Zev H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Zev H., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland, in 1924. In this vivid and detailed testimony, Mr. H. recalls his family's refusal to flee east with retreating Polish troops in 1939; moving to Kielce to escape restrictions in ?o?dz?; sexual molestation by volksdeutsche; forced labor in a quarry; brutal conditions; his mother, sister, and grandmother disappearing in the summer 1942 liquidation; digging mass graves; and an SS man killing an infant, which continues to haunt him. He describes incarceration in a factory; resistance in the ghetto; deportation to Auschwitz in 1944; physical and psychological trauma in Birkenau; transport to Jaworzno to mine coal; the camp commandant's rebuke of a guard who beat his brother; his father's rescue by a Pole after the camp's evacuation; transfer to Blechhammer, where he was briefly liberated; a forced march to Gross Rosen; and liberation by Soviet forces at Leitmeritz. He relates postwar depression and near suicide; working for Berih?ah in Hungary and Austria; marriage in Salzburg; incarceration on Cyprus; arrival in Israel in 1947; his and his wife's emotional problems; and deciding to tell his children about his Holocaust experience.
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.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- H., Zev, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Gross Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Litoměřice (Concentration camp)
- Beriḥah (Organization)
- Jaworzno (Concentration camp)
- Blechhammer E/3 (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Brothers.
- Fathers and sons.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Resistance.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Child survivors.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kielce.
- Forced labor.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Death marches.
- Child molesting.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
Places
- Łódź (Poland)
- Poland.
- Kielce ghetto.
- Kielce (Poland)
- Palestine -- Emigration and immigration.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat