Harold K. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Harold K., who was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1920. He recalls his impoverished home; their orthodoxy; leaving school to begin working at age twelve; Polish antisemitism; German invasion; a public hanging of Jews; forced labor as a bricklayer in Katowice; transfer to a labor camp; arrest while visiting home; release and transfer to Annaberg, which he helped build; Allied bombardments; Yom Kippur services; his privileged status as a bricklayer; visiting his family in the Sosnowiec ghetto; transfer to Auschwitz in June 1944, then to Birkenau and Gleiwitz; a death march in December 1944; train transport to Oranienburg (about twenty percent of those who left Gleiwitz survived); transfer to another camp; digging tunnels for airplane factories; transfer to Dachau; liberation by United States troops; selling food and material provided by an American officer; living in Munich; returning briefly to Sosnowiec (neither his parents nor siblings survived); marriage to a survivor; and emigration in 1949 to the United States with assistance from HIAS. Mr. K. discusses the importance of luck to his survival; being treated well by Americans at liberation; painful memories of total humiliation; and sharing his experiences with his children and grandchildren.

3 videocassettes