Vayda's essay describes her young-adulthood in Hungary, and being sent to Birkenau camp in 1944, and successive camps afterward. She came to the United States in 1956 with her husband and children.

Gary Sternberg grew up in Germany, witnessing anti-Semitic propaganda as early as age 7. He describes some of the experiences his father endured at a concentration camp, and his escape to China. He and his mother reunited with his father in Shanghai in 1940. They left Shanghai in 1948, eventually settling in Cleveland. He and his family came to Las Vegas in 1969.

Jacques Ribons describes his life during the Nazi occupation of Poland. During the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto, his family decided to turn themselves in to the Germans. They were sent to a prison and separated. He and his brother survived and went to France with the OSE, and came to the United States in 1947.

Janos Strauss was picked up by the Nazis at age 15, but lied and said he was 17, which saved his life. He was liberated during a transport in 1945.

Judd Nissanov's journey escaping the Nazis as part of the Polish army took him to Persia, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt.

Judy Newman describes her early life in an orphanage in Poland, and went to Israel in the 1950s, where she met her husband.

Magda Nissanov and her family were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau from Hungary in 1944. She and her sister were later sent to a work camp in Bavaria, and eventually Dachau, where they were liberated in 1945/