The Shoah Foundation interviewed many survivors to tell their stories through testimony. They interviewed both my grandparents about their experiences in the Holocaust.
My grandpa had shared parts of his story with us - some through Coochie Boy, a created persona who was the main character in some awfully creepy bedtime stories, and others through sketches he did of the evacuation of the ghetto and other pivotal moments during the war. If you asked, grandpa had stories for hours.
Growing up, we always knew not to ask grandma anything. She didn't want to talk about it. So we never did.
In 1997, when I was a sophomore in college, my family went to visit my grandparents in Florida over some winter break. They said, "we did interviews. The tapes are in the living room. We don't really want you to watch them. We're going to bed."
So of course, we stayed up all night watching them. My grandpa had five tapes and my grandma had four. Of course my grandpa's city, Czestochowa, Poland entered the war in 1939 and my grandma's city Munkach in Czechoslovakia, then Hungary, now Ukraine, entered in 1944. Some of my grandpa's stories were familiar. This was the first time anyone in my family heard my grandma's stories. And it was the first time even my dad heard the story of how they got engaged!
Earlier this year I wrote to the Shoah Foundation to request their stories, as I figured they must be available digitally, not just these VHS cassettes that float amongst family members. Within two minutes I had them all in my inbox. I watched them again. And now that my grandpa is gone, it's so nice to see him again and hear his voice. I'm posting his story here for others to hear - in his words - though it is long.
Interviews of Joseph Birnholtz, 1996 are from the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education. For more information: https://sfi.usc.edu
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