MS – 215 Emmanuel Ringelblum Collection Of Oral History Memoirs of the Holocaust

Introduction

The Emmanuel Ringelblum Collection of Oral History Memoirs of the Holocaust was officially accessioned into the Wright State University Department of Archives and Special Collections in April 1991. Professor Charles Berry, Wright State University Department of History and Director of the Survivors of the Holocaust Oral History Project, arranged for its deposit.

The collection consists of audio-taped interviews with thirty-four individuals and videotape interviews with nine individuals. There are typed transcripts available for each audio-taped interview. The collection is open to the public without restriction for the purpose of study and research.

Biographical Sketch

The Survivors of the Holocaust Oral History Project was established in 1977 as a joint effort by Wright State University and Antioch College. Its purpose was to interview and preserve the stories of survivors of the Holocaust who settled in the Dayton area. Dr. Charles Berry, Professor of History at Wright State University, directed and coordinated the project. The interviews were conducted by various volunteers.

At the conclusion of the project in 1991, thirty-four individuals had been interviewed on audiotape with typed transcripts prepared for each individual interview. In addition, a series of videotape programs based upon the interviews was produced. The Collection is named for Emmanuel Ringelblum, archivist and historian of the Warsaw Ghetto, who carefully collected material to document all aspects of life in the Ghetto during the years 1939-1943.

Scope and Content

The Emmanuel Ringelblum Collection of Oral History Memoirs of the Holocaust is divided into two series: Series I: The Audio-taped Interviews and Transcripts, and Series II: The Videotaped Programs.

Series I consists of thirty-four individual interviews, each with an accompanying typed transcript. The stories of some of the older subjects begin during the early decades of the twentieth century and trace the individual’s life up to the day of the interview. Not all of the interviewees were incarcerated in concentration camps, but each had his or her life greatly altered by the Nazi regime.

Series II consists of three videotape programs based upon the audio interviews. These programs were created to supplement Holocaust curriculum in the classroom, and as a resource for Holocaust education. Ten people appear on the tapes: five survivors of the Holocaust, a daughter of a survivor, two liberators, a protector, and a young German student.

Collection Inventory

Series I: Audio Tapes and Transcripts

1. HELEN ABRAMOVITZ – Interviews by: Julie Orenstein (1 cassette)

2. CARMEN APPEL – Interviewed by: Julie Orenstein (2 cassettes)

3. WERNER BECKER – Interviewed by: Stephen Kahn (1 cassette)

4. DONALD BENDER – Interviewed by: Julie Orenstein (1 cassette)

5. MARGARET EBERT – Interviewed by: Barbara Turoff (2 cassettes)

6. HANS ERMAN – Interviewed by: Carole Erich (3 cassettes)

7. HELENE ERMAN – Interviewed by: Carole Erich (2 cassettes)

8. JOHN FARNBACHER – Interviewed by: Julie Orenstein (1 cassette)

9. JOHANNES FEENSTRA – Interviewed by: Willis Stoesz (5 cassettes)

10. ROBERT FEIST – Interviewed by: Charles Berry (2 cassettes)

11. RUTH FEIST – Interviewed by: Ann Hurst (1 cassette)

12. KURT FISH – Interviewed by: Rose Mary Lawson (3 cassettes)

13. LEE FISHMAN – Interviewed by: Julie Orenstein (1 cassette)

14. EMMA FIZZLEWICS – Interviewed by: Cynthia Wolfe (2 cassettes)

15. RACHAEL FRYDMAN – Interviewed by: Willis Stoesz (5 cassettes)

16. FELIX GARFUNKEL – Interviewed by: Carole Erich (2 cassettes)

17. RENATE HARLAN – Interviewed by: Julie Orenstein (1 cassette)

18. ERNEST HEILBRONNER – Interviewed by: Carole Erich (2 cassettes)

19. EUGENE KRAUS – Interviewed by: Rose Mary Lawson (2 cassettes)

20. ESTHER LAWNER – Interviewed by: Julie Orenstein (2 cassettes)

21. PAUL LEESER – Interviewed by: Cary Kozberg (2 cassettes)

22. LILLIE LEVINE – Interviewed by: Cynthia Wolfe (2 cassettes)

23. HANS LIEBERMAN – Interviewed by: Charles Berry (3 cassettes)

24. LOTTIE LIEBERMAN – Interviewed by: Charles Berry (2 cassettes)

25. JERZY LUBELFELD – Interviewed by: Carole Erich (3 cassettes)

26. LYDIA MAY – Interviewed by: Charles Berry (3 cassettes)

27. BEN MULER – Interviewed by: Julie Orenstein (2 cassettes)

28. BERNICE MULER – Interviewed by: Julie Orenstein (1 cassette)

29. HANNAH NORTHWAY – Interviewed by: Barbara Turoff (1 cassette)

30. SIG SANDER – Interviewed by: Cary Kozberg (1 cassette)

31. HELGA SILBERMANN – Interviewed by: Rose Mary Lawson (2 cassette)

32. HENRY STEEBER – Interviewed by: Charles Berry (6 cassettes)

33. ABE STINE – Interviewed by: Charles Berry (2 Cassettes)

34. MURRAY WEISMAN – Interviewed by: Allan Spetter (3 cassettes)

Series II: Videotape Programs

Tape #1 –

HELGA LEVY, survivor
MURRAY WEISMAN, survivor
RACHAEL FRYDMAN, survivor

Tape #2 –

BEN and BERNICE MULER, survivors
CHARLES FROUG, liberator

Tape #3 –

RICHARD SIEBEL, liberator
JOANNA VAN SCHAGEN, protector
MARLENE STINE, daughter of survivor
JUDITH, a young German