Shlomo P. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Shlomo P., who was born in Peine, Germany in 1925. He recalls cordial relations with non-Jews until 1933; expulsion from school after the Nuremberg laws; the family's move to ?o?dz? in 1936; German invasion; fleeing to the Soviet Union with one brother; their separation; placement in an orphanage in Hrodna; draft into the Soviet military; capture by Germans in 1941; identifying himself as a Volksdeutsche while waiting in line to be shot in a mass killing; working as a translator/interrogator for the German 12th Armored Division; interrogating Stalin's son, Iakob Jug?as?vili; advancing toward Moscow, then Leningrad; sexual assault by an officer; friendship with him; revealing he was Jewish; the officer saving his life during the siege of Leningrad; the officers's death at Schlissel?burg; transfer from Tallinn to Berlin, then a Hitler-Jugend school in Braunschweig; a parade in his honor; antisemitic Nazi propaganda in the curricula; constant fear of discovery; supportive friendship with a friend's mother, whom he told he was Jewish; visiting the ?o?dz? ghetto on vacation in 1943, hoping to see his family (he did not); military conscription in 1944; liberation by United States troops; returning to Braunschweig; ending his double life; and reunion with his brothers. Mr. P. discusses his identity confusion and conflicted loyalty while posing as a German and recurrent nightmares.
Extent and Medium
4 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
- Juġas̆vili, Iakob, -- 1907-
- P., Shlomo, -- 1925-
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Hitler-Jugend.
- Identity (Philosophical concept)
- Sexual harassment.
- Nazi propaganda.
- Nightmares.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- Impostor and imposture.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Soviet.
- Orphanages -- Soviet Union.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, German.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Nuremberg laws.
- Child survivors.
- Postwar effects.
- Mass killings.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Citizenship -- Germany.
- Jews -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Germany.
Places
- Berlin (Germany)
- Shlisselʹburg (Russia)
- Hrodna (Belarus)
- Braunschweig (Germany)
- Peine (Germany)
- Germany.
- Łódź ghetto.
- Tallin (Estonia)
- Saint Petersburg (Russia) -- History -- Siege, 1941-1944.
- Łódź (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat