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Holocaust Oral History Archive

The Holocaust Oral History Archive is one of the earliest and largest collections of Holocaust testimony in the United States. Established in 1979 by Nora Levin (1916-1989), and maintained by a dedicated volunteer staff, the Archive is one of the earliest Holocaust oral history projects in the U.S. documenting a wide range of experiences during the Nazi era and Jewish life in pre-Nazi Europe. Holdings include interviews with over 900 survivors, rescuers, liberators, and other witnesses to the persecution and extermination of the Nazi era, 1933-1945. Special groupings include the testimonies of "Kindertransport" children sheltered in England, the 1985 Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, the 1991 and 1999 Rickshaw Reunions of Shanghai Survivors, and the Vilna Ghetto Fighters.

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Oral History Interview with Sylvia Ebner

Interviewee: Sylvia Ebner
Interviewer: Gloria M. Schwartz
Sylvia Ebner, née Klein, was born September 10, 1929, in Bodrogkisfalud, Hungary. She describes her education, relations with non-Jews, and learning to cope with children who stoned her on her way to school. After the German invasion in March 1944, persecution and anti-Jewish measures increased. Syl...
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Oral History Interview with Rose Fine

Interviewee: Rose Fine
Interviewer: Josey G. Fisher
Rose Fine, nee Hollendar, was born in Ozorkow, Poland in 1917 to an Orthodox Jewish family. Her father was a shochet. She briefly describes living conditions during the German occupation before and after the establishment of the Ozorkow Ghetto in 1941: health conditions, deportations, and her work i...
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Oral History Interview with Bernice Fishman

Interviewee: Bernice Fishman
Interviewer: Natalie Packel
Bernice Fishman (birth name Bronia Graudens) was born in Vronki, Poland in 1934. Her father owned a clothing store. Bernice and her mother fled to her mother's parents in Staszow in 1939. The Staszow Ghetto was established in 1940. Jewish children were educated clandestinely. Bernice and her brother...
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Oral History Interview with Ephraim Glaser

Interviewee: Ephraim Glaser
Interviewer: Sylvia Brockmon
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Oral History Interview with Alexandra Gorko

Interviewee: Alexandra Gorko
Interviewer: Eileen Steinberg
Alexandra Gorko, nee Paley, was born in Kiev, Russia in 1916. Her family returned to Lodz, Poland in 1922 to escape communism. She was married to a non-Jewish Polish Judge and reserve officer who was killed after the German invasion. She describes her life after the German invasion and the estab¬lis...
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Oral History Interview with Anatole Gorko

Interviewee: Anatole Gorko
Interviewer: Eileen Steinberg
Anatole Gorko was born in Lodz, Poland on June 28, 1907 of well-to-do Zionists. He worked in his father’s spinning factory until 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. He fought in the Polish Army for three weeks. After being in the Reserves, he was taken to a prisoner of war camp for a few weeks. He fo...
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Oral History Interview with Suzanne Gross

Interviewee: Suzanne Gross
Interviewer: Janice Booker
Suzanne Gross, nee Sarah Pertofsky, was born in Paris, France in 1931. Her parents were born in Belz (Russia) and emigrated to France around 1924. They had a beauty parlor in Paris which was closed by the Germans after the invasion of Paris. At that time Jews were rounded up systematically and famil...
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Oral History Interview with Ruth (Renee) Kapp Hartz

Interviewee: Ruth (Renee) Kapp Hartz
Interviewer: Nora Levin
Ruth (Renee) Hartz, nee Kapp, born in Palestine of German-Jewish parents in 1937, moved with her family to Paris in 1938. Although the family had affidavits for the United States, their emigration was disrupted by the American consulate. After the invasion of France in 1940, they were sent with othe...
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Oral History Interview with Pearl Herling

Interviewee: Pearl Herling
Interviewer: Josey G. Fisher
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Oral History Interview with Mina Kalter

Interviewee: Mina Kalter
Interviewer: Ellen Rofman
Mina Kalter, née Basseches, was born in 1921 in Przeworsk, Poland, into a religious family. Her father was a traveling merchant and her mother in retail fabrics. Both parents were active in Zionist organizations and charitable endeavors and on good terms with Christian neighbors, until 1939. She des...
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