Sam M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Sam M., who was born in Szyd?owiec, Poland in approximately 1920. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; their poverty, which led to the deaths of two brothers; attending yeshiva in Kon?skie; antisemitic harassment; attending a lecture by Vladimir Jabotinsky; moving to Warsaw in 1937; participating in Betar; German invasion in 1939; returning home; being caught in a round-up; transport to do slave labor constructing a dike; people in Szyd?owiec securing release of those from the town; returning home; deportation to Skarz?ysko-Kamienna; slave labor in a munitions factory; encountering a cousin; contacts with partisans; refusing to divulge their names under torture; transfer to Werke C; working with picric acid, which later negatively impacted his health; transfer to Cze?stochowa; slave labor in a steel mill; his cousin's hospitalization; assisting her; her assistance when he was hospitalized; train transfer to Buchenwald, then Dora; public hangings; transfer to Bergen-Belsen; being shot while "stealing" food, which he shared with those who helped him; liberation by British troops; transfer to a hospital in Malmo? via Lu?beck; emigration to the United States in 1953; marriage in 1956; and his daughter's birth. Mr. M. discusses persistent nightmares; not sharing his experiences with his daughter; the inability of others to understand survivors and their experiences; and attributing his survival to faith and willpower.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
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
- Jabotinsky, Vladimir, -- 1880-1940.
- M., Sam, -- 1920?-
Corporate Bodies
- Dora (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Częstochowa (Concentration camp)
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Concentration camp)
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Betar.
Subjects
- Survivor-child relations.
- Concentration camps -- Underground movements.
- Postwar effects.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Mutual aid.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Postwar experiences.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Nightmares.
- Faith.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Forced labor.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Lübeck (Germany)
- Malmö (Sweden)
- Poland.
- Szydłowiec (Województwo Mazowieckie, Poland)
- Końskie (Kielce, Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat