Charles A. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Charles A., who was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1917. He describes his father's work as an engineer constructing church cupolas; attending a private gymnasium; restrictions on Jewish participation in government; Lithuanians organizing mass killings of Jews immediately prior to the arrival of German troops; and the return to the Jewish community of the bodies of twenty-three girls who had been rounded-up, including his girlfriend. Mr. A. details life in the ghetto from 1941 to 1944: the round-up and disappearance of community leaders, including his father; election of a new leadership who had some privileges; pervasive starvation; forced labor; mass killings, including young people who joined the partisans; and the murder of all children and elderly. He recounts transfer to Palemonas for several months; transport to Dachau; obtaining a better job through a family friend; liberation from Wolfratshausen by American troops; learning his mother had survived in the Soviet zone; and emigrating to join an uncle in Des Moines. Mr. A. notes he formerly had terrible headaches resulting from his guilt that he had survived, but now feels better.

1 videocassette