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Survivor Stories

The testimony of a Holocaust or genocide survivor is a poignant addition to any commemoration. The story of a survivor in their own words, while potentially upsetting, will help the audience to appreciate the effect of the Holocaust and genocide on individuals and their families.

It is impossible for a survivor to attend every local event and extracts from the stories of survivors can be used during an event with great impact. Testimonies can be used for research by students and event organisers to gain a greater understanding of the Holocaust.

• Holocaust Testimony: Freddie Knoller

  I was stunned looking at a bundle of letters and seeing the unmistakable, elegant handwriting of my father who perished in Auschwitz in 1943...

• Holocaust Testimony: Anita Lasker-Wallfisch

  I was born in the town of Breslau, which was German then and is Polish now. My father was a lawyer and my mother was a beautiful lady and a very fine violinist.

• Holocaust Testimony: Renee Salt

  I was born Rywka Ruchla Berkowitz in Zdunska-Vola, Poland, in 1929 and lived with my parents and younger sister. My father was an accountant and my mother a housewife.

• Holocaust Testimony: Trude Levi

  I was born and brought up in Szombathely, a provincial town on the Austrian border in Hungary. My mother came from Vienna and was a language teacher

• Holocaust Testimony: Martha Blend

  When, in 1938, the Germans invaded Austria, my parents knew that as Jews, we were in for a hard time. They had read about Hitler's harassment of the Jews of Germany in the newspaper, but had thought wrongly that he wouldn't invade our country.

• Holocaust Testimony: Roman Halter

  I was 12 years old in September 1939 when Hitler's troops entered Poland. I was the seventh child in our family and the youngest...

• Holocaust Testimony: Nicole David

  I was born in Antwerp in September 1936, the only daughter of Chawa Matzner and Munisch Schneider, my parents having moved to Belgium from Poland in the 1920s

• Cambodian Testimony: Mardi Seng

  Mardi Seng was 10 years old when the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh.

• Cambodian Testimony: Ranachith (Ronnie) Yimsut

  Ronnie Yimsut was 13 years old when the Khmer Rouge swept into Phnom Penh in 1975. He and his extended family were removed from their homes in Siem Reap, near the famed ruins of Angkor, and forced to work in collective camps. During the last week of 1977, Ronnie's family was horded up for the last time before being killed by the Khmer Rouge. Of the dozens killed on that December day, only Ronnie survived.

• Cambodian Testimony: Sophal Leng Stagg

  Sophal Leng Stagg was nine years old when she and her family were forced to leave their home in Phnom Penh in April 1975, joining the millions of Cambodians who were devastated by the Khmer Rouge.

• Rwandan Testimony: Clare

  My name is Clare. I am a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. This is my testimony. I was born in Kibuye, Gitesi. I was married to Leonel. Both he and my two children were killed in the genocide. Only my brother and I survived. I am now 30 years old.

• Rwandan Testimony: Freddy Mutanguha

  My name is Freddy and I was 18 years old at the time of the genocide.

• Rwandan Testimony: Beata Uwazaninka

  My name is Beata and I was born in Rwanda in 1980. At the time of the genocide, I was 14 years old. My father's name was Joseph Nemeye and my mother's Devotha Uwimana.

• Holocaust Testimony: Eve, Rudi and Paul Oppenheimer: The Last Train From Belsen

  Every Holocaust survivor has a different story. This is certainly true for the story of the three Oppenheimer children, Eve, Rudi and Paul.

• Holocaust Testimony: Malka Levine

  I was born in 1939 in a town called Vladimir-Volinsk in western Ukraine. I am one of three children and my two brothers, Chaim and Shalom, also survived the Holocaust.

• Holocaust Testimony: Esther Brunstein

  More than half a century has passed since the events I am going to describe took place, but for me not a single day has gone by without me reliving at some point the pain and the trauma. It just comes and haunts me. I still cannot come to terms with - let alone comprehend - the total, calculated destruction of the world I knew, and the life I was born into.

• Holocaust Testimony: Kitty Hart-Moxon

  I was born Kitty Felix in a town called Bielsko in Poland, which in 1939 was very close to the German and Czechoslovakian frontiers.