George G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of George G., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1922. He describes being the oldest child of three in a traditional family; the family move to Poznan?; anti-Semitic incidents in public school and law school (he attended for only three months due to the outbreak of the war); returning to ?o?dz? in September 1939; ghettoization in 1940; forced labor managing a clothing factory; H?ayim Rumkowski's role; starvation and epidemics; round-ups, first of the sick, then of entire areas; buying black market food to enable his family's survival; and mass deportations in 1943. Mr. G. recalls liquidation of the ghetto in 1944; deportation to Auschwitz with his family; selection of his mother and brother and soon learning their fate; stealing potato peels from the garbage for himself and his father; the death march to Kaltwasser; liberation; returning to ?o?dz? to seek surviving family; learning that of his family of 140 members, only he and his father survived; and meeting his future wife. Mr. G. tells of returning to Germany; his marriage in 1946 in a displaced persons camp; emigration to the United States in 1949; his reluctance to discuss the Holocaust with his children; and a 1986 trip to Auschwitz to recite "kaddish."
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
- G., George, -- 1922-
- Rumkowski, Mordecai Ḥayim.
Corporate Bodies
- Kaltwasser (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Fathers and sons.
- Family.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
Places
- Łódź ghetto.
- Poznań (Poland)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat