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.

A Gathering Storm: Polish Antisemitism Before World War Two

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Helene Shafran, born to Yiddish-speaking Polish immigrants, describes the tensions that were already brewing among Jews and non-Jews in her husband's hometown on the eve of World War Two.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Helene Shafran.

This excerpt is in English.

Helene Shafran was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1934.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

Assimilation and Revival: Coming Back to Yiddish as an Adult

2 min 4 sec

Nostalgia and Resentment: Fond and Not So Fond Memories of Poland

1 min 13 sec

Linguistic Fusion: How Yiddish Speakers Made English Their Own

1 min 14 sec

A Safe Haven in Siberia During WWII

2 min 33 sec

"A Very Thin Line:" A Righteous Gentile Saves His Neighbors During WWII

4 min 2 sec

Uchanie: Memories of a European Shtetl

3 min 39 sec

Coming Back to Yiddish, With My Husband's Help

1 min 43 sec

Jewish Last Rites and a Bedside Minyan

1 min 58 sec

One is Better Than None: Mitzvot and the Aloha Chapel

2 min 26 sec

Reunion and Return: A Holocaust Survivor Reunites With His Father

4 min 12 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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