Charles M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Charles M., who was born in Piotrko?w Trybunalski, Poland in 1926. He recalls attending Hebrew and public schools; anti-Semitic incidents; participating in a Bundist children's group; German invasion; ghettoization in October 1939; working in a forced labor camp in 1940, then in a factory near the ghetto; mass shootings, which included his mother and brother; and his father's deportation. Mr. M. recounts deportation in 1942 to Ostrowiec; transport to Birkenau, then Auschwitz, in 1944; the death march to Melk in early 1945; slave labor digging underground bunkers; transfer to Ebensee; liberation by United States troops in early May; traveling to Italy; Zionist training on a farm; moving to the Feldafing displaced persons' camp; being smuggled to Brussels in 1946; living with cousins; working as a tailor; marriage in 1948; and emigration to the United States in 1951. He details conditions in the ghetto and camps and discusses the importance of aggressiveness in obtaining food and optimism to his survival.
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
- M., Charles, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Ebensee (Concentration camp)
- Melk (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Feldafing (Displaced persons camp)
- Ostrowiec (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Death marches.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Zionist organizations.
- Child survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mass killings.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Jews -- Poland -- Piotrków Trybunalski.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Piotrków Trybunalski (Poland)
- Poland.
- Piotrków ghetto.
- Italy.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat