Oral Histories
The Tauber Holocaust Library oral history archive consists of over 2,000 audio and video testimonies from Holocaust survivors and witnesses.

Concentration Camp Testimonies

Helen Farkas was born in Romania, as Helen Safa. She remembers the Hungarian occupation and growth of anti-Semitism very clearly....
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Hidden Children Testimonies

Paul Schwarzbart was born in Vienna in 1933, the only child of Sarah and Friedrich Schwarzbart. His family had lived in Vienna since the Eighteenth Ce...
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Liberator Testimonies

Kenneth Colvin joined the US Third Army's 515th Medical Unit in 1943. In this capacity he entered eight different concentration camps, including Ebens...
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Rescuer & Resistor Testimonies

Peter Kooy was born in Amsterdam, Holland. His family hid many people, both Jewish and non-Jewish, from the Germans during the war. One of those hidde...
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Shanghai Testimonies

Shanghai, China was one of the few places in the world that did not require a visa for immigration at that time. The city became a refuge for more tha...
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ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

The JFCS oral history archive consists of over 2,000 audio and video testimonies with accompanying documents and transcriptions. An additional 55,000 oral histories are available onsite through the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive (VHA).  The JFCS Holocaust Center joins a select group of 85 VHA access sites across the globe.  Access to Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies is also available onsite.  Learn More >

The JFCS Oral History Project continues to record detailed oral histories with survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust. Interviewees include people who lived through concentration camps and forced labor, those who survived in hiding or under false papers, as well as rescuers, liberators, émigrés or refugees, and other witnesses who lived under the Nazi regime. These interviews record for posterity a complete picture of the realities of the Holocaust as experienced by individuals living in a multitude of European countries occupied by Nazi Germany.

Testimonies

Oral history is the systematic collection of living people’s testimony about their own experiences. Historians and others have recognized that the personal memories of everyday people– not just those of the rich and famous– have historical importance.

Holocaust testimonials present textured and individual understanding of one person’s experience of living under Nazi rule. These interviews reveal the scope and impact of Nazism on ordinary people and the personal, social, and historical context in which these events took place.

Excerpts from interviews with camp survivors, children who survived in hiding, liberators, and individuals involved in acts of rescue and resistance are available on this site. If you are interested in accessing other interviews, our archives are available to individuals. You can contact us at [email protected].

Viewing Oral Histories at the Tauber Holocaust Library

The Tauber Holocaust Library encourages educators, scholars, students and the general public to utilize the oral history archives. The collection can be used as research material for a broad range of studies, including psychology, sociology, political science, immigrant studies, genealogical studies, European history, Jewish history and Holocaust analysis. Accessing a testimony is easy. To schedule an appointment call 415-449-3748 or email [email protected]. Our guidelines for use can be found here.

Thank You to Our Generous Donors

The Oral History Project is supported by Koret Foundation, Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, as well as Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation, Jerry Rosenstein*, Leonie Darwin*, Lydia and Doug* Shorenstein, Eda and Joe Pell, Susan Lowenberg and Joyce Newstat, Jo Ann and George Schapiro, the MZ Foundation, Barbara and Richard Rosenberg, and the many individuals who support the JFCS Holocaust Center.

*May their memory be a blessing

Donors logos: Koret Foundation, Jewish Community Federation, Claims Conference Funded by Federal Ministry of Finance on the basis of a decision for the Bundestag.

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