Aaron S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Aaron S., who was born in 1909, one of six children. He recounts moving from Radomys?l Wielki to work in Krako?w; starting a shirt factory; anti-Jewish boycotts; draft into the Polish military; German invasion; being wounded and captured; escaping; returning to his family home in Radomys?l Wielki; brief arrest in Tarno?w while smuggling food; ghettoization in Radomys?l Wielki; hiding with his family in the forest during a round-up; walking to the De?bica ghetto; bribing the Judenrat to obtain documents so they could remain; slave labor on a railroad; transfer with his brother and cousin to P?aszo?w; slave labor exhuming Jewish bodies; digging mass graves; public executions; becoming numb to violence and killings; separation from his relatives upon transfer to Szebnie; sorting Jewish belongings; finding a small pair of teffilin with which he prayed secretly; return to P?aszo?w; transfer to Mielec, then Wieliczka; escaping during train transfer; a non-Jewish farmer hiding him briefly; hiding with other escapees in fields and forests; liberation by Soviet troops; walking to Rzeszo?w, then Krako?w; marriage to a survivor; moving to Heidelberg; his son's birth; and emigration to join uncles in the United States in 1948. Mr. S. discusses details of camp life; pervasive painful memories resulting in nightmares; his children's lack of interest in his experiences; and being the sole survivor of his family of forty-six.
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
- S., Aaron, -- 1909-
Corporate Bodies
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
- Szebnie (Concentration camp)
- Wieliczka (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- Prisoners of war.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Polish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Dębica.
- Escapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Brothers.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Jews -- Poland -- Radomysl Wielki.
- Forced labor.
- Nightmares.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Jewish councils.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Forests.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Tarnów (Województwo Małopolskie, Poland)
- Kraków (Poland)
- Radomyśl Wielki (Poland)
- Poland.
- Mielec (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Rzeszów (Poland)
- Heidelberg (Germany)
- Dębica ghetto.
- Radomyśl Wielki ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat