Holocaust Survivor Testimonies

Survival

Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Story

Edited by Wendy Whitworth

Foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert

A collection of 46 brief testimonies by Holocaust survivors closely connected with the Holocaust Centre, Beth Shalom.  A unique volume covering the whole range of survivors’ experiences: concentration and death camps, death marches, ghettos, resistance, hidden children, refugees and Kindertransportees.  The testimonies are short, accessible and provide important opportunities for discussion and follow-up work in schools.

“The testimonies carefully gathered here are about more than survival. They beckon their readers to stand up for what is right and good.”

John K. Roth, Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, Claremont McKenna College, USA

426 pp., paperback

Price: £10.00

A Detail of History

Arek Hersh

Arek Hersh was a child in the Lodz ghetto and survived Auschwitz as a 14-year-old orphan.  He tells his story simply and honestly, the moving account of a young Polish boy who made his own luck and survived.

“A truly inspirational story.”

 Amazon reader’s review

163 pp., paperback

From Belsen to Buckingham Palace

Paul Oppenheimer

Paul Oppenheimer and his brother and sister were taken to Bergen-Belsen as children.  This unsentimental and very readable book gives readers personal insights into the real lives of three young survivors, their hopes and fears, their lives and fates.

“Good writing, good information, very interesting; in other words, A GOOD BOOK.”

Leon Greenman, OBE, Auschwitz survivor

182 pp., paperback

Price: £7.50

The Odyssey of John Chillag,

a Hungarian Jew Born in Vienna

From Györ in Hungary to Australia and England

via Auschwitz and Buchenwald

John Chillag interviewed in Bochum, Germany, by Hubert Schneider

John, the only survivor of a large family of 60, enquired in the early 1950s through the Red Cross International Tracing Service whether there was any information on the fate of any of his family members.  The Red Cross could only trace two people, John and his father – all the others had perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  The certificate on John’s father ended with the words, “and he is buried in Bochum Wiemelhausen Jewish cemetery”.  It was a most improbable story, but it was true, and unravelling the full facts took over half a century.

“It is so helpful to students’ understanding to have a personal story to focus upon.  The whole topic of the Holocaust is so vast, and the numbers involved so huge, that it takes an individual’s journey through the horror to enable them to fully make the connection that this was happening to real people, still alive today.”

Helen Snelson, History Department, Harrogate Grammar School

60pp., spiral bound

Price: £4.99

One of the Lucky Ones

Rescued by the Kindertransport

Bob Rosner interviewed by David Turner

Born in Vienna, Bob Rosner was nearly nine when his parents made the agonizing decision to send him and his sister to safety in England via the Kindertransport organization.  Bob describes his journey into the unknown, his early experiences as a boy in Hull, and the three ‘miracles’ that happened in 1947 – his discovery that his parents had survived the Holocaust; becoming a British citizen; and obtaining a university scholarship.

“On one level this is a gripping story, with twists and turns of a kind that might seem improbable in a work of fiction; on another level, it is a telling document of perhaps the darkest period in twentieth-century European history; and on a third level it is a testimony to human nature both at its most despicable and at its most courageous.  Yet one of the most remarkable things is that the central character, who speaks without self-pity, emerges with such a positive outlook.”

David Turner, Reader Emeritus, German, University of Hull

50 pp., spiral bound

Price: £4.99

…and Kovno Wept

Waldemar Ginsburg

During the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, over 90 per cent of the Jewish population were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Among them were the family and friends of Waldemar Ginsburg.  This powerfully written and moving story describes the struggle for survival in the Kovno ghetto.  Waldemar is one of the few remaining survivors of the ghetto, where he lived and worked until its final liquidation in 1944.

“I was really inspired by your words… I thought to myself, ‘Why did no one help you?’”

Danny Smith, Tong School, Bradford

134 pp., paperback

Price: £7.50

Let One Go Free

Hannah Hickman

In June 1939, a Jewish family in Würzburg, Germany, sent their 11-year-old daughter Hannah to school in England to escape the effects of Nazi rule.  She never saw her parents or brother and sister again.

“Let One Go Free…[is] not simply the story of one child who escaped with the Kindertransport to England, but an evocative family portrait with vivid recollections of the life of an assimilated German-Jewish family in Würzburg in the 1930s.”

Professor Edward Timms, Director, Centre for German-Jewish Studies, University of Sussex

120 pp., paperback

Price: £4.99

Beyond Imagination

Victoria Ancona-Vincent

From an early childhood in Jerusalem, Victoria Ancona-Vincent describes her experiences in Brussels, Alexandria, Milan and ultimately Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was a prisoner for over eight months.  She spent four months on the move in treacherous conditions during the death marches, and a further four months recuperating before she could return to Milan.  Her marriage to a British soldier soon followed and Victoria moved to Nottingham, England, over 50 years ago.

“Victoria Ancona-Vincent has condensed her experiences into a short, but highly informative autobiographical account.  Her attention to detail goes back to the period of her captivity, when she realised the importance of remembering things accurately.”

Stephen D. Smith, Founder and Director, The Holocaust Centre

80 pp., paperback

Did You Ever Meet Hitler, Miss?

A Holocaust Survivor Talks to Young People

Trude Levi

In association with Vallentine Mitchell

Trude Levi answers questions asked by schoolchildren and students about her experiences in the Holocaust, and the consequences for her life thereafter.  Her book deals with personal history and the questions it poses.

“Trude Levi’s straightforward and honest approach to the questions she has been asked ensures that this is a book that every school library should have.”

Fiona Assersohn, former Head of History, John Smeaton Community High School, Leeds

126 pp., paperback

Price: £7.50

The Krakow Diary of Julius Feldman

Translated by William Brand

After the war, Polish workers restoring a Krakow building which had been part of Plaszow forced labour camp discovered a manuscript, hidden in the wall.  It was a diary, written during the Holocaust by one of its victims.  “How terribly I feel the lack of my beloved father, whom everyone knew…”, Julius Feldman concludes mid-sentence, 11 April 1943.  He was 19 years old.  This is his story, with its extraordinary insights into the daily life and tragedy of the Krakow ghetto and Plaszow concentration camp.

“Julius Feldman’s record, part memoir and part diary, brings to life the constant fears and desperate hopes, the daily grind and the appalling personal tragedies of life in the Krakow ghetto in ways that only an eyewitness account written in the heart of those events possibly could.”

Stephen D. Smith, Founder and Director, The Holocaust Centre

112 pp., paperback

Price: £4.00

The Disappearance of Goldie Rapaport

Gina Schwarzmann with Evelyn Julia Kent

Many stories of courage have been told about the sacrifices made by individuals and families during the Second World War, but this one will stir the emotions of all who read it.  It is the true and moving account of the Jewish Polish childhood of Goldie (Gina), separated from her family at the age of seven and sent to a Christian family for safety.

“Goldie’s peaceful childhood world is torn apart by Nazi brutality.  The sadness is relieved by the courage and kindness of so many people and by the spirit of integrity that shines like a guiding light throughout.”

John O’Toole

219 pp., paperback

Price: £4.99