Alfred C. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Alfred C., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1924, the younger of two brothers. He recounts his grandfather was a cantor and his father an opera singer; his father's dismissal from his job in 1933 due to Nazi anti-Jewish laws; their resulting poverty; assistance from the Jewish community; attending a Jewish school; antisemitic harassment and boycotts; obtaining documents for two from relatives in the United States; his father's and brother's emigration in June 1938; his father and brother obtaining visas for him and his mother; traveling to Hamburg on Kristallnacht; the ship journey to the U.S.; his father's work as an entertainer; military draft; assignment to intelligence training due to his fluent German; deployment in Europe with the 78th Infantry Division and following the 4th Armored Division; interrogating prisoners in Germany; visiting Buchenwald shortly after liberation; piles of corpses, the overwhelming stench, and emaciated survivors; following Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton when they visited; searching for war criminals in Berlin; arresting Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally"); meeting his brother in Frankfurt; visiting their apartment; finding and shipping home family belongings, including a piano; marriage to the daughter of his parents' friends from Frankfurt; his daughter's birth in 1953; and his career as a teacher. Mr. C. discusses the importance of his family's musical heritage to his life.

2 videocassettes