Samuel P. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Samuel P., who was born in Be?dzin, Poland in 1926, the third child of seven. He recalls his family's orthodoxy; especially enjoying Passover and Sukkot; cordial relations with non-Jews; participating in Gordonyah; his brother's bar mitzvah (German invasion precluded his); increasing anti-Jewish restrictions; confiscation of the family business; forced labor with his older brother; his brother's deportation; ghettoization; receiving extra food from his German supervisor; hiding in a bunker with his family during deportations; having to leave the bunker during the ghetto's liquidation; deportation to Birkenau; separation from his family (he never saw them again); assistance from a prisoner when he had typhus; transfer after four months to Myslowice (Fu?rstengrube); public hangings; a death march to Gleiwitz; transfer to Nordhausen in open train cars; Czechs throwing bread to them; cannibalism; transfer to Magdeburg, then Ahrensburg; forced labor on a former commandant's farm; being loaded on ships; landing near Neustadt; liberation by British troops; assistance from UNRRA; reunion with his brother; and the two of them joining relatives in London in 1946. Mr. P. discusses his appreciation for freedom; finding it too difficult to share all his suffering; many SS who were never punished; and filing complaints with German prosecutors which were never acted upon.
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
- P., Samuel, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Gordonyah--Makabi ha-tsaʻir (Association)
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- Nordhausen (Concentration camp)
- Myslowice (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Death marches.
- Forced labor.
- Family.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Bunkers.
- Mutual aid.
- Child survivors.
- Hiding.
- Cannibalism.
- Concentration camp commandants.
Places
- Magdeburg (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Gleiwitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Będzin ghetto.
- Neustadt an der Aisch (Germany)
- Ahrensburg (Germany)
- Poland.
- Będzin (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat