Sigmund W. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Sigmund W., who was born in Berlin in 1921 and fled with his parents to Antwerp, Belgium in 1939. He tells of their flight to Brussels after an earlier failed attempt to flee to France; his flight to Vichy France that same year; and his capture and internment at Drancy. He recalls the journey in boxcars to Ottmuth in Silesia, from where he was sent to the Chevigner slave labor camp near Chrzano?w and his transfer to Annaberg, near Auschwitz in March, 1943, and to Blechhammer six weeks later. The conditions and organization of the latter, where Mr. W. remained until February, 1945, are detailed with particular emphasis on mutual assistance and resistance activities among the inmates. Mr. W. describes the death march to Gross Rosen, from where he was shuttled to Buchenwald, then to Dachau and various of its subcamps until his liberation by the Americans on April 27, 1945. Postwar topics include his return to Brussels, where he married in 1947; emigration to the United States in 1948; his decision to cut himself off from his wartime memories in order to resume his life; and reflections on the qualities and circumstances necessary for survival.

4 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)