Manek F. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Manek F. who was born in Be?dzin, Poland in 1925. He recalls his family's move to Danzig; friendships with German children; exclusion when they joined the Hitler Youth; his bar mitzvah in the Great Synagogue; moving to ?o?dz?; not being able to attend school since he did not speak Polish; and the outbreak of war. Mr. F. relates their move to Warsaw; his father's smuggling food into the ghetto in partnership with well-connected Germans; his father's round-up in 1941; unsuccessful efforts of his German partner to have him released from transport to Treblinka; the Warsaw ghetto uprising; unsuccessful escape attempts through sewers; transport to Majdanek; using his fluency in German to ally himself with a guard who helped him in many ways; assisting his mother and sister; and transfer to Birkenau. He describes the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager); arrivals of French transports; transfer to Jaworzno; being the only German speaker among the wholly Greek prisoner population, which afforded him privileged status; the death march toward Germany; escape and hiding; liberation by Russian troops; being drafted into the Russian army in January 1945; obtaining a pass to find his parents in Munich; contacting his aunt in the United States; emigration and being drafted into the U.S. army in 1949. Mr. F. reflects upon relations and behavior in the camps including various survival strategies.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
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
- F., Manek, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Majdanek (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Jaworzno (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Family.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Mother and child.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Death marches.
- Bunkers.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Resistance.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Bar mitzvah.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Poland.
- Będzin (Poland)
- Gdańsk (Poland)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Munich (Germany)
- Danzig (Germany)
- Warsaw ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat