1945 from a subcamp of the Gross Rosen concentration camp in Poland to the Theresienstadt camp in Czechoslovakia. In an effort to cover up their crimes and prevent prisoners from falling into enemy hands, Nazi officials evacuated prisoners from camp to camp in what became known as "death marches."

Esther Starobin: Fate of Family that Remained in Germany

June 02, 2009 14:00 - 6.38 MB

Esther Starobin and her three sisters left Germany for Great Britain in 1939 as part of a special rescue of Jewish children known as the Kindertransport, or children’s transport. In this episode, Esther discusses how she learned the fate of her parents and brother who remained in Germany after she and her sisters had left.

Manya Friedman: Death March to Ravensbrück

May 27, 2009 14:00 - 5.98 MB

Manya Friedman discusses her evacuation from Gleiwitz, a subcamp of Auschwitz, to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in January 1945. In an effort to cover up their crimes and prevent prisoners from falling into enemy hands, the Nazis evacuated prisoners in what became known as death marches.

Gerald Liebenau: Memories of Kristallnacht

May 26, 2009 14:00 - 5.89 MB

In today’s episode Gerald Liebenau discusses his memories of Kristallnacht, also known as the “Night of Broken Glass.” On November 9-10, 1938, a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms erupted around Germany, leaving Jewish owned businesses and synagogues plundered and destroyed.

Freddie Traum: Evacuated to England

May 20, 2009 14:00 - 8.32 MB

Freddie Traum discusses life as a refugee in Great Britain during World War II. Freddie and his sister were sent from their home in Austria to England as part of the Kindertransport, the special transport that brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940. Freddie initially lived with a family in London but was evacuated to the countryside, along with other Londoners, when Great Britain declared war on Germany in September of 1939.

Charlene Schiff: A Daughter’s Separation from Her Mother

May 19, 2009 14:00 - 9.61 MB

Charlene Schiff discusses her and her mother’s escape in 1942 from the Horochow ghetto in Poland. Soon after their escape, Charlene was separated from her mother. She spent the rest of the war looking for her mother and hiding for her life in the forests.

Gideon Frieder: Safe Harbor Among a Slovak Family

May 13, 2009 14:00 - 11 MB

Gideon discusses the time he spent hiding with a Catholic Slovak family. After his mother and sister perished in a German attack at Banska Bystrica, Gideon was rescued by the Slovak partisans and placed with the Strycharszyk family, who went to great lengths to hide and protect him.

Nesse Godin: A Day in the Siauliai Ghetto

May 12, 2009 14:00 - 6.14 MB

Nesse Godin discusses the day her father was rounded up and deported with a group of others in the Siauliai ghetto, in Lithuania. Nesse never saw him again.

Inge Katzenstein: Refuge In Kenya

May 06, 2009 14:00 - 9.6 MB

Inge Katzenstein discusses fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939 and finding refuge along with her family in Kenya, where they remained during the war.

Martin Weiss: Selection at Auschwitz

May 05, 2009 14:00 - 8.94 MB

Martin Weiss discusses his deportation in May 1944 from the ghetto in Munkacs, then part of Hungary, and his arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi killing center.

Leon Merrick: Evacuation and Arrival at Buchenwald

April 29, 2009 14:00 - 8.23 MB

In December 1944, as the Soviet army approached the slave labor camp in Poland where Leon Merrick was imprisoned, the Germans evacuated him to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Leon shares his recollections of the evacuation and his first day in Buchenwald.

Marcel Drimer: Escaping the “Concert of Death”

April 15, 2009 14:00 - 8.34 MB

Marcel Drimer, his sister, and mother hid in a wheat field while a German aktion—a violent operation against Jewish civilians— occurred in their town of Drohobycz, Poland, in August 1942.

Herman Taube: Writing Poetry before the Holocaust

April 14, 2009 14:00 - 4.41 MB

Herman Taube discusses his love of poetry and how he began writing it as a young boy in Lodz, Poland, before World War II.

Rabbi Jacob G. Wiener: Arrest on Kristallnacht

March 25, 2009 14:00 - 6.55 MB

Rabbi Jacob G. Wiener discusses his experience during Kristallnacht, known as the “Night of Broken Glass,” on November 9–10, 1938. He was arrested and his mother was murdered as a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms swept across Germany.

Halina Peabody: Living under a False Identity

March 18, 2009 14:00 - 6.2 MB

Halina Peabody discusses living in Jaroslaw, Poland, under false papers identifying her as a Catholic. A local woman took Halina and her mother and sister in and gave them a place to live, while never suspecting they were Jews hiding as Catholics.

Erika Eckstut: A Young Girl’s Experience in the Ghetto

March 04, 2009 14:00 - 6.55 MB

Erika Eckstut discusses the difficulties and dangers of life in the Czernowitz ghetto in what was then Romania (and today is western Ukraine). Erika was an adventurous teenager and her father went to great lengths to protect her and maintain her education.

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