Gary B. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Gary B., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1924 to Polish e?migre?s. He recalls their affluence; summer visits to relatives in Poland; participating in Hashomer Hatzair, planning to emigrate to Palestine; transfer to a Jewish school in 1937 due to antisemitism; his bar mitzvah; his father's deportation to Poland in 1938; his father's brief return to liquidate their assets; his mother and siblings joining his father in Poland; his arrest on September 13, 1939; incarceration in Sachsenhausen; a barrack mate being beaten to death (he testified against one perpetrator in a war crime trial in Berlin); relations between prisoner groups; torture in solitary confinement when men in his work group attempted escape; their public hangings; transfer to Auschwitz in October 1942; assignment to agricultural work in Budy, which saved his life; a Jewish prisoner-doctor smuggling him medication when he had malaria; a death march in January 1945, then train transport to Gusen; liberation by United States troops; traveling to Brussels; three months recuperation in a sanitarium; assistance from HIAS; learning the diamond trade; and emigration to the United States in November 1947. Mr. B. notes not sharing his story with his children and his entire family being killed.

2 videocassettes