Meir S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Meir S., who was born in Na?sa?ud, Romania in 1925 to a family with fourteen children. He describes his father, a biblical scribe; his very religious upbringing; moving to a small village in Hungary as a young child; German occupation, ghettoization, and transfer of all Jews to another town; his father's humiliation at having to shave his beard; and transport to Auschwitz. Mr. S. recalls the treatment of the prisoners as numbers, not humans; not knowing what happened to his family and not being able to comprehend that he was in a death camp; volunteering as a mechanic and transport to Longwy-Thil; work in an underground factory manufacturing airplane parts; transfer to another camp in Germany; work in an underground salt mine where his physical condition deteriorated quickly; trading numbers with a man and leaving camp in his place for Dachau; transfer to Allach, a subcamp of Dachau; seeing one of his brothers days before he died; and liberation in early 1945. He recalls helping to organize illegal emigration to Palestine in Italy; reunion with his youngest brother Nechemia; their emigration to Palestine; Nechemia's death in the Israeli War for Independence; and Mr. S.'s marriage to a survivor whom he met in Israel. Mr. S. discusses the importance of religious observance and the impact of the losses on himself and the Jewish people as a whole.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive. The testimony cannot be used for publication without prior consent of the donor and his children.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- S., Meir, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- Allach (Germany : Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Moral and ethical aspects.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Brothers.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Bologna (Italy)
- Palestine.
- Hungary.
- Naples (Italy)
- NaĚsaĚud (Romania)
- Romania.
- Longwy-Thil (France : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc