Episode 9 — Celia Kassow — Part 2

Drawing from one of the world's most extensive collections of its kind, Those Who Were There: Voices from the Holocaust presents intimate, first-person audio drawn from video testimonies. Each episode is built entirely from these historical recordings, preserved by the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University. You will hear survivors, witnesses, and liberators speak in their own words, recounting memories of life before, during, and after the Holocaust. The power of this podcast lies in its directness-there is no host narration or commentary interwoven with these voices, allowing the testimonies to stand with a profound and unmediated clarity. Listening feels like sitting in the room as someone shares a deeply personal history, detailing moments of profound loss, unexpected resistance, and fragile survival. These are not generalized histories, but specific, human stories of individuals, families, and communities. The Fortunoff Archive’s mission to document these narratives finds a compelling and accessible form in this audio series, making these vital primary sources available to a wider audience. By focusing on the audio from the original interviews, the podcast creates a uniquely focused and intimate experience, emphasizing the tone, the pause, and the emotion in every account. It is an essential educational resource that moves beyond textbooks to connect us directly to the lived reality of the twentieth century's defining tragedy.