About the Oral History Collection
The Virginia Holocaust Museum began recording oral histories in 1997 to preserve the firsthand accounts of people who had witnessed genocide. While the Museum’s oral history collection originally focused on Holocaust survivors and liberators, it has recently expanded to include other instances of genocide.
Today, the Oral History Archive contains over 230 digitized testimonies. Housed in the Carole Weinstein Holocaust Research Library, the oral history collection provides the personal stories of people who settled in the Commonwealth of Virginia and experienced a mass atrocity.
On-Going Efforts
The Virginia Holocaust Museum is actively seeking the testimony of survivors and witnesses of genocide or other mass atrocities. We welcome any information about those who might be interested in recording an interview with us. If you know of someone who is interested in creating a recording for our collection, please contact Timothy Hensley.
Our Testimonies Include
- Holocaust Survivors
- Holocaust Liberators
- Holocaust Partisans and Resistance Fighters
- Armenian Survivors
- Cambodian Survivors
- Rwandan Survivors
-
Solomon Zimm
-
Martha Gayle
-
Mark Strauss, Pt. 2
-
Mark Strauss, Pt. 1
-
Alexander Lebenstein
-
Aline Niyonteze
-
Halina’s Oral History, click to play
-
Simone Liebster
-
Otto Schimmel
-
Alphonso Beverly
A–D
- Althaus, Samuel
Holocaust Survivor, Poland (from 2005)
- Asher, Inga
Holocaust Survivor, Germany (from 1993)
- Beverly, Alphonso
Holocaust Liberator, United States (from 2002)
- Brodt, Hank
Holocaust Survivor, Poland (from 2006)
- Chan, Sokly
Genocide Survivor, Cambodia (from 2010)
- Coppard, Vera
Holocaust Survivor, Germany (from 2001)
- Daniels, Clara
Holocaust Survivor, Hungary (from 2007)
- DeVizcaya Hylton, Nicole
Holocaust Resistance, France (from 2002)
E–H
- Eliya, Zyta
Holocaust Survivor, Czechoslovakia (Sudenland) (from 2004)
- Fischer, Emeric
Holocaust Survivor, Hungary (from 2009)
- Gayle, Martha
Holocaust Liberator, United States (from 2001)
- Ginzburg, Alexandra
Holocaust Survivor, Belarus (from 2005)
- Gorbaty, Rivka
Holocaust Survivor, Romania (from 2005)
- Heller, Agnes
Holocaust Survivor, Hungary (from 2003)
- Hirsch, Margaret
Holocaust Survivor, Germany (from 2005)
I–L
- Ipson, Edna
Holocaust Survivor, Lithuania
- Ipson, Israel
Holocaust Survivor, Lithuania (from 1991)
- Kaplan, Rosalia
Holocaust Survivor, Holland (from 2006)
- Kende, Steven
Holocaust Survivor, Slovakia (from 2009)
- Koller, Rabbi Israel
Holocaust Survivor, Poland (from 2004)
- Landecker, George
Holocaust Survivor, East Prussia (from 2004)
- Lebenstein, Alexander
Holocaust Survivor, Germany (from 2004)
- Lehman, Ted
Holocaust Survivor, Poland (from 2004)
- Leviatan, Penina
Holocaust Survivor, Lithuania
- Liebster, Simone
Holocaust Survivor, French Jehovah's Witness (from 2013)
- Loria, Roger
Holocaust Survivor, Belgium
- Loupassi, Manuel
Holocaust Resistance, Greece (from 2005)
M–P
- Maizels, Henri
Holocaust Survivor, Poland (from 2004)
- Marcus, Ruth
Holocaust Survivor, France (from 1998)
- Marek, Marta
Holocaust Survivor, Slovakia (from 2003)
- Marks, Morton
w/ Ted Parker, Holocaust Liberator, United States
(from 1997) - Meth, Hilda
Holocaust Survivor, Romania (from 2004)
- Michel, Werner
Holocaust Resistance, Germany (from 2006)
- Modly, Edith
Holocaust Survivor, Hungary (from 2004)
- Niyonteze, Aline
Genocide Survivor, Rwanda (from 2012)
- Nshimye, Francoise and Jason
Genocide Survivors, Rwanda (from 2011)
- Parker, Ted
w/ Morton Marks, Holocaust Liberator, United States
(from 1997) - Pekar, Fanya
Holocaust Survivor, Ukraine (from 2004)
Q–T
- Rauch, Monique
Holocaust Survivor, France (from 1998)
- Rogers, Irvin
Holocaust Liberator, United States (from 2007)
- Sam, Amanda
Genocide Survivor, Cambodia (from 2012)
- Schimmel, Otto
Holocaust Survivor, Hungarian (from 2015)
- Shatz, Frank
Holocaust Survivor, Czechoslovakia (from 2001)
- (Simmons) Atkins, Hella
w/ Wishner, Lisa, Holocaust Survivors, Netherlands (from 2005)
- (Simmons) Wishner, Lisa
w/ Atkins Hella, Holocaust Survivors, Netherlands (from 2005)
- Strauss, Mark Pt. 1 Pt. 2
Holocaust Survivor, Poland/Ukraine (from 2003)
- Toth, Juliana
Holocaust Survivor, Hungary (from 2003)
U–W
X–Z
- Zimm, Alan
Holocaust Survivor, Poland (from 2013)
- Zimm, Halina
Holocaust Survivor, Poland (from 2013)
- Zimm, Helen
Holocaust Survivor, Poland (from 1998)
- Zimm, Solomon
Holocaust Survivor, Poland
Access
Many of these interviews are posted on our Youtube channel. These testimonies, however, represent only a few out of the hundreds of oral histories we have recorded over the year. If you are interested in viewing an oral history from the VHM collection, please contact Timothy Hensley to schedule an appointment.