In today's episode, Holocaust survivors share their thoughts on the importance of speaking about their experiences. It is our tradition at First Person that each guest speaker ends the program with their "final words." In our final podcast of the series, we close with those thoughts, reflections, and hopes for the future.

Holocaust Survivors&#8217; Reflections and Hopes for the Future

Estelle Laughlin

Estelle Laughlin discusses the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when German forces, intending to liquidate the ghetto on April 19, 1943, were stunned by an armed uprising from Jewish fighters. Estelle and her family hid in an underground bunker during the uprising but were eventually captured and deported.

Estelle Laughlin: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Theodora Klayman

Theodora (Dora) Klayman discusses surviving the war in hiding with her brother in Ludbreg, Yugoslavia. After her parents were deported in 1941, she spent the war first with her maternal aunt and then, after her aunt was denounced and deported, with non-Jewish neighbors.

Theodora Klayman: Shelter in Ludbreg

Steven Fenves

Steven Fenves discusses being forced into a ghetto immediately following the German occupation of his hometown of Subotica, Yugoslavia, in March 1944. As his family was forced out of their home, they encountered a range of responses from their non-Jewish neighbors.

Steven Fenves: Neighbors in Subotica

Josiane Traum

Josiane (Josy) Traum discusses her memories of life in hiding at a Carmelite convent in Brugge, Belgium. In 1942, as conditions grew increasingly more dangerous for Jews living in German-occupied Belgium, her mother, Fanny, arranged to have Belgian nuns hide her three-year-old daughter in the convent.

Josiane Traum: Hiding in a Convent in Brugge

Henry Greenbaum

Henry Greenbaum discusses his attempt to escape from a slave labor camp near Starahowice, Poland, with his sister Faige and a Jewish policeman in July 1944.

Henry Greenbaum: Attempting Escape from a Slave Labor Camp

Haim Solomon discusses hiding during the pogrom that Romanian authorities staged against the Jewish population in Iasi, Romania, within days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Haim and his family hid in various different locations across the city. At least 4,000 Jews were murdered in Iasi during the pogrom.

Haim Solomon: Hiding during the Pogrom in Iasi

Margit Meissner

Margit Meissner discusses her flight from Paris just before the city fell to the Germans in June 1940. Margit and her mother were Austrian citizens living in Paris, which meant they were considered “enemy aliens” because Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938. They were ultimately separated and Margit was left with the responsibility of getting safely out of Paris on her own.

Margit Meissner: Flight from Paris on a Bicycle

Gerald Schwab

Gerald Schwab discusses his experience being drafted into the US Army in 1944 after fleeing Nazi Germany just four years earlier. After the war, he assisted with the trials of leading German officials before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.

Gerald Schwab: A German Jewish Refugee Returns as an American Soldier

Helen Goldkind discusses the humiliation she and her family experienced as they were forced by the Germans to move from their hometown of Volosyanka to the Uzhgorod ghetto in Czechoslovakia in 1944.

Helen (Lebowitz) Goldkind: A Grandfather&#8217;s Humiliation

This podcast series features excerpts from interviews with Holocaust survivors presented at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's public program, First Person -- Conversations with Holocaust Survivors.

I am in love with this, it is so good! It’s for all ages. I am a middle schooler so I am not very old but I love it. You should listen to it.

It&#39;s important to remember. Listen to these stories

please listen and remember

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Regina Spiegel

Regina Spiegel discusses her deportation from the ghetto in Pionki, Poland, and her arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi killing center. She and her boyfriend, Sam, were deported together in 1944 but were separated upon arrival at Auschwitz.

Regina Spiegel: Separation at Auschwitz

Helen Goldkind

Helen Goldkind discusses her deportation and arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi killing center.

Helen Goldkind: Arrival at Auschwitz

Helen Luksenburg

Helen Luksenburg discusses daily life, spiritual resistance, and forced labor in Gleiwitz, a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Helen Luksenburg: Survival in the Camps

Fritz Gluckstein

Fritz Gluckstein discusses multiple close calls with the Nazis in Berlin, his detainment at a Gestapo holding site at Rosenstrasse 2-4, and the subsequent public demonstration that brought about his release. I

Fritz Gluckstein: Protest at Rosenstrasse

Martin Weiss

Martin Weiss discusses his deportation in May 1944 from the ghetto in Munkacs, then part of Hungary, and his arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi killing center.

Martin Weiss: Selection at Auschwitz

Manya Friedman

Manya Friedman discusses her evacuation from Gleiwitz, a subcamp of Auschwitz, to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in January 1945. In an effort to cover up their crimes and prevent prisoners from falling into enemy hands, the Nazis evacuated prisoners in what became known as death marches.

Manya Friedman: Death March to Ravensbrück

Charlene Schiff

Charlene Schiff discusses her and her mother’s escape in 1942 from the Horochow ghetto in Poland. Soon after their escape, Charlene was separated from her mother. She spent the rest of the war looking for her mother and hiding for her life in the forests.

Charlene Schiff: A Daughter&#8217;s Separation from Her Mother

Martin Weiss discusses his liberation from Gunskirchen, a subcamp of Mauthausen, in 1945 and the days immediately following.

Martin Weiss: Reflections on Liberation

Frank Liebermann discusses life in Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933. Shortly after taking power, the Nazis began to eliminate individual rights and freedoms for Jews in Germany. This changed daily life for Frank and his family in many ways. Frank's father was a physician and it became increasingly difficult for him to practice medicine after 1933.

Frank Liebermann: Changes in Germany After Nazi Rise to Power

Leon Merrick

In December 1944, as the Soviet army approached the slave labor camp in Poland where Leon Merrick was imprisoned, the Germans evacuated him to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Leon shares his recollections of the evacuation and his first day in Buchenwald.

Leon Merrick: Evacuation and Arrival at Buchenwald

Marcel Drimer

Marcel Drimer, his sister, and mother hid in a wheat field while a German aktion—a violent operation against Jewish civilians— occurred in their town of Drohobycz, Poland, in August 1942.

Marcel Drimer: Escaping the &#8220;Concert of Death&#8221;

Gerald Liebenau

In today’s episode Gerald Liebenau discusses his memories of Kristallnacht, also known as the “Night of Broken Glass.” On November 9-10, 1938, a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms erupted around Germany, leaving Jewish owned businesses and synagogues plundered and destroyed.

Gerald Liebenau: Memories of Kristallnacht

Esther Starobin

Esther Starobin and her three sisters left Germany for Great Britain in 1939 as part of a special rescue of Jewish children known as the Kindertransport, or children’s transport. In this episode, Esther discusses how she learned the fate of her parents and brother who remained in Germany after she and her sisters had left.

Esther Starobin: Fate of Family that Remained in Germany

David Bayer

David Bayer discusses life in his hometown of Kozienice after the German invasion of Poland in September, 1939. Shortly after the invasion David and his family were harassed, humiliated, and subjected to acts of violence by the German occupiers and their collaborators.

David Bayer: Life After the German Invasion of Poland

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