Irene Safran
My journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau began on May 19, 1944, when I boarded the train with my parents, three younger sisters, and two brothers.
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Behind Every Name a Story consists of essays describing survivors’ experiences during the Holocaust, written by survivors or their families. The essays, accompanying photographs, and other materials, including submissions that we are unable to feature on our website, will become a permanent part of the Museum’s records.
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Miroslav (Fred) Grunwald
As the German army pushed southward, taking over from the Italians, all occupied Adriatic territory, I was suddenly again on the run and in hiding. But this time I was not so lucky.
Joseph Moses Lang
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.
Barbara Rebhun
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.
David Parnes
I was 7 at that time. It was in May, about a month before the war broke out (in the Soviet Union the war started on June 22, 1941). In Bessarabia there was an earthquake and it eventually came down to Balti (Beltsi), where my family lived at that time.
Sonia Lipowicz
Sonia “Sarah” Lipowicz was born on July 10, 1923, in Chmielnik, a small shtetl in southeastern Poland. Chmielnik, first settled by Jews in the 16th century, was a good place for our people. Sarah was the third of seven children born to Avrum Lipowicz and Hadassah Berlin, who ran a flour mill together and lived a typical Hasidic family life.
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Survivor Reflections and Testimonies
Listen to or read Holocaust survivors’ experiences, told in their own words through oral histories, written testimony, and public programs.