Read reflections and testimonies written by Holocaust survivors in their own words.
One day my mother asked me to take off my yellow star because we had to go to the country. We lived in a ghetto, and we were not supposed to leave. If we were caught on the outside we could be killed and they also might kill other people in the ghetto for good measure.
I remember the time we left Russia and we fled to Poland. We had to leave Kiev in a hurry in 1944. My friend Monika told me that the NKVD secret police were coming to get my sister and the lady we were with, Mrs. Dirnfeld. Monika didn’t know that Beatrice was my sister. I never talked about my sister and who she was, or the lady, Mrs. Dirnfeld.
The sign at the entrance to the park at Mayo Beach on the Chesapeake Bay revealed that the area was closed for the day. Of course, I was disappointed. It was the fall of 2022 and I had been invited by my friend Donato for lunch to enjoy German food and music for Oktoberfest in a country restaurant near the small town of Edgewater, Maryland, near the Bay. I had not been a great fan of attending German cultural events. However, over time, my attitude had changed.
The greatest injustice in history happened to the Jews. Jews found God and the ways to pray. They used music and singing to praise God. They designated a place, then a building, then buildings for worship. Christians and Muslims pray to the same God that the Jews found. They also built places for worship. There is music and singing in churches. So Jews should have been appreciated, since the other two religions originated from Judaism. Instead Jews got hate.
Listen to or read Holocaust survivors’ experiences, told in their own words through oral histories, written testimony, and public programs.