Joseph B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Joseph B., who was born in Lemberg, Austria (presently L?viv, Ukraine) in 1907. Mr. B. recalls his family's affluence; pervasive antisemitism; three years of Polish military service; marriage; the births of two daughters; Soviet occupation; German invasion; ghettoization; a leadership role on the Judenrat; teaching his daughters to assume Christian identities; leaving his younger daughter in a park, hoping non-Jews would take her in; hiding his wife and older daughter; liquidation of the ghetto; transfer to Janowska; learning that his wife and older daughter were killed; forced labor in a forest; escape; hiding with farmers he knew; obtaining false papers with assistance from a Polish friend; working in Tarno?w; being taken by the partisans; their unwillingness to let him join because no one knew him; liberation by Soviet troops in Rzeszo?w; enlisting in the military; locating his daughter; kidnapping her because her "adopted" family would not let her go; taking revenge on the man who killed his wife and daughter; marriage to his daughter's baby sitter (a Jewish woman who had hidden as a Pole); moving to Berlin; living in a displaced persons camp; and emigration to the United States. Mr. B. shows documents and photographs.
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
- B., Joseph, -- 1907-
Corporate Bodies
- Janowska (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Video tapes.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Forests.
- False papers.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Refugee camps.
- Hiding.
- Soviet occupation.
- Escapes.
- Revenge.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- Forced labor.
- Jewish councils.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Lʹviv.
- Husband and wife.
- Fathers and daughters.
Places
- Lʹvov ghetto.
- Rzeszów (Poland)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Lʹviv (Ukraine)
- Tarnów (Województwo Małopolskie, Poland)
- Austria.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat