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.

Everything is Chance: A Survivor Offers Her Thoughts on How People Survived the Holocaust

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Lea Szlanger, a Yiddish actress born in Poland, shares why she feels people survived the Holocaust. Quoting a poem by Polish Poem Szymborska, Lea explains that she believes everything is chance.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Lea Szlanger.

This excerpt is in Yiddish.

Lea Szlanger was born in Kalisz, Poland in 1932.

This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

My Career as Yiddish-Speaking Actress in Poland and Israel

3 min 41 sec

Fantasy with Truth: Working and Drinking Coffee All Night with Joseph Buloff

2 min 8 sec

Yiddish Theater in Israel when Yiddish was Suppressed

1 min 45 sec

Performing with Joseph Buloff in Israel

3 min 19 sec

A Yiddish Radio Show in Israel

2 min 11 sec

"It's Not Important Why": A Revived Interest in Yiddish in Israel Today

2 min 50 sec

Words of Advice from a Veteran Performer for Actors Coming into Yiddish Theater

1 min 35 sec

Emotional Torture of Jewish Men in Bialystok by Nazi Soldiers

1 min

"A Modne Gefil" (A Strange Feeling): Visiting Warsaw in Search of Relatives After World War II

2 min 13 sec

High Heels in the Sand: A Young Actress's First Impression of Israel

2 min 21 sec

"You'll Be an Engineer of Hearts": How Jakub Rotbaum Convinced Me to Become an Actress Instead of an Engineer

1 min 3 sec

Learning from Joseph Buloff

2 min 11 sec

Yiddish Theater in Israel

2 min 12 sec

Shimon Dzigan and Yisroel Schumacher As I Knew Them

1 min 41 sec

"There was No One Like Her": Ida Kaminska

2 min 29 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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