Henry G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Henry G., who was born in Strzemieszyce Wielkie in 1928, one of four children. He recounts his family's poverty (he was always hungry); their orthodoxy; attending cheder and public school; antisemitic harassment; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions; ghettoization; his oldest brother's marriage; his father's job with the Judenrat; his father's deportation (he never saw him again); a round-up; separation from his mother; deportation with two brothers and other relatives to Blechhammer; his relatives obtaining extra food for him; British POWs sharing Red Cross packages; a privileged position working for a German who gave him extra food; theatrical and musical performances by the prisoners; public hangings; a death march to Gross-Rosen; train transport to Buchenwald; clandestinely joining a group of more privileged Dutch prisoners; sharing extra food with his brother; his older brother's transfer to the camp hospital (they never saw him again); his other brother joining him; becoming very ill; being nursed by a Dutch prisoner; train transport with his brother to Theresienstadt; his brother's escape en route; liberation by Soviet troops; hospitalization; transfer to Prague; returning to Poland seeking relatives; reunion with his sister and brother; returning to Prague; emigration to England with assistance from a Quaker organization; living in a children's home in Windermere, then in Scotland; marriage; and his son's birth. Mr. G. discusses the prisoner hierarchy in camps; health problems resulting from his experiences; and surgical removal of his tattooed camp number in 1965.
Extent and Medium
4 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
- G., Henry, -- 1928-
Corporate Bodies
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Blechhammer E/3 (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jewish councils.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Concentration camps -- Songs and music.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Prisoners of war -- England.
- Prisoners of war -- Poland.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Brothers.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Poland -- Strzemieszyce Wielkie.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Death marches.
- Orphanages -- England.
- Quakers.
- Child survivors.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Mutual aid.
- Marriage in Jewish ghettos.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
Places
- Strzemieszyce ghetto.
- Scotland.
- Poland.
- Strzemieszyce Wielkie (Poland)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Windermere (England)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat