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Susan Berlin

Susan was born an only child to a conservative Jewish family in Roznava, Slovakia. Her mother and father owned a dry-goods store. Susan was thirteen years old when the war began. News of the evils of the concentration camps reached Roznava and Susan’s father decided to take his family out of Slovakia as fast as possible. Her father had a brother in the United States that would assist her family in receiving Visas. They sailed into New York City on the S.S. Washington on August 3, 1939.

Other Survivor Volunteers

MEMORY PROJECT

A sense of duty and obligation to share experiences and memories is real and present for many Holocaust survivors. Relatively few, however, have an opportunity to share and many are not comfortable speaking publicly. The Memory Project provides survivors another outlet through which to share their memories. These writing workshops guide the survivor participants in the production of a document for their family members, as well as for historical archives. They are empowered to “speak” on their own terms. This is one more way the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum helps survivors to share their memories and add significantly to Holocaust remembrance. The Memory Project is based on the "Leave-A-Legacy" Writing Workshops developed by the Drew University Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study, to whom we are grateful for training and guidance provided in establishing this important program.

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Instructor Maggie Peterson describes her experiences working with the survivors on this project.
Former Memory Project Coordinator Elizabeth Anthony describes the development of this project.

Erika Eckstut (Neuman)

Lasting Memory
Remembers an opera singer who helped her outside the Czernowitz ghetto.

Teach Love, Not Hate
Describes how important it is to love and never to hate.

Frank Ephraim

Sardines
Describes the canned food his family stored as "escape" provisions.

Manya Friedman (Moszkowicz)

The Road to Freedom
A story of rescue from a camp during the last days of the war.

Images Etched into my Mind
Descriptions of her memories of her brothers.

A Pleasant Summer Day
Reminiscences of prewar summer days.

Fritz Gluckstein

TEDIUM!
Describes a forced-labor assignment.

31 Minutes
Describes building antitank obstacles in Berlin toward the end of the war.

Nesse Godin (Galperin)

The Russian Prisoner of War Grabbed the German Guard by the Neck, Trying to Choke Him
A story about a group of Russian prisoners of war who attempt to escape.

Charlene Schiff (Shulamit Perlmutter)

The Haystack-1942
Describes perils of life in hiding.

Flora Singer (Mendelowicz)

I Was But a Child
Describes locating a young cousin who had been hidden in a monastery during the Holocaust.

Esther Starobin (Rosenfeld)

Something That Saved Me
Recollections of how working with her hands helped her through difficult times.

The Meal Game
Describes family's stories and recollections.

The Cemetery
Poem about the loss of family.

The USHMM’s Guidelines for Conducting Oral Histories provides guidance on many aspects of conducting an interview. These pointers can also be helpful as a starting point to organize your thoughts and focus on topics of special interest for a writing project.