Nathan K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Nathan K., who was born in Vilna, Poland in 1923. He recalls Soviet occupation in 1939; non-Jewish neighbors who hid his family during a pogrom; German invasion; fleeing to Minsk; returning when unable to reach Soviet territory; ghettoization in 1942; forced labor; and learning of the murder of "small ghetto" residents at Ponary. He recounts transfer with his father to Ereda, Narwa and another camp in Estonia (he never saw his mother and brother again); a Jewish doctor who treated his infected knee; officers celebrating Christmas by beating prisoners; returning to Ereda in March 1944; painfully parting from his father during a death march (he never saw him again) to escape with eighteen friends; hiding several months in a bunker in the woods; and arrest by Soviet troops as spies. Mr. K. remembers working in a cotton mill; returning to Vilna illegally; fleeing west in 1946; living in displaced persons camps including Eschwege and Ulm; reunion with a cousin; marriage; and emigrating to join relatives in the United States.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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
- K., Nathan, -- 1923-
Subjects
- Mutual aid.
- Hiding.
- Soviet occupation.
- Postwar experiences.
- Forests.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Men.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Death marches.
- Bunkers.
- Escapes.
- Refugee camps.
- Paneriai Massacres, Paneriai, Lithuania, 1941-1944.
- Pogroms.
- Forced labor.
- Fathers and sons.
Places
- Ereda (Estonia : Concentration camp)
- Narwa (Concentration camp)
- Vilnius (Lithuania)
- Minsk (Belarus)
- Ulm (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Vilna ghetto.
- Eschwege (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Poland.
- Vilna (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat