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Primera Persona Serie de Podcasts

More than 70 years after the Holocaust, hatred, antisemitism, and genocide still threaten our world. The life stories of Holocaust survivors transcend the decades and remind us of the constant need to be vigilant citizens and to stop injustice, prejudice, and hatred wherever and whenever they occur.

This podcast series features excerpts from 48 interviews with Holocaust survivors conducted at the Museum as part of our First Person public program. Listen to these interview excerpts below. You can also watch video recordings of interviews from our First Person seasons here.

First Person is made possible by generous support from the Louis Franklin Smith Foundation with additional funding from the Arlene and Daniel Fisher Foundation.

Esta serie de podcasts presenta extractos de entrevistas con sobrevivientes del Holocausto realizados para el programa público, Primera Persona: conversaciones con sobrevivientes del Holocausto.

Displaying 1-10 of 47

  • Halina Peabody: Living under a False Identity

    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.

  • Leon Merrick: Evacuation and Arrival at Buchenwald

    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.

  • Martin Weiss: Selection at Auschwitz

    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.

  • Charlene Schiff: A Daughter’s Separation from Her Mother

    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.

  • Esther Starobin: Fate of Family that Remained in Germany

    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.

  • Morris Rosen: Forced Evacuation

    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."

  • David Bayer: Life After the German Invasion of Poland

    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

    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.

  • Louise Lawrence-Israëls: First Days of Freedom

    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.