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.

The Dilemmas Posed by Collective Punishment in Forced Labor Camps During WWII

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Martin Schiller, Polish-born child survivor of the Holocaust, recalls how the German policy of collective responsibility posed moral dilemmas for prisoners in the camps.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Martin Schiller.

This excerpt is in English.

Martin Schiller was born in Poland in 1933.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Praying in Synagogue on the Eve of the Holocaust

1 min 50 sec

Experiencing Polish Antisemitism As A Child Before WWII

4 min 13 sec

The People of Chelm and the Cat

2 min 59 sec

"A Tremendously Liberating Feeling": Sabotaging the German War Machine

4 min 2 sec

Debating the Existence of God During and After the Holocaust

5 min 15 sec

Saving My Mother and Brother from Execution

5 min 4 sec

Learning Yiddish Songs From M. Shtrigler in Buchenwald

4 min

A Fellow Yeshiva Student Questions the Holocaust

3 min 8 sec

That's When I Fell In Love With The Nation of Israel: Singing While Baking Matzah

2 min

"Shabbes for Me Was A Song From Friday Night Until The End": Celebrating Shabbes in Tarnobrzeg, Poland in the 1930s

1 min 34 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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