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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 Ervin Belik

Interviewee: Ervin Belik
Interviewer: Edith Millman
Ervin Belik, formerly Bleiweiss, was born in Mistek, Czechoslovakia, June 13 1918, the youngest son in a large family. He was educated in both Jewish and Czech schools. After the German occupation March 1939, he was warned that the S.S. was waiting to arrest him and fled to Poland in May 1939. He j...
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Oral History Interview with Anna Berenholz

Interviewee: Anna Berenholz
Interviewer: Inge Karo
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Oral History Interview with Anna Berenholz

Interviewee: Anna Berenholz
Interviewer: Meta Joy Jacoby
Anna Berenholz, nee Bohorochaner, one of six children was born on June 28, 1924 in Yasin(a), Czechoslovakia into a very observant Orthodox family. They were farmers. Anna describes pre-war Yasin, a small town of 15,000 of whom about 900 were Jews. Two of Anna’s brothers were in the Czech army but th...
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Oral History Interview with Konrad Bieber

Interviewee: Konrad Bieber
Interviewer: Harold Stern
Konrad Bieber was born in 1916 in Berlin, (Charlottenburg) Germany. His family lived in Gruenwald and Konrad went to the gymnasium there. His father was a German scholar and writer and his mother ran a gymnastics school. In 1933 the family left for Paris after warnings that the situation for Jews wa...
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Oral History Interview with Charlotte Bing

Interviewee: Charlotte Bing
Interviewer: Fred Stamm
Charlotte Bing was born in 1918 in Bielsko (Bielitz), Poland, a textile town near the German border. Charlotte describes her town and explains that most of the 8,000 Jews were financially well off. She details her schooling at a Jewish school for four years and then at a German high school. She disc...
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Oral History Interview with Hyman Blady

Interviewee: Hyman Blady
Interviewer: Hanna Silver
Hyman Blady was born February 11, 1920 in Warsaw to a middle class Zionist family; he belonged to HaShomer HaTzair. His father owned a shoe store. He discusses pre-war Poland, his education, and antisemitism in Poland. Hyman’s family was forced into the Warsaw Ghetto in 1939. A Christian friend help...
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Oral History Interview with Elizabeth Bleiman

Interviewee: Elizabeth Bleiman
Interviewer: Marian Salkin
Elizabeth Bleiman, nee Zuckerman, was born July 10, 1921 into a modern Orthodox family in Ófehértó, Hungary and completed elementary school there. She attended Jewish high school in Debrecen until 1937 and returned home, where all of her family suffered from antisemitic government restrictions. Afte...
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Oral History Interview with Margaret Bowman

Interviewee: Margaret Bowman
Interviewer: Nora Levin
Margaret Bowman, nee Harnik, was born in Dresden, Germany in 1914. Her family had a dry goods store in Dresden and later moved to Hanover where they bought a shoe store. She very briefly talks about her life in Germany and her relationship with German and East European Jews. Margaret experienced no ...
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Oral History Interview with David Buchsbaum

Interviewee: David Buchsbaum
Interviewer: Gayle Kammerman
David Buchsbaum was born in Gorlice, Poland on April 20, 1921 to a religious family. He was one of 11 children.. He gives a brief description of pre-war Gorlice and the Jewish community which was 25% of the population, about 3,500 Jews. David’s family owned a grocery store. David describes the mood...
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Oral History Interview with Rosa Zygmund Burk

Interviewee: Rosa Zygmund Burk
Interviewer: Liesl J. Loeb
Rosa Zygmund Burk, nee Tennenbaum was born on April 20, 1927 in Szydlowiec, Poland, a town of about (90%) 7,200 Jews. She was the daughter of David and Ethel Tennenbaum. Her father was a shoe factory worker and a member of the Bund. Rosa describes their life before the German invasion, her schooling...
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