Leon H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Leon H., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland, in 1919. Mr. H. tells of prewar antisemitism; becoming a carpenter like his father and brothers; his family's move to the ?o?dz? ghetto in 1940; starvation; a German soldier who refused to believe that Jews could be tradesmen; witnessing atrocities while doing carpentry at the local Gestapo headquarters; his mother's death after a beating; and surrendering to join his father and siblings when they were rounded-up. He details conditions on the deportation train; separation from his father and sister at Auschwitz; selection and transport with his brothers to Go?rlitz; his younger brother's murder; forced labor in an armaments factory; beatings; digging trenches; his older brother's death during a forced march; leaving camp after it was abandoned; incarceration in the Go?rlitz jail; liberation by Soviet troops while on a death march; returning to Poland to seek surviving relatives; and reunion with his sister in Regensburg displaced persons camp. His testimony is suffused with the anger, bitterness, and psychological torment he has suffered as a result of his loss.
Extent and Medium
3 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., Leon, -- 1919-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Görlitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Postwar effects.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Mutual aid.
- Death marches.
- Refugee camps.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Brothers.
- Forced labor.
Places
- Regensburg (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Görlitz (Dresden, Germany)
- Łódź ghetto.
- Poland.
- Łódź (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat