The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

Who Is A Survivor?: Reflections on Living through the Holocaust

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Gunther Rice reflects on his experiences during the Holocaust - how being deported from Germany likely saved him from being sent to a death camp, how he considers himself a refugee, and how he always thinks of himself as a Jew.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Gunther Rice.

This excerpt is in English.

Gunther Rice was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1924. Gunther died in 2020.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

Songs from the Synagogue Choir in Hamburg in the 1930s

2 min 18 sec

"It's Almost A Universal Language For Me": Yiddish Language Then and Now

2 min 27 sec

The Only Non-Jewish Teacher at the Talmud-Torah in Hamburg

1 min 31 sec

Running Across the Border into Poland

2 min 48 sec

Origins of Kindertransport, A UK-Based Organization That Took In Children Refugees in the 1930s

1 min 42 sec

We Don't Steal From Refugees: A Pickpocket Returned Stolen Money for Kindertransport

2 min 48 sec

Cherished Yiddish Letters from My Family in Wartime

3 min 21 sec

"Like Home": Speaking Yiddish

2 min 16 sec

To Israel or America After WWII?: Choosing Because A Refugee from the Continent Could Go In My Place

2 min 7 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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