Vanessa Gold

Oral History Project

I interviewed my grandma, Judy Cooper in her apartment building on Sunday, May 9th.
Once we got into a quiet room I put the phone on the ground and recorded her on an app called
‘Dolby On’. After it was done I downloaded the audio as a file to copy into a website called
‘Otter’. From there it created a transcript leading me to copy and paste it into a google doc.
There were many edits to be made, so I spent a few hours on the computer deleting unwanted
words, etc; I started to make notecards from the interview and then started to look at other
websites. I learned many things from the interview on how my grandmother lived her life. When
WWII was starting her father started a typewriting business for money. “And my father didn't
have a lot of money. He didn't have anybody giving them college, there was no such thing. So
what he did was, he bought one typewriter. And he rented it out to different people, and then he
bought with the extra money two typewriters.1” said Judy. That's how her family made money to
support them. The war affected her mothers’ brother who was killed as a pilot, but not because
of the enemy; he was flying in an electric storm. Her mother had a bad childhood which was the
main reason why she wanted her kids to have such a great one. “My mother had a terrible
childhood because her father was always angry and she didn't want that to be for her family,”2
Judy stated. They shielded the truth from her because she was at such a young age. However,
her parents helped show her what being ‘Jewish’ feels like since it was considered rare when
she was growing up. So as a result, her parents took her out to be put in a Jewish day school. In
the transcript, she repeatedly mentions her family history, “I was lucky. {my parents} gave us a
lot of freedom. And they trusted us… But see my parents, I don't know if they shielded us from
it. But we lived in New Jersey. And I wasn't affected by World War Two. I never felt
antisemitism...My parents were really good parents. And how come I was so lucky? I don't
know. I enjoyed my childhood...I was lucky. My parents let me study, they let me do what I want
to do…. I had a Happy home. 3” All relates to how different European Jews’ experiences were to
this because they didn’t even know if their parents were alive. Each note card contains
information about why it's important, where the information came from, and how it connects to
the thesis. I found one website with many personal stories from Holocaust Survivors and
continued to make notecards from there on each of the different stories. The first notecard was
on how good the source was and the second was the historical details they provided us. When I
was looking on the websites I had to make sure they were reliable and used the lateral reading
method. Some of the pages I went on didn't seem credible so I did not use them. There was one
specific website that didn’t connect or help at all called. The website was called ‘The Holocaust
Explained’ and there weren’t any comparisons between different kinds of Jews. It talked about
the Nazis’ perspective on how they got all this power towards the people. They used 'Nazi
Propaganda' which was advertising their party by using people’s fears to advocate their

1
Judy Lynne Cooper, interview by the author, Hamden, Office, CT, May 9, 2021.
2
Cooper, interview by the author.
3
Cooper, interview by the author.
problems into thinking to trust the Nazis. For example, “These messages varied from ‘Bread
and Work’, aimed at the working class and the fear of unemployment, to a ‘Mother and
Child’ poster portraying the Nazi ideals regarding woman.”4 Joseph Goebbels was the main
source of help by making posters and newspapers to reach out to many people as possible.
This technique let Joseph build Hitler into being a 'strong, stable leader that Germany needed to
have the power again5'. In 1933 Joseph successfully led Hitler to be 'Reich Minister of
Propaganda'.
I found many important stories/examples proving how each life can’t compare to the
other during the holocaust overseas. Edith Birkin, a holocaust survivor tells us what to expect
living in the ghettos (that smelled awful) as a child. They were given beetroot soup that was so
bad, “it was just water with bits of beetroot swimming in it.” 6They tried to walk during the Spring
to see if the bark was edible from the trees. Many people got diseases like typhus, typhoid,
dysentery, and many others, and thousands died. However, Edith points out a good memory
during the holocaust, “there were a lot of children my own age whom I knew in that same
building, and we did sort of… we found a place in the, there was a sort of attic, and we used to
gather in the attic sort of place, sing songs, and make up plays, and talk, and played games,
you know, all kinds of games. And amused ourselves. We never went out for a walk together
somehow, for some reason, but I remember being in that attic and singing and dancing a bit,
and making our own amusement.”7 This was the only similarity between European and
American Jew’s childhood. The rest of the survivors had many disturbing memories like Maria
Ossowski, who talked about arriving at the concentration camps. Maria said, “they had to shave
everything in front of men naked and then get a number inked on them. If you felt sorry for
yourself you were a goner because you didn't want to be treated as a 'victim'. Wanted to look,
and be tough to survive.”8 When she got to the camp she didn't understand what the death
policy was; she knew what ghettos were but seeing it changes you. I want to research more
about tattoos to confirm my inference. I think it's to keep track of each Jew however, it may be
something else. Barbara Stimler talked about being separated from her mother at her house
door, “I was afraid even to go to say to her, to say goodbye, because they would kill me and her
together...And I was not concerned for myself, I was concerned for my mother, what's going to
happen to her.”9 This was a typical thing to happen during the holocaust that American Jews
could never imagine. The other difference besides separation from families is education. My
grandma noted in the interview that she went to school, and was ‘lucky with her education’.
European Jews didn’t have the full education, but the Nazi’s purpose was ‘ they did not want
education to provoke people to ask questions or think for themselves. “They believed this
approach would instill obedience and belief in the Nazi worldview, creating the ideal future
generation… They introduced new textbooks which were often racist and promoted ideas such
as the need for Lebensraum. Any textbooks used to educate students had to be approved by

4
"Propaganda and the Nazi rise to power," The Holocaust Explained,
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-nazi-rise-to-power/propaganda/.
5
"Propaganda and the Nazi," The Holocaust Explained.
6
Arriving at Auschwitz "if you were old or ill looking you went the other side", narrated by Edith Birkin.
7
Arriving at Auschwitz.
8
Maria Ossowski, interview, House
9
Auschwitz "the cries and the screams", narrated by Barbara Stimler.
the party.”10 Although they did have some education, it was still not the full experience as an
American Jew, and it was run by Nazis.
I already knew what I was going to specifically research on so I looked up ‘Holocaust
survivor stories’ and many sources came up. There was this one link that helped a lot, it was
organized and had many true stories that proved my thesis. I started to make notecards on how
credible each source was. When I first started researching my family, I was honestly fascinated.
I had no idea what kind of childhood my grandmother had and how she was affected or
unaffected by these wars. Then this opened up even more when I started going more in-depth
with this idea of ‘How really were American Jews different from European Jews?’. The more I
started to look into it, the more the answers came to me of how extremely different their lives
were. If I got to go back and do something differently it would be during the interview. I think I
could have been more prepared and asked important questions that would have been helpful,
now that I know my topic. However, I did do a follow-up interview a few weeks later which was
needed but it didn’t make any major changes to my project.
The Interview with my grandma about growing up in America during WWII at a young
age, and not being affected by it as much as the European Jews was a good primary source. It
was reliable information especially for researching other Jewish people's childhood and
comparing. This relates to my line of reasoning because it shows how lucky and unaffected
Jews were during the time of the holocaust. The stories growing up happened a long time ago
which means some of the details may be rusty. Also, she may be forgetting some small details
that could be important but due to her age, she is forgetting. It was on Mother's Day so all of our
family came to my Grandmother's small apartment. We tried to go to the farthest room from
everyone for the interview, but it was still close to everyone talking. At times, it was hard to hear
each other because of how loud everyone was. For about 95% of the interview, it was loud
which could have caused me to hear some words wrong when I was editing the transcript. The
recording was from my phone, which was on the ground but that wasn’t a problem. While this
interview contains great stories and details, the dates and actual events might not be completely
accurate. However, the emotion and understanding that not every Jewish person was affected
during the holocaust were a great take-away from this source. This can be used as a historical
artifact because when people hear about the Holocaust, it doesn't come across that there were
many Jews unaffected and still had a great childhood like my grandma. I think this source is not
biased, it's neutral. If she was involved in the Holocaust it would have been biased against the
Nazi’s but she was a secondary source when talking about the holocaust. We know this source
represents the American Jews because the Holocaust didn’t take place in America. There may
be a few differences relating to their families that were involved but if you lived in America during
Holocaust, you were not affected growing up.
Maria Ozzowski recorded her story on a website called, IWM (Imperial War Museums).
This is a good source because it's a primary source. During the recording, her voice seemed to
be very sensitive and shaky when she was going into details about the camps. It obviously is a
very sad topic, but I don't think anyone could forget something like her experience. However,
she probably didn't give us every detail/ piece of information which could be a problem later on.

10
"Education," The Holocaust Explained,
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/controlling-everyday-life/controlling-ed
ucation/.
Either it was too sad and hard to bring up or she forgot because it was many years ago. Her
whole interview talked about how badly she was treated which relates to my line of reasoning of
European and American Jews had more differences than similarities growing up. There is no
bias however, some could argue her bias isn’t neutral because she has an opinion of how
terrible the Nazis were. Maria only described the room and what was going on, there were no
options so this source is not biased. There were many other stories but I chose Maria because it
was the most detailed.
Barbara Stimler had a very short but informal recording. It was a good primary source
with reliable information. Good for comparing to other Jewish people's personal lives growing up
in America or Europe. Since it happened a long time ago her memory might not be as good
causing her to forget or say something false. However I do believe she meant well and most
things, if not all were true. I observed that she didn't go into detail when she was mentioning the
deaths. It's important because there could be other details that she didn't mention either if it was
just too hard. Something as dramatic as the holocaust still affects people today and her voice
showed it. She still had an accent and her voice was very dainty but powerful. It’s not biased
because it's her story however, some could argue it's biased against the camps. In the
transcript, she does give her opinion when she says ‘it was just a nightmare’ because it’s not
neutral. This document represents everyone who was taken to Auschwitz with her because she
mentions other people close to her. They would all have similar stories relating to themselves as
a ‘group of people’ at the camps. I will use this to relate to all the other stories from the Jewish
people and relate it to the American vs European. A lesson we could take out from this is young
kids were being taken away from their parents at such a young age that impacted them for the
rest of their life. I will use this to compare that Barbara was separated while my grandma was
living her life unaffectedly.
Edith Birkin also was a primary source because she was telling her story. It's important to
know that she was young because not everything may be 100% right. The website has many
good stories which can be good and bad. It’s good because all the stories seem real and
interesting but who knows if anything is fake. Also, the recording is an audio that shows an older
person telling a story. It's just a matter if the information is all true. However, I think it's a credible
source because there's nothing that seems wrong with it. This is not biased because she's just
describing what happened as a neutral source. Nowhere does she state her opinion or lead any
side when she is talking. Overall it's a credible source and very useful.
The Article ‘The Nazi rise to power’ seems credible because it has a .org, it's a nonprofit
website. The website doesn't care about money, so there is no reason to scam people or make
it inaccurate. It's also organized neatly which can still make it a bad website, but its purpose was
'to create this to help learners understand the essential facts of the Nazi era and the Holocaust,
as well as its causes and consequences.11' The website is also managed by a library called 'The
Wiener Holocaust Library' which is “the world’s oldest archive on the Holocaust and the Nazi
era.”12 It is biased because it’s mostly favored towards Hitler instead of stating facts.
However, there is no opinion given but it's clear to know whose side they’re arguing on. This
document represents the Nazis as a ‘certain group of people’ because the whole article is
about them. It gives details on the rising to power, their successes, government styles, and
11
"Propaganda and the Nazi," The Holocaust Explained.
12
"Propaganda and the Nazi," The Holocaust Explained.
economies. This doesn’t relate to my line of reasoning because it doesn’t mention the
holocaust enough to add this source into my project.
Lastly, I found a new source as I was writing this called ‘The Holocaust Explained’. A
webpage with reliable information about how young Jewish people had an education in the
hands of the Nazis. It is a similar website to the Nazi Propaganda website making it a nonprofit
website. The purpose of making that website was, “created to help learners understand the
essential facts of the Nazi era and the Holocaust, as well as its causes and consequences. It is
designed with the British school curriculum for thirteen to eighteen-year-olds in mind, but it
aims to be accessible to other users as well.”13 There is no author or date which can make it
not credible. This is also in a very similar format to the Nazi Propaganda website, even
managed by 'The Wiener Holocaust Library as well. This is a secondary source because it's not
directly from the information, it has traveled through many sources and now it's on this website.
Even though it's organized neatly I’m not 100% sure we can trust this as a source. However, it
was helpful when I was finding out information relating to my thesis about their Education
towards my line of reasoning. This website was not biased because it had no opinions given on
either side. It was clear to see when it was written who it leaned towards more but that is just
the topic. It represents the young group of kids that had to learn like this. All of the young Jews
still in school had similar perspectives from this article because it was written about them.
In this essay, one thing that worked well together was the comparison of the different
stories. I was able to balance both sides to make it flow enough and to have reliable information.
It was arranged in a way to make it clear what was being compared. However, I feel I may have
fallen short on some of the information. Because most of the sources I analyzed were from the
same website. There's only so much I can say when talking about how credible the same thing
is. I like the way I start by setting the tone for the reader at the beginning of each section. The
most effective stories were from the survivors because they showed how lucky my grandma
was. The recordings were most of my essay since the main part was focusing on each of the
survivors' lives. If I didn’t have any personal stories and only research, this paper wouldn’t
explain the message I’m trying to convey for Jews. I only chose first-hand accounts rather than
research because I didn’t know what research to look up at first. With the stories, it's easy to
look up ‘holocaust survivor stories’ and see tons of information to use. If I did have to use
non-primary sources then I would look more into the living situations they were in. However, as I
was writing this I did find another credible source that is not a primary source. This article helped
with proving the main part of my thesis that I couldn’t have done without a research article rather
than an interview. Some information that is lacking was stories from my interview. Because my
grandmother was such a young age she doesn’t remember much. The only information she told
me was what she remembered rather than specific stories. If she had specific stories of when
she was a kid, it would have been better to understand more of a typical day from an American
Jewish little girl. The memories she did remember were good but it was still hard for her to find
them. I even did a second interview after I knew my topic. It was a little helpful but she was just
too young and had no trauma. People don’t remember their childhood or young memories if
everything was easy. My argument is strong in comparing personal narratives to larger historical
topics. I repeatedly make the connection between my grandmother and other young Jews to

13
“Education," The Holocaust Explained.
spread my point across. It was stressful having a few pages for each section and worrying that it
would be too short or not enough evidence. Whenever I was satisfied with a section, a
classmate always had more pages or sources and it made me overthink if I’m doing it wrong. I
would spend more time fixing grammar mistakes or getting more details unrelated to personal
stories if I had more time. Looking back I think a few more sources of information would have
been helpful like finding more details on where they lived or neutral sources on family
separation during the holocaust. The next step would be to look over everything and make sure
I’m happy with the outcome. Then I think we would start putting the paper on the website or
doing annotated bibliography.