Simon D. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Simon D., who was born in Vitebsk, Byelorussia in 1892. He recalls moving to ?o?dz? as a child; studying in Moscow; returning to ?o?dz? in 1923; marriage; working as an accountant for the Bund; increasing antisemitism from 1933 onward; German invasion; fleeing to Warsaw, then Bia?ystok (in the Soviet zone) with his son while his wife and daughter remained in ?o?dz?; working as a factory accountant in Orsha; and arranging for his wife and daughter to join them in December 1939. Mr. D. recounts his denunciation and arrest as a Bund member in 1941; interrogation and release; evacuation to I?oshkar-Ola after the German invasion of the Soviet Union; working as a commune bookkeeper, accountant and instructor for the commune district office; moving to Proskurov, Ukraine with his family after its liberation in 1944; learning of the extermination of the Jews; moving to ?o?dz?; discovering the murder of his family and the city's Jews; and living six months in a displaced persons camp in Germany. He describes his sense that Germans pretended ignorance of the persecutions and Holocaust; emigration to Mexico in 1947; and to San Antonio, Texas in 1974.
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
- D., Simon, -- 1892-
Corporate Bodies
- Allgemeyner Idisher arbayṭerbund in Liṭa, Poylen un Rusland.
Subjects
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Refugee camps.
- Family.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Soviet occupation.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
Places
- Mexico.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Moscow (Russia)
- Vitsebsk (Belarus)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Soviet Union.
- Ĭoshkar-Ola (Russia)
- Proskuriv (Ukraine)
- Orsha (Belarus)
- Białystok (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat