Survivor Voices: Online Video Testimonies

Click on the image of each Holocaust survivor to see their video testimonies, a photo gallery, and an interactive map as well as a timeline of their experiences.

Please scroll down for teaching materials.

Peter Metzelaar

Peter was born in Amsterdam in 1935. In 1942, when Peter was only 7 years old, the Nazis seized his entire family, except for his mother Elli and him. The Dutch Underground contacted Klaus and Roefina Post on the Metzelaars’ behalf seeking a place of refuge. The Posts risked their lives to shelter Peter and his mother on...

Video 1 – “Juden Raus”
Video 2 – “The Cave”
Video 3 – “Red Cross Uniform”

Klaus Stern

In 1942, Klaus was a young, newly married man in Berlin, Germany. With the rise of the Nazi party, Klaus began to feel increasingly ostracized, even among his childhood friends. On the 19th of April 1943, both Klaus and his wife Paula were deported to Auschwitz. Upon their arrival, they were separated and would remain...

Video 1 – “My best friend Walter”
Video 2 – “Identity Card”
Video 3 – “The Tattoo”
Video 4 – “Reunion with Paula”

Frieda Soury

In 1943, at the age of 14, Frieda was deported to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in her native country of Czechoslovakia. Frieda was designated a “mischling,” meaning half-Jewish: Frieda’s mother was not Jewish, but her father was. Frieda was assigned to a room with more than 20 other girls. She remembers...

Video 1 – “My dog”
Video 2 – “14 years old”
Video 3 – “My Mother’s Visit”

Teaching Materials - Using Survivor Testimonies

1. Using Survivor Testimony - to create comics: a story in drawings.
By Lindsey Mutschler, Lake Washington Girls Middle School, Seattle.

• See Sample Comic
  

2. Using Survivor Testimony - to teach about the Holocaust and to connect these lessons to today.
By Suzanne Bottelli, The Northwest School, Seattle.

3. Using Survivor Testimony - to understand resistance during the Holocaust.
By Carrie McCallum, St. Helens High School, St. Helens, OR.

MORE RESOURCES...

Goals for using testimony in the classroom - Yad Vashem, International School for Holocaust Studies
Teaching With Testimony - By Steven Smith, Director of the USC Shoah Foundation
Suggested websites
Additional handouts and lessons

This exhibit was designed and built by Katie Welch.