Browder-Wallenberg Holocaust Survivors Oral Histories
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Item Tibor Baranksi Interview(Wallenberg Committee, 1987-05-03) Baranksi, TiborThis interview is in two parts; an interview with Tibor Baranski by Sharon Wallenberg, and a presentation by Baranski to the Jamestown Community College Forum . The interview discusses Baranski's experiences growing up as a Catholic in Austro-Hungary, the shifting political climate after the first World War, the growth of the Nazi Party in Hungary and the lack of overall public resistance to its growth, the Soviet occupation of Hungary and his arrest by the Soviets, and his time in seminary. The primary focus of Baranski's interview describes his departure from seminary and the planning and undertaking of his efforts to help nearly ten thousand Hungarian Jews to escape the Holocaust with the help of Catholic Church officials and Hungarian embassy officials, who provided him with falsified papal documents and letters, and diplomats, including Raoul Wallenberg, who helped with intervention and escape efforts. The forum presentation focuses on Baranski's ethical and religious reasons to engage in the liberation of Hungarian Jews, things considered in the orchestration of their liberation such as the availability of necessary food and medical supplies, and his experience of being arrested by Soviet forces during the Russian invasion of Hungary and spending five years in a Soviet prison, and is followed by a Q&A session and the reading of Baranski's "New American Creed."Item Albert and Theodore Hersch Interview(Browder Committee, 1985) Hersch, Albert; Hersch, TheodoreThe two speakers are brothers that were sent to Auschwitz with their family. They watched their mom and sisters be sent to their death upon arrival. In the camps they watched people get beaten and abused by the Nazis. after moving to another camp they were rescued by the Allied Powers.Item Judy H. Schatz Interview(Browder Committee, 1990) Back, Toby; Schatz, JudyThe speaker talked about her family leaving Austria-Hungary after the discrimination and banning of Jewish people began. She faced many struggles where extended family passed on due to the Nazi regime, her immediate family was separated and unsure if they'd meet again, and her own personal struggles of getting legal documentation to leave to go to the US.Item Sophia Cohen Chatov Interview(Browder Committee, 1984-05-14) Back, Toby; Cohen Chatov, SophiaSophia Cohen Chatov, born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1936, discusses her upbringing in hiding beginning when she was 4 years old across parts of rural Holland with various non-Jewish families and individuals who took in Jewish chidlren. Over three years and twelve relocations, Sophia changed her name numerous times and grappled with her Jewish identity, loneliness and isolation in hiding, and adapting to the many different cultures who provided a safe haven for her and other Jewish children. She also discusses how her other family members spent their time in hiding apart from each other, and the family's reunion after the war.Item Charles R. Sandler Interview(Browder Committee, 1990) Back, Toby; Sandler, CharlesCharles R. Sandler describes joining the US Army in April 1941; serving with the 11th Armored Division for the duration of the war. He was involved in the liberation of the Mauthausen and nearby Gusen concentration camps in May 1945; his task force encountered a brief residuum.