Henry M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Henry M., who was born in Dresden, Germany, in 1923. Mr. M., a violinist in a renowned string quartet, recalls his youth in a musical family; playing solo with the Dresden Philharmonic; giving recitals with his brother as a member of the Jewish Kulturband; his music studies in Prague in 1936; returning to Dresden after the annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938; and a brief imprisonment following Kristallnacht. He describes the difficulties of being a Jewish musician at war's outset; acts of kindness by sympathetic non-Jews; forced labor (making condoms and later assembling timers for detonators); his arrest for having a non-Jewish girlfriend; the deportation of his parents to Ri?ga (they did not return) in 1941; and deportation with his brother to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943. He recounts details of camp conditions; his brother's illness and selection for death; his placement in the men's prisoner orchestra; close bonds among orchestra members; transport late in 1944 to Ohrdruf; his escape to the Allies during a forced march to Buchenwald in April 1945; and a personal interview with General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

3 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)