1. Behind every name a story
from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Holocaust Survivors and Victims.
Read the stories at https://www.ushmm.org/
2. Jakob Blankitny
Jacob’s story
It was winter and the cold
burned us; all the camp was
flooded and muddy. They took
our winter clothes and in
exchange gave us light clothes
that looked like striped
pajamas...
3. Rosa Marie Burger
My Life in Germany
I saw girls weeping—my friends, girls I
had grown up with. Their bundles
were placed in the last car and the
people were herded onto the train.
We lived not far from Dachau.
4. Irene (Blász) Csillag
IRENE’S STORY
I was born in 1925 in Satu Mare, which
was in Romania at that time but in
1940 became part of Hungary. We
were four in our family: my mother,
father, and one sister, Olga, who also
survived and is still living.
5. Miriam (Rot) Eshel
The story of the picture
The man photographed us and after a
few days he brought the picture … My
mother said to us: “We will bury the
picture.”
6. Haya Friedman
MARIUS
Marius was the only “humane” being I
met during the terrible days of
deportation. On a snowy November
day in 1944 at Auschwitz ( I was 19
years old), they called us together and
crammed us again into railcars, 80
girls in a railcar that was meant for
eight horses and sent us away—we
didn’t know where, of course.
7. Manya Friedman
THE TRANSITION
I had little confidence when I started.
My hands were so shaky I could barely
read my own writing. As I started
writing, I was given confidence,
support, and encouragement. If I can
do this, then you can too.
8. Mara Ginic
THE ESCAPE
My throat was parched, the wind blew
my hair in my face and obstructed my
vision. My knees buckled and the
glacier never seemed to end.
9. Andrew Glass
Illegal Immigration: A Personal
History
Finding a way to remain in the United
States as an illegal alien proved to be
one heck of a sweet bargain.
10. Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser
TWO FRIENDS: SIMA AND POLA,
1939–1945
Sima could easily pass as a non-Jewish Pole
because she had a light complexion and was
blonde, but to be able to live as a Pole, she
needed a Kennkarte (identification card), and
to get a Kennkarte she needed a Polish birth
certificate
11. Marian Kalwary
I Remember Everything
In normal circumstances, time goes
fast, but in the ghetto, it dragged
exceedingly long. Every day passed
very slowly, as if to spite us.
12. Pieter (Peter) Kohnstam
Anne Frank came to say good-bye to us
In the morning of July 6, 1942, Anne
Frank came to say good-bye to us.
The Franks were about to go into
hiding in their secret annex. It was a
sad and difficult parting for everyone.
13. Joseph Moses Lang
Joseph Moses Lang Remembers
It began in May 1944 when my family
and I were told to pack whatever we
could carry and we were placed,
along with many others, in an old
factory building in Targu Muresh,
Romania.
14. Ester Lupyan
The Sonderghetto within the Minsk
Ghetto
In the memories of those who lived
through the occupation, the
recollection of the existence and
survival in the ghetto is still
frightening. I will only say that out of
our family, my mother and I were the
only ones to survive.
15. Heinz Raphael
A Chronicle of growing up in the
Third Reich and of the escape to
Sweden
The Gestapo visited us in the
morning. They knew my father from
his visits as Seelsorger (minister) to
the Jews in the local prison.
16. Barbara Rebhun
Barbara's story: What's my name?
who am I? who were my parents?
I was found in either an empty train
wagon, or close to the rail station, by
a Red Cross attendant in the little
town of Milanówek, about 20
kilometers from Warsaw.
17. Erna Rubin
War Memories from Czernowitz
and Transnistria
After three weeks in the ghetto of
Czernowitz, we were sent to the
camps in Transnistria for three
terrible years of poverty, hunger,
typhus, and fear for the future. We
had hope in our hearts and only that
kept us alive.
18. Irene Safran
Deportation to Auschwitz
My journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau
began on May 19, 1944, when I
boarded the train with my parents,
three younger sisters, and two
brothers.
19. Simon Family
One Family’s Holocaust Story
While in Westerbork, Selma Simon
wrote to her daughters, Ruth and
Hilda in England. The last letter was
written four or five days before they
were deported to Poland in which,
sadly, Selma said, “We hope to see
you soon.”
20. Agnes Gertrude Wohl
Agnes’s Story
My name is Agnes Gertrude Wohl
(maiden name Mendelovits), born in
Budapest, Hungary, on March 3, 1933.
