Paul H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Paul H., who was born in Chomutov, Czechoslovakia in 1914. He describes his family's completely assimilated life; medical studies in Prague; participation in socialist and anti-Nazi groups; German occupation in 1938; brief arrest due to his political activities; rearrest at the outbreak of war; deportation to Dachau as a Czech political prisoner; sensing he would not survive slave labor; pretending to be ill in order to remain in the hospital; transfer to Buchenwald; transfer to several prisons, then to Auschwitz in 1943; volunteering to work as a doctor; transfer to Jaworzno; using his position to save others; a death march, with very high mortality, to Gross-Rosen, then Buchenwald; working in the hospital; abandonment by the guards; and liberation by United States troops. Dr. H. recounts being interviewed and helped by Edward R. Murrow; hospitalizations in Jena and Bayreuth; traveling to Paris and England; and emigrating to the United States in April 1946. He discusses his state of mind in the camps; atrocities committed by Ilse Koch; surviving due to luck and his work as a physician, which provided extra food and shelter; illnesses resulting from his experiences; and keeping a diary during the war years.
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
- H., Paul, -- 1914-
- Murrow, Edward R.
- Koch, Ilse, -- 1906-
Corporate Bodies
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Jaworzno (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- Anti-Nazi movement.
- Mutual aid.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Men.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Bayreuth (Germany)
- Paris (France)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Jena (Germany)
- England
- Czechoslovakia.
- Chomutov (Czech Republic)
- Austria.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat