Survivor Testimony

“The shared experience of listening to a survivor bearing witness is like no other experience…It inevitably affects us deeply and literally changes the way we feel about history and ourselves.”
—Margot Stern Strom, Facing History and Ourselves’ Founder and Executive Director

Survivor testimonies—firsthand accounts from individuals who lived through genocide and other atrocities—help students more deeply appreciate and empathize with the human dimensions of important moments in history. They supplement what we learn from historians and secondary sources by offering unique perspectives on the difficult and sometimes impossible decisions individuals were forced to confront during moments of collective violence and injustice. The classroom discussions that follow an exploration of survivor testimonies often complicate students’ ideas about choices, compassion, courage, rescue, resistance, memory, and legacy. These rich conversations reconfirm the significance of our work—to educate students to find their voice and then use it to contribute to the world around them.

To request a speaker for your class check with your program associate and submit this form.

Survivor Profiles

Survivor Profiles give students access to video testimony, as well as primary source documents, photographs, and biographical information about the survivor. They can be used to to bring survivor voices into the classroom or to help prepare for a survivor visit.

	Dr. Maurice Vanderpol Maurice (Ries) Vanderpol was born on July 12, 1922, in Amsterdam, Holland into a middle class Jewish family. His parents worked very hard to give their children a secure existence and future. He attended public schools and had many friends of various religious and ethnic backgrounds.
	Sonia Weitz Sonia Schreiber Weitz was born in 1928 in Krakow, Poland, where she lived a "modest but comfortable" life in the Jewish section of the city. Her mother, Adela Finder Schreiber, was a dedicated housewife and her father, Janek (Jacob) Schreiber, was a middle-class businessman who owned a small leather goods shop. Sonia was only eleven when the Germans invaded Poland.
	Rena Finder Rena Ferber Finder was born in Kracow, Poland in 1929 and grew up in a middle class neighborhood. Although antisemitism pervaded Kracow, Rena had a comfortable childhood surrounded by loving family and friends.
	Rita Lurie Rita Lurie was a five-year-old living in Poland when she and 14 other members of her family went into hiding from the Nazis. What they thought would be a week or two in an attic turned into almost two years.
	Hava Ben Zvi Hava Ben Zvi was born in 1929 in Warsaw, Poland. Her family was secular, meaning that while they were Jewish, they were not Orthodox or particularly religious. Hava went by the Polish version of her name, Eva. During her early childhood Hava lived with her parents and her older brother Michael.
	Zezette Larsen Born in Belgium, Zezette Larsen was just eleven years old when the Germans invaded her country. Sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943, she endured the early death of both her parents and two isolating and de-humanizing years in the camp.