Martin W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Martin W., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1929. He recalls antisemitic harassment on the street; German invasion; his father protecting his German business partner from Polish violence; betrayal by the partner resulting in expulsion from their home; ghettoization; smuggling food; hospitalization of his father, mother, and sister; their deaths; living with an uncle; the deaths of his other two sisters; deportation to Auschwitz in August 1944; staying with his uncle; joining a group with two friends that left Auschwitz under cover of Allied bombing; transfer to Friedland; escaping with a friend on May 7; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling to Plzen?; friendship with United States soldiers; employment by the U.S. military; living in Regensburg, then a displaced persons camp in Munich; emigrating to the United States in 1946; assistance from UNRRA; living in an orphanage; and leaving after receiving support from American relatives. Mr. W. discusses the difficulty of burying his parents and sisters; loneliness upon arrival in the U.S.; enduring friendships with fellow refugees; sharing some of his experiences with some of his children, while not speaking of others because they are too painful; and amplification of this pain as he ages.
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
- W., Martin, -- 1929-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Hospitals in Jewish ghettos.
- Mutual aid.
- Munich (Germany)
- Refugee camps.
- Child survivors.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Family.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Forced labor.
- Escapes.
Places
- Łódź ghetto.
- Friedland (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Plzeň (Czech Republic)
- Regensburg (Germany)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat