Sol P. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Sol P., who was born in ?uko?w, Russia (presently Poland) in 1907, the oldest of thirteen children. He recounts his successful hardware business; marriage in 1927; the births of five children; increasing antisemitism in the 1930s, including boycotts; German invasion; fleeing with his family to avoid bombings; returning alone two weeks later; hiding with his father and sister from a round-up; brief Soviet occupation; bringing his family back to ?uko?w; German reoccupation in October; anti-Jewish restrictions; random killings; arrest and incarceration in Lublin; release; housing refugees; fulfilling German orders as part of the Judenrat; assisting refugees arriving in May 1942; his wife being beaten by Germans; ghettoization; a mass round-up and deportation in October; he and his family hiding in a bunker; their discovery; forced labor sorting the deportees' belongings; escaping with assistance from a non-Jew; hiding with his family in several places; denouncement; his son being wounded when shot; bribing a German to return to the ghetto; reunion with his parents and siblings; building another bunker; hiding there during liquidation in May 1943 (his father and uncle were deported); hiding with his family in several places, including the brickyard and barn of a German woman; liberation by Soviet troops in July 1944; his rescuer's arrest and disappearance; returning to ?uko?w; being warned of impending antisemitic violence; moving to Katowice in April 1945, then to Munich; and emigration to the United States in September 1949. Mr. P. discusses the importance to him of keeping his family together and of friendships to their survival, and being the only surviving member of the Judenrat.

3 videocassettes