Chester K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Chester K., who enlisted in the United States Army in 1942; completed basic training in California; attended Officer Candidate School in North Carolina; served in Galveston, Texas; and completed his training in military intelligence. Mr. K. describes D-day; meeting General Patton; moving through France towards Germany; the Battle of the Bulge; entering Dachau on April 29, 1945, and later Allach, a subcamp of Dachau; his shock at seeing hundreds of corpses and the living conditions; attempts to help the survivors; speaking to them in Yiddish; their high death rate due to their inability to digest food; organizing a mourners' prayer with a Jewish chaplain; total lack of preparation for such an encounter; and his overwhelming desire to flee from such a horrifying place. Mr. K. relates preparing for six months to prosecute the commander of Dachau; interviewing survivors in trial preparation; and returning to the United States.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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
- K., Chester.
Corporate Bodies
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Liberator.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- War crime trials -- Germany.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, American.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
Places
- United States -- Armed Forces -- Europe.
- Allach (Germany : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat