David W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of David W., who was born in 1922 in Krako?w, Poland, one of three children. He recounts attending Jewish and public schools; beatings because he was Jewish; German invasion; fleeing east for several weeks with his brother; anti-Jewish restrictions; forced labor; ghettoization in 1941; his parents' deportation (he never saw them again); incarceration in P?aszo?w; public hangings and shootings; transfer to Auschwitz for less than a day, then to Mauthausen; meaningless slave labor carrying rocks; transfer to St. Valentin; slave labor in a tank factory; a non-Jewish acquaintance from Krako?w throwing him cigarettes; exchanging them for bread; an Allied bombing in which he was wounded; transfer back to Mauthausen; observing cannibalized corpses; a death march to Wels and Gunskirchen; liberation by United States troops; living in a displaced persons camp in Linz; contracting typhus; convalescing for several weeks; learning his sister and brother had been killed; meeting his future wife; moving to Bad Ischl, then Ebelsberg displaced persons camps; and emigration to the United States in 1949, with assistance from HIAS. Mr. W. discusses only thinking about food and his indifference to life in camps; continuing problems resulting from his bombing wound; not sharing his experiences with his children; and visiting graves and memorials with his wife in Krako?w, P?aszo?w, and Auschwitz.
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
- W., David, -- 1922-
Corporate Bodies
- Gunskirchen (Concentration camp)
- HIAS (Agency)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Mauthausen (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar effects.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Death marches.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Refugee camps.
- Brothers.
- Forced labor.
- Cannibalism.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kraków.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
Places
- Ebelsberg (Austria : Refugee camp)
- Linz (Austria : Refugee camp)
- Bas Ischl (Austria : Refugee camp)
- St. Valentin (Austria : Concentration camp)
- Wels (Austria : Concentration camp)
- Poland.
- Kraków ghetto.
- Kraków (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat