Abraham S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Abraham S., who was born in Dzia?oszyce, Poland in 1928 to an orthodox family of seven children. He recalls attending Polish school and cheder; antisemitic harassment; German invasion; two brothers escaping to the Soviet Union; smuggling to support his family; escaping to Wodzis?aw during the first deportation (his family was taken); returning home; escaping a deportation six weeks later; hiding with Poles in a village, then in Wodzis?aw; traveling to Radomsko; ghettoization; deportation to Skarz?ysko in September 1942; obtaining extra food and a better placement through bribes; public hangings; hospitalization for typhus; transfer to Buchenwald in February 1944; improved conditions; pointless slave labor; transfer after two months to Schlieben; slave labor in a munitions factory; transfer to Theresienstadt in April 1945; liberation by Soviet troops in May; traveling to Prague; emigration to Windermere, England in August; learning through the Red Cross that one brother had survived; and emigration in 1949 to join relatives in the United States. Mr. S. notes he never assumed he would survive while in camp; not sharing his experience, even with his children; pride in his Jewish identity; and the inadequacy of any reparation payments.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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. This testimony can only be used for scholarly and educational purposes.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- S., Abraham, -- 1928-
Corporate Bodies
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Schlieben (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Forced labor.
- Child survivors.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Radomsko.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Hiding.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Escapes.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
Places
- Działoszyce (Poland)
- Radomsko (Poland)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Poland.
- Wodzisław (Poland)
- Radomsko ghetto.
- Windermere (England)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat