Yehoshua R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Yehoshua R., who was born in 1923, one of ten children. He recalls his family's orthodoxy; attending a yeshiva; German invasion of Jaworzno; forced labor; moving to Chrzano?w to support his sister and her eight children; being sent from a round-up to Bunzlau; slave labor there and in several other camps ending at Klettendorf; escaping with a friend; being caught on a train; incarceration in Myslowitz, then Birkenau; assignment to the Sonderkommando; moving corpses from the gas chambers to open pyres; public hangings; losing his faith (he later returned to orthodoxy due to his wife); wanting to survive in order to tell others what he witnessed; having extra food and clothing from the murdered prisoners; one camp underground group organizing an uprising; the failed revolt; evacuation in January 1945; escaping almost immediately; being sheltered by non-Jews; returning to his home town; antisemitic threats; deciding to emigrate to Palestine; and assistance from the Joint.
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
- R., Yehoshua, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Forced labor.
- Escapes.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Sonderkommandos.
- Faith.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Concentration camps -- Underground movements.
- Concentration camps -- Revolts.
Places
- Jaworzno (KrakoĚw, Poland)
- Bunzlau (Poland : Concentration camp)
- ChrzanoĚw (Poland)
- Myslowitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Klettendorf (Poland : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat