Louis D. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Louis D., who was born in Velyikyy Bychkiv, Russia (presently Ukraine) in approximately 1911, one of six brothers. He recounts his family's poverty; working in construction in Brno; military enlistment in 1929; discharge in 1933; his successful business; German invasion; obtaining papers as a non-Jew; deportation to Velyikyy Bychkiv; draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion in Kiev; transfer home; deportation with his family to Auschwitz; transfer with two brothers to Fu?nfteichen; slave labor in a Krupp factory; extraction of his brother's gold crowns to obtain privileged work; a death march via Gross-Rosen to Dachau; sharing food and encouraging his brother; liberation by United States troops; traveling to Plzen?; reunion with another brother; a brief visit to Velyikyy Bychkiv; serving in the Czech military in Prague; discharge after nine months; recovering his business; marriage in 1946; arrest by Soviets as a capitalist in 1949; imprisonment in Litome?r?ice for nine months; escaping to Vienna; his wife and children joining him; living in a displaced persons camp; and emigration via Hamburg to Montre?al in 1950, then to the United States in 1953. Mr. D. discusses nightmares resulting from his experiences; losing all his teeth when beaten in camp; no assistance when he arrived in the U.S.; and financial struggles, despite his present success.
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
- D., Louis , -- 1911?-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Fried. Krupp AG.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Brothers.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Conscript labor -- Hungary.
- Hungarian occupation.
- False papers.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Refugee camps.
- Death marches.
- Political prisoners -- Soviet Union.
- Nightmares.
- Postwar effects.
Places
- Fünfteichen (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Litoměřice (Czech Republic)
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Montréal (Québec)
- Kiev (Ukraine)
- Brno (Czech Republic)
- Plzeň (Czech Republic)
- Vienna (Austria)
- Velyikyy Bychkiv (Ukraine)
- Russia.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat