USC Visual History Archive

In my session on the Visual History Archive I was interested in looking at Holocaust survivors. Here are steps to get to my interview in the Archive. My overall experience with the Archive was positive, it was easy to access and I could easily find what I was looking for.

• I visited https://sfi.usc.edu/vha
• I started my search in 'Experience groups
• Under 'European Holocaust' I chose 'Jewish Survivors'
• Under 'Interview Information' I changed the language of the interview to 'English'
• Press 'Next' and a list of interviews are displayed
• I chose 'Frieda Aaron' 

I focused on segments 52-62 in the interview

In these parts of the interview, Frieda was describing the conditions of Warsaw ghettos in Poland that she was living in at the time of the Holocaust. As people were coming into the ghettos to find shelters, she explains that there weren't many cars for people to use. People had to drag, carry, or pull their possessions in a wagon into the ghettos. The ghettos were small and crowded with people. The winters were cold and harsh, and the people did not have a lot of food due to overcrowding. People who could not stay in the ghettos as guests were left to live in the streets during the winter. Freida describes the bodies lying all over the streets due to the cold and starvation. They would have to step over them has the walked because they were not moved for a while. When they were moved, a big truck gathered them and took them to the cemetery. Frieda describes her and her families hiding place in a closet. The closet was covered with a large piece of furniture to make it look like to people that there was no other room besides the one they were in. She then goes on to describe an event where and 8 year old boy was discovered with his family. He was spared, but forced to watch his family (father and mother) shot and killed in the street. 

Her stories of the dead in the streets and the shooting of the 8 year olds family was incredibly disturbing. It breaks my heart to hear that someone had to witness all of this and go through this struggle. The way these people were treated was inhumane, and they should have been helped instead  of left in the street to die.