The memorial's collection of interviews
To date, more than 450 audiovisual interviews totalling around 2100 hours have been recorded. The material has been fully digitised and has been available in full HD format since 2010. It includes biographies of people born between 1911 and 1976 from 23 different countries. The Collection forms a central source material of the memorial.
-
Noomi Rinat-Tal (*1932) was persecuted as a Jew in the Netherlands and was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with her family. Her sister and father perished. Today she lives in Israel. The interviews with her took place in 2004 and 2005. -
Albrecht Weinberg was born into a Jewish family in East Frisia in 1925. He survived Auschwitz, Mittelbau-Dora and Bergen-Belsen. After 65 years in the USA, he returned to Germany and is still a very active contemporary witness despite his advanced age. The interview with him was conducted in 2013. -
Maria Gniatczyk (1927-2017) was deported to Auschwitz for political reasons during the Warsaw uprising and liberated in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She reported on her persecution and her later activities on behalf of Polish survivors in interviews in 2001 and 2012. -
As a young boy, Gerd Klestadt (1932-2025) had to flee Germany with his Jewish family. He was deported from the Netherlands to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where his father died. Gerd Klestadt later lived in Luxembourg and worked as a contemporary witness. Interviews were conducted with him in 2013 and 2014. -
Anastasija Gulej (*1925) was deported from the Soviet Union in 1943 as a forced labourer and ended up as a political prisoner in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. She has lived in Kiev since 1969 and continues to support concentration camp survivors in Ukraine to this day. An interview with her took place in 2008. -
Thanks to forged papers, Celino Bleiweiss (born 1937) was rescued from a Jewish ghetto and transported to the Bergen-Belsen exchange camp. His parents were murdered. In an interview in 2013, he spoke about his impressive life. He lives in Israel and Germany. -
Lous Steenhuis-Hoepelman (1941-2023) belonged to the group of "Unknown Children". These were Dutch-Jewish infants who were imprisoned in Westerbork, Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt without their parents. During the 2013 interview, Lous Steenhuis had her doll "Mies" with her, who accompanied her through the concentration camps. -
Oskar Böhmer (1920-2005) was persecuted as a Sinto during the Nazi era. Almost his entire family perished. He survived Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. In the interview he gave in 2001, he impressively describes the fate of his family's persecution and his chequered life. -
At the age of 15, Maria Jaworska (1928-2020) was imprisoned in the "youth detention camp" in Lodz for political reasons. This was followed by imprisonment in Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. She later became a lawyer. She spoke about her life in an interview in Warsaw in 2003. -
Prof György Denes (1923-2015) was persecuted as a Jew in Hungary. He travelled from Budapest to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944 and was later liberated in Theresienstadt. Denes was committed to the persecuted organisation in Hungary throughout his life. The interviews were recorded in 2001 and 2009. -
Florence Schulmann was born in March 1945 in the Women's Camp of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where her mother had been taken from a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. In 2016, Florence Schulmann spoke about her extraordinary biography in an interview. She lives in Paris. -
Mieczyslaw Zajac (1919-2007) was a member of the Polish underground army during the German occupation. After his arrest, he was held in various prisons and concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Mittelbau-Dora and Bergen-Belsen, where he was liberated. The interview took place in 2007.
The audiovisual documentation of life stories centres on the survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In accordance with the prisoner structure, the number of interviews with Jewish people and politically persecuted persons predominates. Around a third of the interviews were conducted with so-called child survivors who were subjected to persecution as children. In addition, a smaller number of interviews were conducted with Sinti* and Roma*, former Polish and Soviet Prisoners of War, Italian Military Internees and other eye witnesses such as former British soldiers, members of aid organisations in the DP camp and local residents. Decades after the liberation, it was no longer possible to speak to women and men of all prisoner categories. For example, there are no interviews from the group of men imprisoned in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp because of their homosexuality. The same applies to former prisoners from the groups of so-called "antisocials" or "professional criminals".
Expanding our stock of interviews
In recent years, new groups of witnesses have been included in the interview project, such as the so-called second generation (children of survivors) and people who can contribute important knowledge to the local culture of remembrance and the history of the memorial site.
The biographies show the individual experience and personal view of the historical events on the basis of individual fates. They supplement the incomplete records and address events and situations about which little or nothing is known from other sources. Many aspects, in particular the history of the camp and the living and survival conditions, can only be documented through these ego documents. The life history approach of the interviews documents not only the phase of Nazi persecution and the Second World War, but also the life situation of the people before and after.