Martin D. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Martin D., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1920. He recalls apprenticing as a furrier when he was fourteen; increasing antisemitism; warnings from non-Jews of a round-up; hiding with his father; applying with his sister to emigrate to relatives in London; obtaining a visa; emigrating with a cousin in January 1939 (he never saw his sister or parents again); his relatives refusal to assist him; futile efforts to obtain visas for his sister and parents; arrest as an "enemy alien"; transfer via Liverpool to an internment camp in Ontario, Canada; fights between German and Jewish internees; the Jews' hunger strike to protest internment; release and return to London; enlisting in the British military; training in Ilfracombe; admiring British behavior during the blitzkrieg; serving in an intelligence unit; changing his name to conceal his German origins; landing at Normandy; moving through France and Belgium to Hamburg; vainly searching for his family in Berlin; serving with a war crimes commission; interrogating Nazis; arresting von Ribbentrop; returning to London; marriage in 1947; emigration to the United States; and the births of two children. Mr. D. notes he is the sole survivor of a family of fifty; seeking revenge through his war crime commission work; visiting Bergen-Belsen two months after its liberation; and not sharing his experiences with his children.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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
- Ribbentrop, Joachim von, -- 1893-1946.
- D., Martin, -- 1920-
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Hiding.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Child survivors.
- Revenge.
- Postwar experiences.
- Noncitizens -- Evacuation and relocation.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, British.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- France -- Normandy.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Ilfracombe (England)
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany.
- London (England) -- History -- Bombardment, 1940-1945.
- Ontario.
- Liverpool (England)
- London (England)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat