Robert R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Robert R., who was born in Mellrichstadt, Germany in 1924. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; attending a Catholic school; antisemitic harassment; attending high school with his brother in Bad Neustadt an der Saale; increasing antisemitism; expulsion from school in 1937; attending a Jewish school; having to leave town for defending himself against an attack by Hitler Youth; being beaten by Nazis; apprenticeship with an uncle as a tailor; Kristallnacht; his father's and uncle's arrests; his arrest and deportation to Buchenwald; a fellow prisoner assisting him; standing appell for hours; brutal guards; relations between German and Austrian prisoners; release because he was listed on a childrens' transport; reporting to the Gestapo in Weimar; living with an uncle; emigration to England on a kindertransport in 1939; working at a bakery; learning his parents and brother had emigrated to the United States; internment on the Isle of Man as an "enemy alien"; release; service as an air raid warden in London and working in a bakery; reunion with his brother in 1943 (he was in the United States Army); joining his family in the United States in 1947; marriage in 1948; and the births of two children. Mr. R. discusses deportation of his grandparents; non-Jews who helped his parents survive; and sharing his experiences with his children. He shows photographs.
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
- R., Robert, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Child survivors.
- Noncitizens.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Kindertransports (Rescue operations)
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Noncitizens -- Evacuation and relocation.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
Places
- Germany.
- London (England)
- Isle of Man.
- Mellrichstadt (Germany)
- Bad Neustadt an der Saale (Germany)
- Weimar (Thuringia, Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat