Hugo P. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Hugo P., who was born in Slivni?k, Czechoslovakia in 1922, one of eight children. He recalls his family's orthodoxy; their successful businesses; an older brother's accidental death; Slovak independence; anti-Jewish laws; confiscation of the family businesses; his father's futile efforts to go to the United States (he was an American citizen); imprisonment with one brother for a month by the Hlinka guard; deportation with his family in 1940; separation from them upon arrival at Lublin; learning masonry; a German supervisor bringing him extra food; transfers to Buna/Monowitz, Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Waldlager; receiving extra food and privileged work assignments from friends; liberation from a train by United States troops in Poing; destroying German property for revenge; living in Feldafing displaced persons camp; expressing anger to the U.S. ambassador in Prague that his family, U.S. citizens, could not emigrate before the war; returning home seeking relatives; learning no one had survived; and emigrating to the United States. Mr. P. discusses losing his belief in God in the camps; continuing anger at countries that blocked Jewish immigration before and during the war; nightmares about his youngest brother's death; and difficulties receiving reparation payments.
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
- P., Hugo, -- 1922-2001.
Corporate Bodies
- Monowitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Waldlager V (Concentration camp)
- Hlinkova slovenská lʹudová strana.
Subjects
- Revenge.
- Forced labor.
- Postwar experiences.
- Faith.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Postwar effects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Nightmares.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Slovak.
Places
- Czechoslovakia.
- Slivník (Slovakia)
- Poing (Germany)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Feldafing (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Lublin (Poland : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat