Aaron S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Aaron S., who was born in De?blin, Poland in 1921. He recalls his family's relative affluence; attending public school and cheder; pervasive antisemitism; German invasion; fleeing with his family to Ryki, then a village; returning to De?blin; ghettoization; forced labor at the airport; moving into the adjacent work camp with his brother; deportation of two uncles and an aunt (he never saw them again); the arrival of Slovak Jews; arranging for his parents and sister to join him; his father's death from a beating in November 1942; the role of prisoners in running the camp; obtaining extra food; assistance from a German civilian worker; helping his brother avoid execution; transfer with his mother and siblings to Cze?stochowa; separation from his family; slave labor in a munitions factory; transfer in January 1945 to Buchenwald and in March to Colditz; slave labor; a death march in April to Theresienstadt; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to De?blin; reunion with his mother and siblings; antisemitic violence; moving to Wroc?aw and living as non-Jews; smuggling themselves to Germany; living in Geiselho?ring with assistance from the Joint; emigrating to the United States in 1949; and marriage to a survivor from De?blin in 1954. Mr. S. notes he counts his "wealth" as his three children and his grandchildren. He shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
3 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, -- 1921-
Corporate Bodies
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Częstochowa (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Death marches.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Poland -- Dęblin (Warsaw)
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Mothers and sons.
- Fathers and sons.
- Brothers.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
Places
- Dęblin (Warsaw, Poland)
- Poland.
- Wrocław (Poland)
- Ryki (Warsaw, Poland)
- Colditz (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Dęblin (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Dęblin ghetto.
- Geiselhöring (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat