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Survivor Reflections and Testimonies

Echoes of Memory

Read reflections and testimonies written by Holocaust survivors in their own words.

These essays and testimonials come from our guided writing workshops for Holocaust Survivors. Learn more about our Writing Workshop for Holocaust Survivors.

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Topic:Complicity

Displaying 1-6 of 6 Essays

  • Millennials and the Holocaust

    Headlines from the American media in April 2018 after a Holocaust-related survey was published:  “Holocaust study: Two-thirds of millennials don’t know what Auschwitz is” (Washington Post, April 12, 2018)  “4 in 10 millennials don’t know 6 million Jews were killed in Holocaust, study shows” (CBS News, April 12, 2018)  “Holocaust Is Fading From Memory, Survey Finds” (New York Times, April 12, 2018)  “The Startling Statistics About People’s Holocaust Knowledge” (NPR, April 14, 2018)  “Why We’re Forgetting the Holocaust” (New York Post, April 15, 2018)  “Study Shows Americans are Forgetting about the Holocaust” (NBC News, April 12, 2018)

    Topic: Aftermath of the Holocaust, Museum Volunteer, Complicity
    Volume: Volume 12

  • Why I Feel that We Must Move On with the German People

    Like many Jewish children who were victimized during World War II, I grew up hating the entire German people for the Holocaust. How could a nation commit such crimes as killing men, women, children, and elderly people and still look at other people in the eyes without being ashamed of themselves? How could they round up millions of Jews, Roma (Gypsies), slaves, homosexuals, and handicapped children and send them to gas chambers or perform experiments on twins, among others?

    Topic: Aftermath of the Holocaust, Complicity, Museum Volunteer
    Volume: Volume 10

  • Escaping from Evil

    Growing up in a rural area where many people were uneducated, I always thought that in the cities, especially in Western Europe, where people had access to higher education and city life, they would behave in a more civilized way than people where I lived. Growing up in a democratic country like Czechoslovakia, even as a seven- or eight-year-old kid, I felt very proud of our country, because we were treated as citizens. That does not mean that our neighbors who were “Russ” were not antisemitic; they were. However, we did coexist and got along.

    Topic: Complicity, Immigration
    Volume: Volume 10

  • My Mother's Birthday

    My brother has always been braver than I. On a night when we were little children (he was eight and I was nine), when the rocks and bricks came crashing through our bedroom windows, it was he who looked out to see what was happening. I stayed under the cover, hiding my face in the dark shadowy room because I was afraid. He did, however, give me a full report of what was happening outside while he was leaning on the low windowsill. It was our neighbors, adults and their children, who were hurling the missiles while the civil policeman was watching at the edge of the crowd doing nothing to stop the bombardment.

    Topic: Kristallnacht, Jewish Communities Before the War, Complicity, Pogroms
    Volume: Volume 4

  • If Rivers Could Speak

    I was in the water up to my neck. The water was cold. We were hiding in the bulrushes and I knew we could not move. It was very quiet and any sound would give us away. Mama gave me some soggy bread. It tasted awful, but she insisted I had to eat it to keep strong.

    Topic: Hiding, Memory, Escape, Ghettos, Complicity
    Volume: Volume 2

  • Teach Love, Not Hate

    One day in 1941, four men came to our house. They took my family and me to the outskirts of the town, where all the Jews from the town where gathered. We were about 500 Jews. The saddest part was that a lot of the killers were our neighbors.

    Topic: Mass Shootings, Jewish Communities Before the War, Complicity, Rescuers
    Volume: Volume 1

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Survivor Reflections and Testimonies
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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.