Listening to the testimony of Malka Baran drew a vivid picture of life during the holocaust.

Malka Baran lived in Warsaw, Poland. Her childhood was a normal one where she enjoyed going to school, playing with other children, being with her friends, and going to the movies. Malkas family was a small one of four with her mother, father, and brother. They lived in a one bedroom apartment with a kitchen. When she was twelve years old in 1939, Germany occupied Poland. One of the first things she remembered they did was to close down the schools. Malka described the Germans occupation as a gradual restriction to their lifestyle like the Star of David, curfew hours were enforced, the food became bland, and businesses were shut down. A few years later around 1943, Malka told of the instance where SS men came and forced everyone out of their homes and into the streets. She referred to this as the selection she and her family experienced. Her mother was selected to go one way while she and her father and brother were selected to go to a labor camp. That was the last time she ever saw her mother. Her brother and father were soon shot in a field after that. Malka went on to describe life in the labor camp. Some three hundred women, herself included, were kept in barracks to sleep on bare wooden bunks with only the clothes on their backs. They worked with machines that repaired ammunition shells non-stop from morning to night. She told of one women that, Fell asleep or bent her head and her whole hair, skull was torn by the machine. Malka stayed at that labor camp, through disease and horrible conditions, until January of 1945 when the Russians drove off the Germans and liberated the camp. Word Count: 304 Malka Baran. Holocaust Survivor Malka Baran Testimony Interview by Shulamit Bastacky. USCShoahFoundation. YouTube, 6 Jan. 1997. Web. 1 July. 2012.

Ursula Levys account of the Holocaust paints a very real picture of how people were treated and what conditions were like. Ursula was from Oslabruk, Germany with her mother, father, and brother. She was very young at the time and her earliest memory was of her father in the hospital from being caught after the night of broken glass, which he soon died from. Ursula went on to explain how her mother was able to ensure her and her brother was sent to a safe place in Holland. The convent they stayed in was used to help children gain weight and become healthy. Of the 200 children there, 50 were half Jews and only 5 were actually Jewish. Ursula and her brother were of those 5. Unfortunately, the five were sent to concentration camps one after another. Ursula and her brother were sent to the same camp, but were divided into mens and womens barracks. She can remember the sickness, lice, starvation, and brutality that took place. However, a man by the name Vanacklenberg, visited her and her brother and even placed some doubt of their background in the Germans heads. You see. Those children dont look Jewish. Look how fair their skin is and they have blue eyes. They have a Catholic father and he lives in America. Because of that one lie, Ursula and her brother were spared from being taken to a death camp and given a few privileges. Throughout the war, they jumped to other camps, but because of Vanacklenbergs lie, they were never sent to a death camp. In 1945, Ursula described how they all were lined up and put on a train for 13 days going around in circles because the railway was blocked by the allies that were closing in until a group of Russian soldiers seized the train. Ursulas interview was an eye-opening experience to the horrors of the concentration camps. Word Count: 319

Ursula Levy. Holocaust Survivor Ursula Levy Testimony Interview by Marie Kaufman. USCShoahFoundation. YouTube, 3 March. 1997. Web. 1 July. 2012.