Survivor testimonies

In this section you can listen to the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Choose from the following six topics to find out more.


Life before the Holocaust

Survivors in this section talk about how they encountered anti-Semitic discrimination before the war.


Ghettos and deportations

From 1939 the Nazis established ghettos all across the occupied countries, enabling them to isolate Jews from the general populations.


The camps

Six extermination camps had been constructed in Poland by the end of 1941, enabling Hitler to carry out his 'Final Solution'.



There were still those who resisted the Nazis in both ghettos and camps, despite the overwhelming obstacles they faced.



Liberation is often imagined as a time of celebration. However, survivors in this section, paint a rather different picture.


Testimony of Edith Birkin

Edith Birkin was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1927. In 1941 she entered the Lodz ghetto, Poland. She was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland in 1944.