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Identical twin sisters Iudit Barnea and Lia Huber (nées Tchengar) were born in 1937 in the town of Şimleul Silvaniei (Szilagysomlyo), Transylvania. In 1940, Transylvania was annexed to Hungary, and in June 1942 their father Zvi was taken to a forced labor unit on the Russian front. With the German conquest of Hungary in March 1944, the familys property and belongings were confiscated, and they were forced to wear a yellow star. In May 1944 Iudit, Lia and their mother, Miriam-Rachel, were interned in a ghetto, and the following month they were deported to Auschwitz, along with many other members of their family. At Auschwitz, Iudit and Lia suffered the infamous medical experiments of Josef Mengele. The twins always stayed close together. Every night, their mother would sneak into their block and give them her meager portion of bread. She would also take them outside, in all weathers, to wash them and comb their hair, and thus preventing them from getting infested by lice and being doomed to the gas chambers. One day, as Mengele was experimenting on the girls, Miriam-Rachel burst into the shack and begged him to stop. In response, she was injected with a concoction that nearly killed her, and caused her permanent deafness. In January 1945 the girls and their mother were liberated by the Red Army. They returned to Şimleul Silvaniei, and in August 1945 they were reunited with their father, who had survived many camps. In 1960 the family immigrated to Israel. Both girls <b>...</b>

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Solomon (Sjema) Feigerson was born in 1930 in Liepaja, Latvia, the middle of three sons. His older brother Hanoch was killed in June 1941, in defense of the town against the Germans. His father, Yaakov, was murdered in July 1941, and his mother and younger brother Josef were murdered at the Skede execution grounds in February 1942. Solomon escaped that and another murder operation in April by running away, despite being shot by Latvian guards. In July 1942, the Jews of Liepaja were herded into a ghetto. Solomon lived in one room with 20 other orphaned boys. On Yom Kippur (October) 1943, the ghetto was liquidated and Solomon was deported to the Kaiserwald labor camp. There he met and bonded with Lina Goldblatt, a prisoner from Hamburg, and her daughter, Rosa. She was like a mother to me, he recalls, she even sewed me a shirt and a pair of pants. In August 1944 Solomon was transferred to the Stutthof concentration camp, and in April 1945 he was put on one of four ships carrying 500 inmates, sent into the Baltic Sea to die. Solomons ship eventually sailed into Neustadt on 3 May 1945. German sailors on the shore shot at the survivors. A British soldier found him, exhausted and ill, clutching a loaf of bread. After the war, Solomon went to Riga. He studied engineering and started a family. While in Riga, he campaigned with Holocaust survivors and others to emigrate to Israel. He arrived in Israel in 1971 where he worked as an engineer and volunteered with a number of <b>...</b>

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Yisrael Gutman was born in Warsaw in 1923. His parents and older sister perished in the ghetto, and his younger sister was a member of Janusz Korczak's orphanage. As a member of the Jewish Underground in the Warsaw ghetto, Yisrael Gutman was wounded in the uprising. From Warsaw he was taken to Majdanek, and from there to Auschwitz. In May 1945 he was sent on the death march to Mauthausen. In total, he spent two years in the camps. After the war he helped in the rehabilitation of survivors, was active in the Bericha movement, and immigrated to Palestine in 1946. A world-renowned scholar of Holocaust studies, Prof. Gutman has dedicated his life to studying the Holocaust and perpetuating its lessons for the next generations. For more details, click here: www1.yadvashem.org

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Holocaust survivors Jacki Handali and Rita Weiss describe their arrival in Auschwitz and the selection process. The video is an excerpt from the film "The Selection Process" from the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem. For more information: www1.yadvashem.org Or in Hebrew: www1.yadvashem.org This video is one of many that can be viewed in Yad Vashem's Holocaust History Museum: bit.ly

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A holocaust surviver is cursed out by a left wing nut at the rally against the ground zero mosque, August 22, 2010.

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Ros Dayan describes her experience of the Nazis' persecution of Jews in Bulgaria and how she survived the Holocaust. Now living in Israel, she says she doesn't have enough money to buy food or clothes. Ros is one of a growing proportion of Holocaust survivors in Israel who cannot make ends meet

The Guardian (Newspaper) Holocaust News Second world war Israel Middle East North Africa MENA World news Middle East (Broadcast Genre)

Eliezer Lev-Zion was born in 1927 in Berlin, Germany, as Oskar-Eliezer Lewinsohn. His father, Nathan, was a journalist, and his mother, Franscheska, a doctor who managed a Jewish orphanage. A month after the Nazis came to power, Oskar's father was arrested and disappeared. Heavily pregnant, Franscheska fled to France together with Eliezer, settling in Lyon. A month later, Eliezer's brother Marcel Gideon was born. In the winter of 1939/1940, the three family members were taken to a detention camp in Ardèche. Eliezer was released four months later, and that summer joined a Jewish religious scouts group, which instilled in him a love of a Zionism and agriculture. In November 1942, the Germans occupied southern France, and Eliezer was arrested for holding counterfeit identification documents. After his release, he joined the Jewish underground. He was sent by Father Alexandre Glasberg, head of a refugee organization, to smuggle children out of a French detention camp. Eliezer would meet up with Father Glasberg, who handed children to him over the barbed wire, and then take them on his bicycle to a hiding place. In this way, he helped save 36 children. Father Glasberg was later honored as Righteous Among the Nations. For three and a half years, Eliezer wandered from place to place. Traveling to a town near Montauban, he registered with the city council as an Alsacian, and started working in carpentry. Soon, he was recruited as a translator by the SS. He transferred the <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Eliezer Lev-Zion Berlin Father Glasberg Righteous Among the Nations

Artemis Miron, daughter of Eftihia and Iosiph-Pepo Batis, was born in 1928 in Ioannina (Janina), Greece. Her brother, Solomon-Makis, was six years younger than her. In the summer of 1943, the Germans entered Greece. One night in August 1943, SS men stormed the Batis' house, robbed their money and arrested Iosiph. He and Artemis' grandfather were shot to death two weeks later, as an act of vengeance for the activities of the Greek resistance movement. On 25 March 1944, the city's Jews were deported to Larissa. After eight days of detention, they boarded an overcrowded cattle train. For the next eight days they were not given any food. The train stopped three times; long enough to empty out the latrine buckets, refill the water containers, and move the bodies of those who had died en route to the car carrying corpses. On 11 April, Artemis, Solomon and Eftihia arrived at Auschwitz. Because of a fur coat her mother had given her, Artemis looked older than her age and was ordered to join the rows of young women selected for forced labor. That was the last time she saw her mother and brother. Artemis was put to work outdoors, in all weathers. Her feelings swung between despair and optimism: she almost lost her will to live, but nurtured a shred of hope that she may one day find her father amongst the living. In January 1945, Artemis was sent on a death march to Ravensbrück, and later to Malchow, where she was put to work at a military factory. In early May 1945, the Allies <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Artemis Miron Ioannina Janina Auschwitz

Vera (Miriam) Dotan was born in 1931 to a family of four in Budapest, Hungary. When the Germans invaded in 1944, her happy and culture-rich life completely changed, and within a month all the Jews were sent to a ghetto where they lived in intolerable conditions. In July they were taken on a three-day journey, without food or water, to Auschwitz. Upon arrival, Vera and her mother were separated from her father and brother, and Vera was sent off with the other children. Desperate to rejoin her mother, Vera seized the first opportunity to escape from the group and look for her mother, but she was caught by the warden of the women's camp, beaten, and returned to the children's quarters. Later that day she fled the children's group again. This time she found her mother, and the two managed to stay together. After three months of selections and labor, they were sent to work at Wohldorf, an air base near Frankfurt. After Wohldorf was evacuated, they were transported to Ravensbrueck. When Vera's mother was sent to work in the Siemens factory, Vera ran after her. Fortunately, the group was one worker short, and Vera was allowed to join. At the end of April 1945, Ravensbrueck was evacuated and the prisoners were marched away. They walked under constant allied bombardment, and any stragglers were shot. In the confusion, eight women—including Vera and her mother - ran to hide in a nearby stable. When the stable caught fire, they escaped to a ditch, only to find three SS soldiers <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Vera (Miriam) Dotan

Edith Drori née Ernst was born in 1920 in Dunaharaszti, Hungary, one of four children. When she was four years old, the family moved to Slovakia and a year later her father died. Before the war, two of Edith's siblings moved to Israel through a hachshara program with Ha Shomer Ha-Tza'ir youth movement and in 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Edith's oldest brother was sent to a labor camp. Following rumors that women would also be sent for forced labor, Edith's "leftist" friends convinced her to join the anti-Nazi underground. Soon after, she left her mother and fled to a nearby village. After a while, she considered applying for a housekeeping vacancy so her mother could join her in shared accommodations. To her horror however, she found her mother had been sent to her death. Despairing, she resolved to turn herself in to the Slovakian police, but a chance meeting with a former acquaintance altered her plans. Instead, she set off to a village in the Sitno Mountains, were she joined a small underground cell of five people. The group's main pursuit was to print an underground newsletter -- calling for an end to the persecution of Jews - and distribute it to villages and schools. Over time, the group expanded to about 30 members, but disbanded due to internal conflicts. Edith's faction left the bunker, and on 9 September 1944, joined the Slovakian revolt. Edith moved to the Brigade to Free the Slavs, and served as a liaison between the Slovakian popular front and <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Edith Drori

Yehuda Widawski was born in 1919 in Turek, Poland, the second of four children in a traditional Zionist family. In 1933, the family moved to Lodz, and Yehuda became an active member of the Hashmonaim youth organization. By 1936, Yehuda was managing a textile business, employing 38 Jewish seamstresses who sewed shirts and underwear for the army; their products were marketed throughout Poland. In September 1939, Lodz was occupied by the Germans. Yehuda's family managed to buy an apartment in the district to be transformed into the Lodz ghetto. The apartment was shared by 15 family members, and Yehuda was able to smuggle into it a large amount of property from his former home and factory. In April 1940, Jews were prohibited from leaving the ghetto. The Widawskis continued to work in textiles, both from home and at a factory. One of the first soup kitchens in the ghetto was established at their home; thanks to the property they had the foresight to take with them, the Widawskis were able to help their friends and acquaintances. In August 1944, the ghetto was liquidated and the Widawskis were deported to Auschwitz. Yehuda's parents, Abraham and Leah, and his eldest brother, Gabriel, were murdered immediately. Eight days later, Yehuda and his younger brother, Jehoszua, were transferred to the Friedland work camp, where they made airplane wings. Yehuda's cousin was sent to the same camp; from time to time, Yehuda managed to give him some bread. Before he died, he gave Yehuda his <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Yehuda Widawski Turek Lodz Auschwitz

Anatoly Yitzchak Rubin was born in 1928 in Minsk, Belarus, the youngest of four children in a traditional family. His father, Pinchas, worked at an organization supporting orphans. After the German invasion, Anatoly, his mother, Ethel, and his sisters, Tamar and Betty, were imprisoned in the Minsk ghetto. Pinchas had been killed searching for his family en route to Moscow. Anatoly's eldest brother, Chaim, had joined the Red Army. Tamar worked outside the ghetto and managed to bring back snippets of food and news. During an aktion in November 1941, the family was rounded up. Tamar and Anatoly managed to sneak out from the rows of people marching towards the mass graves. Tamar joined the partisans, but was informed upon and killed by the Germans. Ethel and Betty were murdered at Tuchinka. Anatoly returned to the ghetto and sustained himself on scraps of food left over from the Germans. In March 1942, Anatoly escaped once more from the death pits. He made his way to the village of Dobrushino using some Russian papers his father's friend had given him. Chancing upon partisans, he asked if he could join them, but instead encountered rampant antisemitism and was nearly killed. In 1944, after the Red Army liberated the area, Anatoly returned to Minsk, only to learn that out of his entire family, only one aunt and her four children had survived the war. Anatoly trained to be an electrician. In 1946, during the Stalinist persecution of Jews, he was sentenced to five-year <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Anatoly Rubin Minsk Red Army

Chasia Vardi was born in 1932 in Stoczek Wegrowski, Poland, the only daughter of Yaakov and Rivka. When war broke out, Chasia, her parents and a dozen other relatives moved in with her grandmother, Chaya. Banned from attending school, the Jewish children continued to learn in small groups with teachers who had fled Warsaw. In April 1942, Yaakov left for work, and was apparently killed a short time later at Treblinka. In September 1942, all of the town's Jews were rounded up to be deported. Chasia hid in a bunker, and later fled with a group of women and children, including her mother and grandmother. During the day, Chasia begged for food in nearby villages, and at night she slept in the forest. Chaya taught Chasia to knit, and she exchanged her products for food. From time to time, Chaya also went into the villages to collect food from old acquaintances. In November 1942, the Germans captured 11 people from Chasia's group, including Chasia, her mother, and her cousins, Moshe and Srulik. They were taken to a ditch along the road just outside Mrozowa Wola, ordered to sit down, and shot. Miraculously, Chasia survived. Chaya, who had been out collecting food when Chasia was captured, found her and took her to the nearby Kosów ghetto. There Chaya died in Chasia's arms. When the ghetto was liquidated, Chasia hid in an attic. She then fled to the home of the Radzyminski family in Stoczek. Leokadia Radzyminski helped Chasia, but her husband chased her away. She joined a group of <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Chasia Vardi Stoczek Wegrowski Warsaw

Denise Sikirski née Caraco was born in 1924 in Marseilles, France — an only child raised by her grandparents. At age 11, she joined the Jewish Scouts' youth movement and in August 1942, as a Scout troop leader, she received her first assignment with the Jewish underground: caring for four young female refugees and placing them in prearranged hiding places. From then on, Denise and other Scout leaders became active in locating hideouts for Jews, facilitating illegal border crossings to Switzerland, distributing forged documents, and smuggling weapons, money, food, and ration coupons. In November 1942, following the German occupation of Vichy France, the activities of the Scouts and other Jewish organizations went underground. Denise begged her family to leave Marseilles for a safe haven and gave them false documents. Yet their escape was delayed; the Germans carried out a mass aktion in Marseilles at the end of January 1943, closing off the old city near the port and conducting a door-to-door search for illegal aliens. More than 1000 Jews were sent to Drancy detention camp and then to death camps, and the old city was heavily bombarded. Denise's family survivedand escaped soon after with the help of a wealthy French friend. Denise remained in Marseilles and continued with her underground activities. One day, a German Jew informed the Gestapo of the clandestine activities of Denise and Pastor Lemaire — a Protestant minister who collaborated and aided the Jews. Consequently <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Denise Siekierski

Bat-Sheva Dagan was born in 1925 to a traditional Zionist family living in Lodz, Poland. Her father, Szlomo-Fiszel Rubinsztajn, owned a weaving workshop, and her mother, Fajga, was a seamstress. Bat-Sheva had five brothers and three sisters. One of her brothers, Cwi (Zvi) immigrated to Eretz Israel before the war. When war broke out, Bat-Sheva's four other brothers and her eldest sister fled to the USSR. The other family members moved to Radom, settling in the area that became known as the "Great Ghetto" in April 1941. There was also a "small ghetto"; Jews were prohibited to leave either of them. Bat-Sheva joined a youth study group that met secretly. Using "Arian" documents, Bat-Sheva was sent to the Warsaw ghetto by Shmuel Breslaw, a Shomer Hatzair instructor. She brought the underground newspaper Against the Flow back to Radom. In August 1942, Bat-Sheva and her youngest sister, Sabina, were transferred to the small ghetto. Their parents and older sister were sent to Treblinka, where they were murdered. Bat-Sheva and Sabina decided to flee to Germany -- separately, in order not to arise suspicion -- but Sabina was shot and killed while trying to leave the ghetto. Arriving in the city of Schwerin, Bat-Sheva used some false documents to work as a maid for a Nazi family. When her ruse was discovered, she was arrested and moved from one prison to another. In May 1943, Bat-Sheva was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and put to forced labor in the hospital -- emptying latrine <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Bat-Sheva Dagan Warsaw ghetto Lodz Auschwitz-Birkenau

Holocaust survivors Yaacov (Jacki) Handali and Roman Frister describe life in the concentration camps. The video is an excerpt from the film "Daily Life in Concentration Camps" in the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem. For more information: www1.yadvashem.org Or in Hebrew: www1.yadvashem.org This video is one of many that can be viewed in Yad Vashem's Holocaust History Museum: bit.ly

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Lithuania declared this year as one of remembrance for the country's holocaust victims. But that doesn't include focusing on the brutality the people endured under the Nazis. As RT's Paula Slier reports, it's trying to sue the survivors instead. RT on Twitter: twitter.com RT on Facebook: www.facebook.com

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If you do not see the English subtitles click "cc" (red). Holocaust survivors recall some of the ways Passover was observed prior to the Holocaust, during the Holocaust years, and in the displaced persons camps and children's homes following the war. This video is from the exhibition:"And You Shall Tell Your Children" on the Yad Vashem website: www1.yadvashem.org

Passover Holocaust Survivor Testimonies Yad Vashem Jewish Holidays

Zvi Kratz was born in 1924 in Chust, Czechoslovakia, into a religious family of six. Following the Nazi invasion in March 1939, all Jewish children were expelled from school, and Zvi worked to help support his family. Zvi was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in June, with the other Jews of Chust. After a three-hour wait in the cattle cars while Jews from the previous transport were being exterminated, Zvi and his father Avraham were separated from his mother and three brothers, who were sent straight to the gas chambers. The next day, Zvi persuaded his father to sign up for work with him. They remained in Auschwitz for a few more days where Zvi found Pnina, his sweetheart. They pledged to meet after the war. Zvi and his father were sent to work in a labor camp inside the destroyed Warsaw ghetto, tearing down the ruins to reclaim the building materials. In the summer of 1944, after the Polish uprising, the prisoners were evacuated to Dachau — an exhausting 13-day journey in which many prisoners died. Zvi and his father were placed in Kaufering 7 — a secondary camp of Dachau — where the prisoners lived in dugouts and performed hard labor. Two months later, typhus swept through the camp, killing more than half the prisoners. Zvi's father who died in his arms in February 1945, two months before liberation. Zvi also fell ill, but a week later all the prisoners, including the sick, were forced on a three-day march to Allach. Lying exhausted in his cabin, Zvi soon heard cries <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Zvi Kratz

The daughter of a Holocaust survivor created a video of her family's recent trip to concentration camps in Poland. The youtube video which has received both backlash and support, is set to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" featuring her 89-year-old father dancing at different Holocaust sites with his grandchildren. Gary Hamilton reports.

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David Leitner was born in 1930 in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary, into a religious family of six. In 1938, his father was drafted into the Hungarian army, returning in March 1944, just before the German invasion. Within a few weeks, local gendarmes had confiscated the Jews' valuables and herded them into a ghetto. Six weeks later they were taken to the train station, packed into cattle cars and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. At Birkenau, the men of David's family were separated from his mother and sisters, who were murdered immediately. David's father and brother were sent to Buchenwald and from there to Bergen-Belsen, while David remained in Birkenau with 40000 other children. Being tall and strong, David survived further selektions, as well as a severe beating after he was caught trying to escape on one of the transports exiting the camp. On Simchat Torah, David was herded with hundreds of other children to the crematorium. Amid cries of Shema Yisrael and calls for their parents, the children were stripped naked for extermination. Suddenly the process stopped; a group of children was needed to unpack potatoes from a train of supplies that had just arrived. David was among 50 children chosen for the task: they worked amidst the whistle of bullets, as guards shot at them for amusement. In January 1945, David was transported to Mauthausen where the prisoners were whipped by SS soldiers and left naked in the freezing cold for three days. In April, they were marched through the <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel David Leitner

On Friday the world will commemorate international holocaust remebrance day. In Romania, where 25000 Roma people were sent to concentration camps, two survivors remember an ordeal that still haunts them today.Duration: 02:13

WEB HOLOCAUST ROMANIA ROMA MINORITY HISTORY

Holocaust survivor Henri Parens tells his story. Parens's mother was transported to Auschwitz on August 14, 1942. He learned her fate soon after the war, while living in America with his adoptive family. Through a lifetime as a psychoanalyst, Parens has come to understand how the Holocaust has shaped his life and given him insights into the effects of childrearing and education on prejudice. This interview is part of the America's Table program. Learn more at www.americastable.org.

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DVD: www.amazon.com thefilmarchived.blogspot.com Westerbork concentration camp (Dutch: Kamp Westerbork, German: Durchgangslager Westerbork) was a World War II Nazi refugee, detention and transit camp in Hooghalen, ten kilometres north of Westerbork, in the northeastern Netherlands. Its function during the Second World War was to assemble Roma and Dutch Jews for transport to other Nazi concentration camps. Theresienstadt concentration camp (often referred to as Terezín) was a Nazi German ghetto during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín (German name Theresienstadt), located in what is now the Czech Republic. Auschwitz (German: Konzentrationslager Auschwitz) was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It was the largest of the German concentration camps, consisting of Auschwitz I (the Stammlager or base camp); Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the Vernichtungslager or extermination camp); Auschwitz III-Monowitz, also known as Buna-Monowitz (a labor camp); and 45 satellite camps. Auschwitz is the German name for Oświęcim, the town in and around which the camps were located; it was renamed by the Germans after they invaded Poland in September 1939. Birkenau, the German translation of Brzezinka (birch tree), refers to a small Polish village nearby that was mostly destroyed by the Germans to make way for the camp. Auschwitz II-Birkenau <b>...</b>

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Andrei Călăraşu was born in 1922 in Botosani, Romania as Bernard Grupper, son of Zalman and Eti. He grew up in Jassy, where his mother passed away. On 29 June 1941, with the German invasion of Russia, Bernard, his father and his brother, Paul, were taken to the local police courtyard. At midnight, they were marched to the train station where German and Romanian soldiers pulled gold teeth from their mouths, and cut off fingers bearing gold rings. The three men were placed into a closed carriage with 120 others. During the eight-day journey, some lost their sanity and others their lives, including Zalman and Paul. Bernard was saved because Viorica Agarici, the Red Cross representative in Romania, insisted that the carriages be opened to remove the bodies, air out the cars and give the prisoners water. Agarici was later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. The train arrived in Călăraşi and the survivors disembarked. Sick with pneumonia, Bernard was laid down on the floor of the local synagogue, while Romanian soldiers continued to shoot many of the Jews. Altogether, some 14000 Jews from Jassy were murdered. A few months later, Călăraşu was returned to Jassy with some of the few survivors of the massacre, and sent to hard labor. He was liberated with the arrival of the Red Army in the summer of 1944. Bernard studied at the Academy for Theater Arts in Jassy and in Bucharest. To maximize his professional opportunities, he changed his name from Bernard Grupper to Andrei <b>...</b>

Andrei Călăraşu Botosani Yad Vashem Torchlighters 2011 Holocaust Jassy

Elderly Holocaust Survivor protests Israel's response to Hamas rocket attacks. She says it's not fair since Israel is so much stronger. What would the international community do if Hamas launched massive airstrikes against Israel, marched deep into Tel Aviv or, shelled a UN-run school building, used as a refugee camp, leaving many Israeli children dead and many more injured? What if the Israeli people had been punished by seizure and blockade simply because they had chosen a far right party or a hard-line politician in a fair and free election? What would the so-called free nations be saying had Hamas leaders, in an effort to appeal to voters, decided to continue their large offensive against Israeli civilians despite the international calls for a cease-fire? What if the media all over the world had depicted a handful of Israeli children crying over the bodies of their dead mothers? There is much irony in this analogy, but the truth is that Israel has long been excused for every terrible atrocity it has perpetrated and continues to perpetrate. Such double standards and twisted positions that the key powers in the world are embracing nowadays are fueling the already anti-West sentiments not only in Arab and Muslim countries but also across the entire world. Israel, according to the Western hypocritical standards, is always above the law. Throughout the past 60 years, Israel has constantly been violating the international law and the rules and principles of nations which <b>...</b>

Israel Gaza Holocaust Hamas Army Troops Bombing Women Children

Stella Franco was born in Rhodes in 1926, the eldest of seven children. Until 1943, the country was far removed from the war, but in 1944 Rhodes began being bombed heavily. During Passover a bomb struck the family's home, killing Stella's mother and five siblings. Overcome by grief, Stella's father moved the remnants of his family to a nearby Greek village, where they stayed for three months. In July the Germans entered the village and assembled the 2000 Jews into a building. The day after Stella was incarcerated, they were loaded onto four freighters headed for Piraeus. One ship was sent to Kos, to collect the island's 200 Jews. Another stopped in Leros and picked up Daniel Rahamim, the only Jew on the island (Daniel perished in the Holocaust, together with his family from Rhodes). Nearly a month later, with no food and little water, they arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Those who had survived immediately underwent a selektion — Stella's father, who was young and relatively healthy, chose to go with his elderly parents and small daughter to their deaths, leaving Stella alone. Stella and the other young women from Rhodes who were admitted into the camp refused to believe their families had been destroyed, despite the smoke spiraling out of the crematoria. In November, Stella was transported to the Wilstedt camp in Germany. There she met 32 young women from Rhodes, including her aunt, which slightly alleviated her suffering. Following bombings of the camp, the women were <b>...</b>

Yad Vashem Yom Hashoah Torchlighters Holocaust Survivors Israel Stella Franco Israel

Holocaust survivors Nachum Bandel, Rita Weiss, Miriam Akavia, Alisa-Lusia Avnon, Herta Goldman and Walter Zwi Bacharach describe the anguish of liberation. The video is an excerpt from the film "War's End-Liberation and Disillusionment" in the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem. For more information: www1.yadvashem.org Or in Hebrew: www1.yadvashem.org This video is one of many that can be viewed in Yad Vashem's Holocaust History Museum: bit.ly

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Sara (Kati) Israeli was born in 1937 in Pestszenterzsebet, Hungary (today Budapest), the daughter of Laszlo and Ilus Semjen. With the invasion of Hungary by the Germans in March 1944, Saras father was forced to sell his share of the pharmacy he owned to his partner when it became illegal for Jews to own any property. At the beginning of May 1944, Sara and her family were forced to live in the town's ghetto. At the beginning of June, they were transported to a brick factory in Monor, a concentration camp whose inmates were sent to Auschwitz. However, instead of being taken on to Auschwitz, the family was put on a truck back to a camp on Columbus Street, Budapest. Although she still does not understand why their fate was not Auschwitz like all the other residents of the Pestszenterzsebet ghetto, many years later, Sara found out that her family was supposed to have been put on a train to Switzerland, similar to the so-called Kastner train, but the plan was never carried out. At the beginning of October the camp was dismantled, and the Semjens moved into her grandmothers apartment. A few days later Ilus, Saras mother, was arrested and imprisoned in Hungary. The family's nanny Gizella (Gizi) Benkovits stayed with the family, bringing them medicines and food, and putting her own life at risk (in 2001, Gizi was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations). When she heard that the entire area was to become Budapests central ghetto, Gizi moved Sara, her older brother Ivan, and their <b>...</b>

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Yona (Janek) Fuchs was born in Lwow (today Ukraine) in 1925 to Tzila and Aharon. He studied at the local Jewish school, and he and his older brother Moshe (Mundek) learned Hebrew and received a Zionist education at home. In June 1941, the Germans entered Lwow and murdered thousands of Jews. In November, the survivors were ordered into a ghetto. Because of his "Aryan" features, his parents encouraged Yona to escape from the ghetto. His father obtained for him a forged birth certificate and sent him to stay with a non-Jewish friend in a nearby village. While Yona was living there, all of its Jewish residents were shot to death. Longing for his family, Yona returned to Lwow a few weeks later. When he alighted from the train, he saw Germans carrying out a manhunt for Jews. He picked up a Christmas tree and returned without incident to his family in the ghetto. In the summer of 1942, most of the ghetto residents were sent to the Belzec extermination camp. During the aktions, Yona, Aharon and Moshe (Tzila had died earlier) hid in an attic, but were later taken to the Lwow-Janowska concentration camp. On Christmas, Yona and his friend Marian Pretzel took advantage of the guard's drunkenness, dug underneath the fence and escaped. Wearing clothing they had taken from the camp, they pretended to be Polish tradesmen and traveled to Kiev. There they found work in a German company, where, due to his fluency in German, Yona was appointed the company's interpreter, and sent to Lwow to <b>...</b>

Yona (Janek) Fuchs Torchlighters Yad Vashem 2011 Lwow Kiev Bucharest Budapest

Leo Luster was born in 1927 in Vienna, Austria, to a traditional Zionist Jewish family. He was the second child of Moshe, a textile merchant, and Golda. During the Kristallnacht pogrom Leo's father was arrested, but was released a few days later, beaten and bruised. Meanwhile, their neighbor had commandeered their apartment, forcing them to move to a tiny, mildewed apartment in the basement of their building. In 1940, Leos sister, Haya, managed to emigrate illegally to Mandatory Palestine. In 1942, Leo and his parents were deported to Theresienstadt. Leo worked in the kitchen distributing food, managing to pass his food coupons to his parents and friends. In September 1944 (on Yom Kippur 5705), Leo and his father were deported to Auschwitz. His father was killed and Leo was sent to work repairing train cars. In January 1945, Leo was forced on a death march. At the Blechhammer camp, when many prisoners refused to attend roll call, the Germans set fire to the barracks and shot at anyone who fled. Luckily Leo and his friends had been put in a shed storing bottles of seltzer, and they managed to put out the flames. A few days later, Leo went outside to look for food. In one bunk he came across an SS officer shooting anyone in sight. Leo saved himself by diving into a pile of bodies. One day Leo and a friend dared to flee the camp. Hearing the sound of approaching vehicles, they escaped to the nearby woods. On one car, Leo noticed a red star. He emerged from the trees, pointed <b>...</b>

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Holocaust survivors Shimon Srebrnik and Tola Walach Melzer describe their experiences in the Lodz ghetto. The video is an excerpt from the film "Life in the Lodz Ghetto" from the Holocaust History Museum in Yad Vashem. For more information: www1.yadvashem.org Or in Hebrew: www1.yadvashem.org This video is one of many that can be viewed in Yad Vashem's Holocaust History Museum: bit.ly

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Born in 1930 in Kaunas, Lithuania, Kalman Perk was deported with his family to the Kovno ghetto in 1941. Hiding in a cellar in July 1944 to escape the impending liquidation of the ghetto, the family was forced to abandon their hiding place due to German-ignited fires in the ghetto. They were then loaded onto a cattle car and deported to the concentration camps. Convinced by his parents that he must escape, Kalman jumped out the window of the moving train and fled eastward into Russia. Kalman adopted the last words his father spoke to him before escaping from the train, "Be a decent person", as the guiding principle of his life. For more details, click here: www1.yadvashem.org

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Lea Paz, née Weitzner, was born in 1930 in Lwow. Her father Herman, a civil judge, passed away when Lea was five, and Lea and her mother Gusta moved to the village of Kochawina to live on her grandfathers large farm. In September 1942, Lea, Gusta and her grandmother were deported to Belzec. With rumors about the camp circulating on the train, Gusta pushed Lea out through a narrow opening in the side of the train car. Lea eventually found her way back to her grandfather and an uncle, Mundek, who had escaped the deportation. Mundek, who had lived in Mandatory Palestine but had come back to introduce his fiancée to his family and got caught in the war, was determined to save the young girl. He bought Lea false papers, and taught her Christian prayers and customs, all the while encouraging her to eventually emigrate to the Land of Israel. Lea first lived with the Plauszewski family, and then with a relative of theirs, Stefania Gos, whose husband was a commander in the Polish underground. Her rescuers were later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. Just before liberation, Leas grandfather and Mundek were turned in by one of their neighbors. After Mundeks death, the family who had hidden him, the Wohanskis (later also recognized as Righteous Among the Nations), gave Lea his two picture albums filled with photographs of Mandatory Palestine. Lea emigrated to Palestine on an illegal immigrant ship but was arrested by the British and interned in Cyprus. During a demonstration <b>...</b>

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A Holocaust survivor defended his participation in a controversial video showing his family dancing to "I Will Survive"' at Auschwitz, saying it was a celebration of his survival and ability to share history with his grandchildren. (July 15)

germany_holocaust_survivor

Marga Randall was born in Lemfoerde, Germany, in 1930. Margas father had a fatal heart attack upon hearing of his imminent arrest by the Nazis. Marga sought refuge with her mothers family in the small town of Schermbeck, and after Kristallnacht Marga moved with her mother and sister to Berlin. They eventually immigrated to New York in 1941 via France, Spain and Portugal. In addition to establishing a family, Marga widely lectured on her experiences during the Holocaust, publishing her memoirs under the title Grandfather Didnt Come Home. Marga Randall passed away in 2005. Yad Vashem Archives VT 294 The video is part of the exhibition It Came from Within: 71 Years Since Kristallnacht bit.ly

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This testimony from Jewish Holocaust Survivor Simon Zielinski is from the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. For more information, visit: dornsife.usc.edu

USC Shoah Foundation Institute Holocaust survivor Simon Zielinski testimony interview

Bernard Hiller interviews Alice Somer Herz who was an inmate of the The Terezin concentration camp. She was a very accomplished pianist who played Chopin's 24 etudes from memory. She lost her parents and and her husband during the war. Her son who, because a successful musician (who died 2001), survived the camp with her as well. She believes that being "optimistic" is the most important quality to achieve a happy life. She currently lives in London and is the oldest Holocaust survivor. Filmed on location in London, UK 4th December, 2011

Bernies Edit

Pope John Paul II visited Yad Vashem on March 23, 2000. During this historic visit, the Pope participated in a memorial ceremony in Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrance. This clip shows the Pope meeting Holocaust survivors during the ceremony. For more information on the Pope's visit, click www1.yadvashem.org For more information on the Pope's visit, click www1.yadvashem.org

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