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The Human Spirit in the Holocaust
A PODCAST SERIES
The Human Spirit in the Holocaust podcast series shines a light on remarkable stories of courage during one of the darkest periods in human history. Each episode profiles individual stories of resilience, resistance and rescue.

With each episode at approximately 15 minutes, the podcast series can be readily incorporated into middle and high school Holocaust curricula, as well enjoyed by any type of learner.
Teachers will note that episodes can also be found in our teaching Units, linked from the appropriate, aligned lesson.The Human Spirit in the Holocaust is available for streaming and download on the following platforms.
Refuge In the Circus
ADOLF ALTHOFF
During the Holocaust, every Jew in Europe was marked for death. Options for survival were few. Those who could hide had a better chance of staying alive, but who would have the courage to help?
LISTEN TO ADOLF’S STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit VIII: Rescue and Righteous Among the Nations
Refuge In the Circus
ADOLF ALTHOFF
During the Holocaust, every Jew in Europe was marked for death. Options for survival were few. Those who could hide had a better chance of staying alive, but who would have the courage to help?
LISTEN TO ADOLF’S STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit VIII: Rescue and Righteous Among the Nations
  • L to R: Gerda, Sessy and Irene, Credit: 'Der Clown und die Zirkusreiterin', by Ingeborg Prior, published by Piper Verlag, Munich, Germany
  • The Bentos. L to R: Peter, his father Jose, his father's wife Margot, and Irene, Credit: 'Der Clown und die Zirkusreiterin', by Ingeborg Prior, published by Piper Verlag, Munich, Germany
  • Adolf Althoff, director of the Althoff circus, who saved Irene Danner and her family during the war, Yad Vashem photo archive
  • Maria and Adolf Althoff, Yad Vashem Photo Archive
  • Irene, 1928 (aged 5), Credit: 'Der Clown und die Zirkusreiterin', by Ingeborg Prior, published by Piper Verlag, Munich, Germany
  • Poster by the Strobridge Lithography Company advertising the Lorch Family at Ringling Bros. Circus (1909) — Private Collection, made available under a Creative Commons Attrib.-Noncom-No Deriv. Works 3.0 US License
  • Irene, 1941 (aged 20), Credit: 'Der Clown und die Zirkusreiterin', by Ingeborg Prior, published by Piper Verlag, Munich, Germany
  • October 1943. Irene, Peter and their firstborn; Credit: 'Der Clown und die Zirkusreiterin', by Ingeborg Prior, published by Piper Verlag, Munich, Germany
  • Irene Danner at the circus: Irene's husband Peter (second from left), her mother Alice (first on right) her father Hans (shirtless) and Irene (center), Yad Vashem photo archive
  • Irene, age 12, Credit: 'Der Clown und die Zirkusreiterin', by Ingeborg Prior, published by Piper Verlag, Munich, Germany
  • Irene during the years in hiding with the Althoffs, here with Maria Althoff’s elephants. Credit: Yad Vashem photo archives.
Boxing For His Life
VICTOR "YOUNG" PEREZ
Victor "Young" Perez was a talented and celebrated Jewish boxer from North Africa. With the German occupation, Victor’s fame could not prevent his arrest or deportation. Was his fighting spirit enough to help him survive?
LISTEN TO VICTOR’S STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit I: Studying the Holocaust
Unit VII: Jewish Resistance
Boxing For His Life
VICTOR PEREZ
Victor "Young" Perez was a talented and celebrated Jewish boxer from North Africa. With the German occupation, Victor’s fame could not prevent his arrest or deportation. Was his fighting spirit enough to help him survive?
LISTEN TO VICTOR’S STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit I: Studying the Holocaust
Unit VII: Jewish Resistance
  • Victor 'Young' Perez; Wikimedia Commons
  • Victor 'Young' Perez, originally from Tunis, world boxing flyweight champion, 1931. Credit: Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot, The Oster Visual Documentation Center. Courtesy of Andre Nahum, www.bh.org.il.
  • Maccabi Boxing Club, Tunis, Tunisia, 1923; Wikimedia Commons
  • Page of Testimony for Victor 'Young' Perez, Yad Vashem Archives
One Fierce Female
VLADKA MEED
When the Germans condemned the Jews to live in ghettos, they cut them off from the world. To have any chance of surviving, it was vital to resist in any way possible. To have any chance of fighting back, it was crucial to smuggle in secret information and weapons.
LISTEN TO VLADKA’S STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit I: Studying the Holocaust
Unit VII: Jewish Resistance
One Fierce Female
VLADKA MEED
When the Germans condemned the Jews to live in ghettos, they cut them off from the world. To have any chance of surviving, it was vital to resist in any way possible. To have any chance of fighting back, it was crucial to smuggle in secret information and weapons.
LISTEN TO VLADKA’S STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit 1: Studying the Holocaust
Unit VII: Jewish Resistance
  • Photo used in false identification card issued in name of Stanislawa Wachalska, that was used by Feigele Peltel (now Vladka Meed) while serving as a courier for the Jewish underground in Warsaw. Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #02325B, courtesy of Benjamin (Miedzyrzecki) Meed
  • Vladka and Ben Meed, Credit: Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum, Israel/Photo Archive
  • False identification card which Vladka Meed had used from 1940–42 on the Aryan side of Warsaw, smuggling arms to Jewish fighters and helping Jews escape from the ghetto. Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 02332, courtesy of Benjamin (Miedzyrzecki) Meed
  • Feigele Peltel (now Vladka Meed) on one of her missions as a courier for the Jewish underground. Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 02346, courtesy of Benjamin (Miedzyrzecki) Meed
  • Feigele Peltel (now Vladka Meed), a courier for the Jewish underground on the 'Aryan side' of Warsaw, poses in Theater Square (Plac Teatralny). Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives # 02332, courtesy of Benjamin (Miedzyrzecki) Meed
Teaspoons of Gunpowder
WOMEN PRISONERS IN AUSCHWITZ AND THE ARMED RESISTANCE
Was it possible to fight back in a death camp? This is the story of women prisoners who risked their lives to steal gunpowder, teaspoon by teaspoon, in order to stage a spectacular armed uprising – the only one in the history of Auschwitz.
LISTEN TO THEIR STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit V: The "Final Solution"
Unit VII: Jewish Resistance
Teaspoons of Gunpowder
WOMEN PRISONERS IN AUSCHWITZ AND THE ARMED RESISTANCE
Was it possible to fight back in a death camp? This is the story of women prisoners who risked their lives to steal gunpowder, teaspoon by teaspoon, in order to stage a spectacular armed uprising – the only one in the history of Auschwitz.
LISTEN TO THEIR STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit V: The "Final Solution"
Unit VII: Jewish Resistance
  • Post-war, Hanka Wajcblum (right) and Marta Bindiger Cige (left) in Brussels, Belgium, circa 1947, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Anna and Joshua Heilman
  • Rosa Robota (1921-1945), Yad Vashem Archives 503/7174
  • Photograph of Ala Gartner, Yad Vashem Photo Archives 15000/14234157
  • Studio portrait of three Jewish sisters in Warsaw. Pictured from left to right are: Hanka (later, Anna Heilman), Sabina and Ester Wajcblum. Warsaw, Poland, 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Anna and Joshua Heilman
  • Anna Heilman, 1947, Public Domain
  • Portrait of Estusia Wajcblum, 1937, United States Memorial Museum courtesy of Anna and Joshua Heilman
  • Auschwitz, Poland, The entrance to Birkenau. Yad Vashem Photo Archives 2910/2
  • Auschwitz, Poland, 1941, Construction of the Krupp factory, to the west of Camp I. (The factory building was turned over to the Weichsel-Union-Metallwerke, who operated the facility from October 1943 to make ammunition. The women smuggled gunpowder from this factory). Yad Vashem Archival Signature 951; Album FA157/165
  • Birkenau, Poland, 1943, Crematorium IV (blown up in Sonderkommando Uprising, October 7, 1944), Yad Vashem Archival Signature 951; Album FA157/398
Rescue in the Sewers
LEOPOLD SOCHA
As the Lwow Ghetto was being liquidated, a group of Jews hid in a place where they hoped the Germans would never find them: the sewers. They could never have survived without the help of Leopold Socha, his wife and other sewer workers.
LISTEN TO THIS RESCUE STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit IV: The Ghettos
Unit VIII: Rescue and Righteous Among the Nations
Rescue in the Sewers
LEOPOLD SOCHA
As the Lwow Ghetto was being liquidated, a group of Jews hid in a place where they hoped the Germans would never find them: the sewers. They could never have survived without the help of Leopold Socha, his wife and other sewer workers.
LISTEN TO THIS RESCUE STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit IV: The Ghettos
Unit VIII: Rescue and Righteous Among the Nations
  • Photograph of Leopold Socha, Rescuer, Yad Vashem, Righteous Among the Nations Collection
  • Essential Worker Armband from the Lwow Ghetto Worn by Paulina Chiger, courtesy of Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection, USC Shoah Foundation and Kristine Keren.
  • Prewar photograph of Krystyna (Kristine) and Pinchas (Pawel) Chiger, courtesy of USC Shoah Foundation and Kristine Keren.
  • Prewar photograph of Leopold Socha, courtesy of USC Shoah Foundation and Kristine Keren.
  • Photograph of the sweater knitted for Krystyna by her grandmother, which she wore when she was in the sewers of Lwow, courtesy of USC Shoah Foundation and Kristine Keren.
  • Prewar photograph of Paulina (Pepi Sarah Gold) Chiger, Kristine's mother, in 1939, courtesy of USC Shoah Foundation and Kristine Keren.
  • Prewar photograph of Ignacy Chiger, Krystyna's father, courtesy of USC Shoah Foundation and Kristine Keren.
To Infinity and Beyond
PETR GINZ
Though physically he was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto, Petr Ginz's spirit was still able to soar, and decades later, a drawing he made in the ghetto did reach outer space. Listen and learn of Petr’s legacy of spiritual resistance and resilience.
LISTEN TO PETR’S STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit IV: The Ghettos
Unit VII: Jewish Resistance
To Infinity and Beyond
PETR GINZ
Though physically he was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto, Petr Ginz's spirit was still able to soar, and decades later, a drawing he made in the ghetto did reach outer space. Listen and learn of Petr’s legacy of spiritual resistance and resilience.
LISTEN TO PETR’S STORY
Episode
Transcript
Student
Reflection
Handout
THIS EPISODE ALIGNS WITH:
Unit IV: The Ghettos
Unit VII: Jewish Resistance
  • Prewar photograph of Petr Ginz
  • Petr Ginz (1928-1944), Moon Landscape, Theresienstadt Ghetto 1942-1944, Pencil on paper, 21x14.5 cm, Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem, Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa
  • Ilan Ramon photographed with Petr Ginz's drawing prior to Ramon's space mission
  • Petr Ginz (1928-1944), Vedem, Theresienstadt Ghetto 1942-1944 Pencil on paper, 21x14 cm, Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem, Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa. Yad Vashem Archives 15000/14240444
  • Prague, Czechoslovakia, Petr Ginz (on the right) with his sister Eva (Chava) Pressburger Ginz (the submitter), 10/11/1934. Yad Vashem Archives 6352/3
  • Petr Ginz (1928-1944), Rooftops and Towers of Prague, 1939. Watercolor and India ink on paper, Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem. Gift of Otto Ginz, Israel
  • Petr Ginz (1928-1944), Ghetto Barracks, 1944, Watercolour on paper. Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem. Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa
  • Vedem, Courtesy of Wikipedia
  • Petr Ginz (1928 – 1944), Pages 4-5 from the story “Ferda’s Adventures”, 1940 (written by Petr Ginz). Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem
  • Petr Ginz (1928 – 1944), Boys' Barracks at Theresienstadt Ghetto, 1943, Watercolor on paper 21x29.5 cm. Public Domain


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