Leon W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Leon W., who was born in Radzymin, Poland in 1911. He recounts traveling between Radzymin and the Warsaw ghetto; learning of the upcoming deportation of the Jews from Radzymin; arranging his wife's and daughter's escape; deportation of his father, siblings, and other family to Treblinka in 1942; fleeing to a labor camp near Radzymin; escaping before the camp's liquidation; fleeing with his wife and daughter to Warsaw; leaving their eighteen-month-old daughter on the doorstep of a lawyer's house hoping to save her; arranging for his wife to be a housekeeper for a Polish family; joining the Jewish underground in the Warsaw ghetto; the uprising in May 1943; hiding in bunkers; escaping through the sewers; learning his wife had been killed; hiding with a Polish family; joining the Polish underground; liberation by Soviet troops; locating his daughter in an orphanage; his remarriage; and emigrating to the United States. Mr. W. discusses his regret at not having been able to save more people and he shows documents and photographs.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
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.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- W., Leon, -- 1911-
Subjects
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Fathers and daughters.
- Escapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Resistance.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- Wife -- Death.
- Postwar experiences.
- False papers.
Places
- Warsaw ghetto.
- Warsaw (Poland) -- History -- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943.
- Radzymin (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat