Peter S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Peter S., who was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1936. He recalls anti-Jewish restrictions; frequent military parades; deportation with his parents and younger brother to Latvia in November 1941; their privileged status because his father headed a team of skilled mechanics needed by the German army; living in and near the Ri?ga ghetto; transfer in February 1943 to the Eastern front; his father rescuing a German officer in a partisan attack; imprisonment in Ri?ga from October 1943 to January 1944; being smuggled into Germany, probably by the officer his father had saved; and separation from his father, whom he later learned died in Buchenwald. He recounts transfer with his mother and brother to Ravensbru?ck; a Polish inmate doctor who treated his illness; transfer to Bergen-Belsen in early 1945; horrendous conditions; and liberation by British soldiers in April 1945. He describes their return to Nuremberg; emigration to the United States in 1947; his mother's remarriage; his and his brother's education and careers; and reluctance to speak of his experiences. He provides insightful observations of his feelings during the war and of concentration camp life and shows documents and photographs (obtained from Britain's Imperial War Museum).
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
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
- S., Peter, -- 1936-
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Child survivors.
- Postwar effects.
- Mutual aid.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Postwar experiences.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Latvia -- Rīga.
- Family.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Rīga (Latvia)
- Nuremberg (Germany)
- Rīga ghetto.
- Germany.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat