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IST 605: An Introduction to the Holocaust

Interview with Gisela Abramski

This interview of Gisela Abramski is an account of everything she remembered from her early years in Germany. She explains about being evicted from her all-girls school and eventually sent to a small school in the area but at eleven years old she was helping the younger children to read and write, limiting her own education from moving forward. She describes the slow take over from Hitler’s regiment and because of this, no one believed things could become what they did.

Grande, J. (2019, January). Interview with Gisela Abramski. [Video]. Journeys With Jeff. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/whctvct-Journeys_with_Jeff_-_Interview_with_Holocaust_Survivor_Gisela_Abramski_January_2019  

Interview with Martin Stern

Martin Stern was only five years old when he was taken to a concentration camp. Thankfully there were people willing to look after him and his one year old sister that helped keep them from death. Martin explains his experiences and wants to educate others on what happened during the Holocaust so that history will not repeat itself.

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. (2019, January 9). An Interview with Holocaust Survivor Martin Stern. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et9NxT4zWyA. 

Interview with David Wisnia

David Wisnia was a young man whose father was a carpenter. Somehow David's father sensed that something was about to happen so he asked David to take over for him at work one day and when David came home that evening, his whole family had been murdered. David tells a touching story of his time in different concentration camps as well as how he escaped and eventually helped the 101st Airborne Division as an interpreter to shut down the concentration camps.

Memoirs of World War II. (2020, August 7). Holocaust Survivor's Powerful Story - Memoirs of World War II #25. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0jCSsHs09w

Interview with Hanna Bloch Kohner

This interview is a little different than the others. This interview was set into a television series called 'This is Your Life' which takes viewers through the past and the events their subject has gone through. Hanna Block Kohner was not expecting to be called up to the stage, but just eight years prior she was in a concentration camp and didn't know if she would survive. The television host explained events that had happened in Hanna's life and brought to the stage many people that she became close with during the years of Hitler's reign. 

Documentariesfootage. (2012, August 16). Holocaust Survivor Interview_ Hanna Bloch Kohner. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3F9Rc6i_-w 

Interview with Zosia Galler

Zosia was only 10 years old when she and her mother were taken by train to Auschwitz concentration camp. This was after she watched her father get murdered for trying to find a way to get his wife and daughter out of the Ghetto. She tells a touching story about everything she went through, from the jobs she held to her mother dying then her will to survive with no thought for anything else. Zosia's story shows us the horror everyone went through during this time and the struggles with hate and resentment when it was over. 

Holocaust Center of New Zealand. (2022, December 22). Holocaust Survivor Zosia (Zosia/Sophie) Galler Testimony. [Video]. YouTube.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QexnTvVSshc