Immigrants -- Nebraska -- Omaha -- Interviews

Scope and Contents The American Indian Oral History and Omaha Folklore Project Oral History Collection contains oral history interviews of Native Americans in Omaha, Nebraska as well as interviews collected as part of a program called the Oral History Collection of the Omaha Folklore Project. The interviews cover the cultures and personal histories of interviewees in the U.S. as well as leaving Europe in the first half of the 20th Century. Topics of discussion include life in Omaha, World War I, the Great...

Scope and Contents An oral history interview with Dr. William DeRoin. This interview was conducted by Dianna Draun-Sumner on July 29, 1980. Dr. DeRoin was a member of the Indian Health Committee of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. DeRoin is also a trained physician at University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and makes site visits to Indian Health Service areas and reservations. During this interview Dr. DeRoin discussed contract care versus on-site Indian health and reservation life versus "real...

Scope and Contents

This is a recording of a musical performance on the flute by Wilbur Blackdeer. This was recorded by an unknown person in 1971.

Scope and Contents The oral history interview of Dr. Mitchel Cegielski was conducted by Andrew S. Fidler on April 4, 1977. Dr. Cegielski was a Polish physician who emigrated to the United States from Poland with his family in the 1950s and eventually settled in Omaha, Nebraska. In the interview Dr. Cegielski talked about his life and experiences while living in Poland during World War II. In particular, Cegielski compared German and Russian-occupied Poland. Dr. Cegielski also discussed his experiences after...

Scope and Contents The oral history interview of Eleanore Umatum was conducted by UNO student Donald C. Umatum on May 1, 1977. Umatum's interview was primarily focused on Nazi Germany in the 1930s when she was young. Umatum shared her family's experiences, the social welfare of average Germans before Adolph Hitler rose to power in Germany, the views Germans had of the U.S. in the 1930s, the experience of a friend who attended the 1936 Berlin Olympics and got U.S. Olympian Jessie Owens' autograph, the teaching...

Scope and Contents

The oral history interview of George Kielak about his experiences in Poland during World War II was conducted by Andrew S. Fidler on February 19, 1978. In the interview Kielak shared his experiences fighting on the Polish side during World War II and as a prisoner of war. Kielak was a Boy Scout before Germany invaded Poland and became part of the Polish underground and also attended underground school. Kielak also discussed his journey to the United States as an immigrant after the war.

Scope and Contents The oral history interview of Harold Becker regarding his experiences and knowledge of the history of Omaha, Nebraska from the 1890s to the 1970s was conducted by UNO student Mary Lyons on October 6, 1978. Becker highlighted prominent figures in Omaha's history, important events, local politics, and community division and diversity. Becker wrote an Omaha history column for the Omaha Sun newspaper, so his interview includes a mix of his personal recollections along with recounting episodes...

Scope and Contents

An oral history interview with Herman August Eggert. This interview was conducted by a UNO student, Elsie Ann Coltott, on December 5, 1975. Eggert was born in Lyons, Nebraska and his parents were German immigrants. Eggert was raised in a religious household. He felt that his religion strengthened him throughout his life. After high school Eggert became a professional baseball player and was later a missionary and a farmer during the Great Depression.

Scope and Contents

The oral history interview of Lottie Kubicki about her experiences in Czechoslovakia and Germany in the 1930s-1950s was conducted by UNO student Connie Miller on April 30, 1977. Kubicki was taken from her home in Czechoslovakia and sent to Germany in 1945 at the end of World War II because her family was German. From there, she discussed finding her family again in East Germany, moving to West Germany, and eventually immigrating to the United States.

Scope and Contents

An oral history interview with Mary Douchey. This interview was conducted by John Douchey in 1977. Mary Douchey was born in Hungary. Douchey, her mother, and siblings emigrated to the United States and settled in Omaha, Nebraska. In this interview Douchey talked about her life as an immigrant during the Roaring Twenties and Great Depression.

Scope and Contents

An oral history interview with Mrs. Oscar Elge. This interview was conducted by her grandson Mark Glad, a UNO student, on December 6, 1976. Elge was born on a farm in Phillips, Nebraska in 1897. She married a Swedish immigrant and shared memories of her childhood and living through the Great Depression. She discussed school, travel, church, a barn fire, World War II, and other topics.

Scope and Contents The oral history interview of Roman Pulcelik covers his time living in Poland, fighting in World War II, and surviving imprisonment as a prisoner of war. The interview was conducted by Andrew S. Fidler on April 7, 1977. Pulcelik attended the Polish military academy and fought with the partisan forces after Germany invaded and occupied Poland. In the interview Pulcelik shared his experiences of the atrocities that occurred during World War II and as a survivor of the camps. Pulcelik talked...

Scope and Contents UNO student Andrew Fidler interviewed his father Stanley Fidler on April 12, 1977 about his life before, during, and after World War II. Stanley Fidler was a Polish citizen who was removed to a forced labor camp where he worked in two different coal mines and then later was sent to a concentration camp at the end of WWII. Fidler spoke about his life in Poland before the war, how he was imprisoned in the camps, his eventual freedom, and immigration to the United States. The Fidlers settled in...