Howard O. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Howard O., who was born in Herne, Germany in 1924. He recalls moving to Amsterdam in 1933 due to Nazi antisemitism; German invasion in 1940; his father's non-Jewish friend obtaining documents which protected Mr. O. and his sister from deportation to a labor camp; hiding in the attic of his father's former employee; his sister working for the underground; his father's disappearance after he had gone out; leaving Amsterdam with his mother fearing they would be discovered; hiding briefly in Weesp with a minister, his sister's superior in the underground; moving to the schoolmaster's home; hiding with his mother, Jewish women, and Dutch men; the extreme hunger of the winter of 1945; and the constant fear. Mr. O. recounts returning to Amsterdam after the war; learning his father had been deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz; emigrating to the United States in 1947; nominating those who hid him for recognition by Yad Vashem; and a recent visit to the Netherlands. He shows photographs, letters, and documents and recites the words of a Dutch underground freedom song.

2 videocassettes