Peter W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Peter W, who was born in Krako?w, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Poland) in 1913, one of four children. He recounts his father's death in 1916; moving to Kielce; participating in Hashomer Hatzair and Betar; German invasion; fleeing to Soviet-occupied territory; returning at his mother's request; moving with his mother and sister to Starachowice; working as a tailor; one brother's deportation (he never saw him again); his other brother joining the underground (he was killed); marriage; his son's birth; his family's deportation (he never saw them again); slave labor gathering dead bodies; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; assignment to Buna/Monowitz; a death march with United States POWs to Gleiwitz approximately two years later; train transport to Buchenwald, Adorf, then Dora; evacuation by train after six weeks; being injured in an Allied bombing; posing as a German to obtain medical treatment; transfer to Bergen-Belsen; placement on a pile of corpses; liberation by British troops; assistance from a Jewish chaplain; transfer to Sweden; remarriage; the births of two children; and emigration to the United States nine years later.
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
- W., Peter, -- 1913-
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Dora (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Monowitz (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Betar.
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
Subjects
- Soviet occupation.
- Postwar experiences.
- Death marches.
- Prisoners of war -- Germany.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Forced labor.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
Places
- Austria.
- Gleiwitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Adorf (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Starachowice (Poland)
- Sweden.
- KrakoĚw (Poland)
- Kielce (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat