Henry R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Henry R. (originally Heinz), who was born in Go?ttingen, Germany, in 1921. In this highly detailed testimony, Mr. R. relates his family's move to Hamburg due to Nazi threats; his brother's incarceration and emigration after Kristallnacht; six months in Buxtehude labor camp in 1939; deportation with his family to Minsk in 1941; ghetto conditions; mobile gas vans used for mass executions; physical and psychological brutalization; and marriage in 1942. He recalls help from a German family friend; liquidation of the ghetto, including his wife and family; deportation to Treblinka in September 1943; his first encounter with the smell of burning flesh; transport to Budzyn?, then Rzeszow; work in Heinkel factories; narrowly escaping execution by Einsatztruppen; transport to P?aszo?w; exchanging information with female prisoners; and transfer to Wieliczka just before he was to be gassed. He describes transport to Flossenbu?rg; learning of a camp bordello for the SS and kapos; transfer to Colmar, then to an underground factory in the Vosges; transport in mid-1944 to Sachsenhausen; brutalities he witnessed; transport to Bremen, then Bergen-Belsen; and liberation. He discusses lengthy recuperation in Sweden; his wartime perception that death was a "steady partner"; and deciding to write a book about his experiences.
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
- R., Henry, -- 1921-
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp)
- Flossenbürg (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
- Budzyń (Concentration camp)
- Ernst Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke.
- Treblinka (Concentration camp)
- Wieliczka (Concentration camp)
- Colmar (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mass killings.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Jews -- Belarus -- Minsk.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Forced labor.
- Family.
- Weddings.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Wife -- Death.
- Marriage in Jewish ghettos.
Places
- Rzeszów (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Minsk ghetto.
- Buxtehude (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Germany.
- Vosges Mountains (France)
- Bremen (Germany)
- Göttingen (Germany)
- Hamburg (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat