All oral histories on this page were produced at Carleton University. The raw footage for these oral histories are available to other researchers and are housed at the Carleton University archives.
Below you will find 10 excerpts of Ottawa Holocaust survivors’ testimonials.
The Zelikovitz Centre is proud of this project and of the work done by members of the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship (CHES) to make these oral histories available to researchers, educators, students, and the public. For more information on CHES, please see: https://chesatottawa.ca/
Antisemitism – prejudice and hatred of Jews – existed in Europe for generations before Hitler came to power. The Holocaust has its roots in a long history of hatred of Jews. With the rise of Nazism anti-Semitism became an instrument of the deliberate policy to murder all of Europe’s Jews.
In Germany restrictions and discrimination against the Jews grew with the rise of Hitler to power in 1933. After that the situation of the Jews deteriorated rapidly and following Kristallnacht in 1938 the atrocities increased.
The experience of Jews elsewhere in Europe varied during the Holocaust, depending on whether and when the country in which they lived was occupied by the Nazis, whether their country was an ally of Nazi Germany, as well as various other circumstances.
The half hour short films presented here detail the survivors’ experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust. The testimonials include different survival experiences in different parts of Europe: surviving ghettos in Hungary, Nazi slave labor camps in Germany, Nazi death camps in Poland, hiding in non-Jewish homes in Holland and France, hiding in a dugout in the Ukraine, and surviving as refugees in Romania and Shanghai.
Each story is unique and offers a glimpse into what it must have been like to live through the traumatic events of the Holocaust. The films are testimonies based on the survivors’ personal experience. They have been reviewed to ensure historical accuracy and are intended to be used as pedagogical tools”.
To see the complete half hour of each of the survivors’ testimonies please click here (this page also contains an additional 11th testimony which was recorded by a hand-held camera).
– Mina Cohn, Director, Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship (CHES)
Excerpts from Ottawa Holocaust Survivors Testimonials:
Elly Bollegraaf
Elly Bollegraaf
Elly Bollegraaf, born in 1940 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Survived as a hidden child in the south of Holland. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.
Tova Clark
Tova Clark, born in 1939 in Opeln, Germany. Child survivor, survived in Shanghai, China. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.
Jessica Fiksel
Jessica Fiksel, born in Lwow, Poland (1930 – August 21, 2020). Child survivor, survived by hiding in a barn dugout for 22 months. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.
Vera Gara
Vera Gara, born in 1933 in Vienna, Austria. Child survivor, survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.
Dr. Agnes Klein, MD
Dr. Agnes Klein, MD, born in 1937 in Brasov, Romania. Child survivor, survived on a farm in Romania. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.
Raoul Korngold
Raoul Korngold, born in 1936 in Strasbourg, France. Child survivor, survived under false identity in France. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.
Cantor Kraus
Cantor Kraus, born in 1923 in Uzhorod, Czechoslovakia. Survived Bor labor camp (Serbia) and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.
Kati Morrison
Kati Morrison, born in 1940, Budapest, Hungary. Child survivor, survived in a safe house and in Budapest Ghetto. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.
David Moskovic
David Moskovic, born in 1929 in Koňuš, Czechoslovakia. Survived Bunalager (Buna) slave labor camp and Buchenwald concentration camp. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.
Judy Young Drache
Judy Young Drache, born in 1943 in Budapest, Hungary. Child survivor, survived as a hidden baby in Budapest. To see the complete half hour video, please click here.