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Auschwitz Never Left Me

Eyewitness Talk On Experiences and Fates of German Jews during the Nazi Era (video recording available, in German)

For this series of talks, the Jewish Museum Berlin invited six eyewitnesses to tell a wider audience about their fates during the Nazi era. These witnesses are closely linked to the Jewish Museum Berlin as donors. A presentation of the objects, documents, or photographs they donated, readings from selected texts or the showing of film clips will precede the talks.

recording available

Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The Old Building is marked in green

Where

Old Building, level 2, Great Hall
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin

Video recording of the eyewitness talk with Anita Lasker Wallfisch on 28 May 2018, in German; Jewish Museum Berlin 2018

Anita Lasker Wallfisch

Born in Breslau in 1925, Anita Lasker Wallfisch grew up in a middle-class Jewish family. She received her first cello lesson at an early age, and from 1938 she studied cello with Leo Rostal in Berlin. In 1942, Anita and her sister Renate had to perform forced labor and in the same year, their parents were deported to Izbica and murdered. After a failed attempt to escape, the sisters were arrested and deported separately to Auschwitz in 1943. As a cellist in the Auschwitz women's orchestra, Anita managed to save her own and her sister’s life. After liberation in Bergen-Belsen where the sisters last fought for survival, Anita Lasker Wallfisch immigrated to England and became co-founder of the English Chamber Orchestra.

This event is organized with the support of Berliner Sparkasse.

Please note: These are the new dates for the cancelled event. Due to popular demand, we are offering two new dates: 28 and 29 May, 7 pm, in the Great Hall, Old Building, level 2.

Older lady with microphone in armchair, talking

Anita Lasker Wallfisch; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Hans Georg Gaul

Where, when, what?

  • When28 + 29 May 2018
  • Where Old Building, level 2, Great Hall
    Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
    See location on map

Event Series: Eyewitness Talks (17)

  • Eyewitness Talks

    In this event series eyewitnesses tell of their fates during the nazi era (video recordings available, in German, some of them with English subtitles)

  • B-W image. Heavily yellowed. A woman, a child and a man in formal dress look friendly into the camera.

    From Munich to La Paz

    From Munich to La Paz Eyewitness talk with Manfred Eisner

    Eyewitness Talk
    Mon 23 Jun 2025, 7 pm

  • Black and white photo of a toddler in leather pants, next to him kneels a woman in skirt and blouse, in the background a house and many plants.

    In Two Worlds

    Eyewitness talk with Jack Weil, witness of the second generation, in German

    Video Recording
    Mon 10 Mar 2025, 7 pm

  • Black and white photo: Portrait of a dark-haired boy. He looks friendly into the camera.

    Kurt Salomon Maier: Life and Trajectory of a Jewish Family from Baden

    Born in southern Baden in 1930, he was deported to France at age ten. In 1941, an affidavit from relatives enabled his family to emigrate to the United States.

    Video Recording
    28 Oct 2024

  • Collage in gray-blue on an orange background with a blue zigzag line: the head of a man in a diving bell, his hand holding a hose, next to it a manometer.

    Hidden in Enschede. Conversation with Contemporary Witness Herbert Zwartz

    Part of the program accompanying the exhibition “My Verses Are Like Dynamite” Curt Bloch’s Underwater Cabaret, in German

    Video Recording
    16 Apr 2024

  • Woman with open book in hands looks friendly into camera.

    Ruth Weiss – Paths Through Tough Grass

    Eyewitness Talk – Experiences and Fates of Jews during the Nazi Era, in German, with English and German subtitles

    Video Recording
    20 Sep 2022

  • Portrait of an elderly man (Harry Raymon) with gray hair and mustache, a film poster can be seen in the background.

    Harry Raymon: Different from the Start

    Harry Raymon was born in 1926 in Kirchberg, a town in the Hunsrück upland of southwestern Germany, to a family of Jewish businesspeople. In 1936, his family fled the Nazis and emigrated to the United States, in German

    Video Recording
    28 Feb 2022

  • Portrait of an elderly woman in an armchair

    In Conversation with Eva Schloss

    On 27 January 1945, 15-year-old Eva Geiringer and her mother Elfriede were among the around 7,000 people who witnessed the liberation of the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps by the Soviet Army, in German, with English subtitles

    Video Recording
    27 Jan 2021

  • People touch a large touchscreen wall that displays documents and objects

    The Family Album

    Peter Schaul recounts the life of his mother, Dora Schaul, whose estate is part of the interactive installation The Family Album, in German

    Video Recording
    9 Nov 2020

  • Portrait of Zvi Aviram.

    Zvi Aviram: Brushes with Death

    Zvi Aviram was born in January 1927 in Berlin as Heinz Abrahamsohn. From age 14, he had to perform forced labor in the arms industry. During the so-called factory operation on 27 February 1943, his parents were arrested and deported and he himself went into illegality, in German

    Video Recording
    16 Sep 2019

  • Photography: Portrait of an elderly man

    Sally Perel: Hitlerjunge Salomon

    Sally Perel was born in Peine in April 1925. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union he pretended to be a Volksdeutscher and called himself Josef Perjell, in German

    Video Recording
    12 Jun 2019

  • Peter Neuhof

    Peter Neuhof: A Youth in the Shadow of the Persecution

    Peter Neuhof speaks about his memories and experiences in an interview with Aubrey Pomerance, head of the archive (in German). His parents were active members of the German Communist Party (KPD) and were arrested in 1943. Peter was able to remain in the parental home, in German

    Video Recording
    3 Dec 2018

  • Portrait of Hanni Levy

    Hanni Levy: Surviving in Berlin

    Born in 1924, survived the Nazi era in hiding in Berlin with the help of friends, in German

    Video Recording
    25 Jun 2018

  • Older lady with microphone in armchair, talking.

    Anita Lasker Wallfisch

    Born in Breslau in 1925, Anita Lasker Wallfisch studied cello in Berlin from 1938. In 1942, Anita’s parents were deported to Izbica and murdered, and in 1943 Anita and her sister Renate were deported to Ausschwitz, in German

    Video Recording
    28 May 2018

  • Woman (Margot Friedländer) with white hair and striking amber necklace looks friendly into the camera.

    Margot Friedländer: Try to Make Your Life

    Margot Friedländer was born in 1921 in Berlin and has had close ties with the museum for many years. She reads from her memoir, which takes its title from her mother’s last message to her: Try to Make Your Life. Followed by a brief discussion with Aubrey Pomerance, Head of the Archive, in German

    Video Recording
    9 Apr 2018

  • Portrait of a man.

    Walter Frankenstein: Not with Us

    Born in 1924 in West Prussia, Walter Frankenstein lived in Berlin from 1936. When deportation threatened, he went into hiding with his wife and their five-week-old son. The family managed to survive with the help of friends, in German

    Video Recording
    31 Jan 2018

  • Kurt Roberg

    Kurt Roberg: A Visa Or Your Life

    Born 1924 in Celle, emigration at the end of 1938 via the Netherlands, return to Berlin in March 1941 and re-emigration in May 1941 via Lisbon to the USA, in German

    Video Recording
    4 Dec 2017

  • Henry Wuga

    Henry Wuga: A Nuremberger from Glasgow

    Henry Wuga was born to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father in Nuremberg in 1924. In 1938, his parents were able to send him to Scotland with a children’s transport, in German

    Video Recording
    23 Oct 2017

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