Mario B. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Mario B., who was born in London, England in 1926, the older of two brothers. He recounts his parents were Catholic, Italian emigre?es; he, his mother, and brother visiting his grandmother in Piacenza in May 1939; not being able to return to England after the war started; living in Cadeo; Italian capitulation; German occupation; local hostility to Germans; contacts with partisans; hiding to avoid military draft in 1944; arrest with his brother and uncle when visiting his mother; imprisonment in Piacenza; separation from his relatives when he was transferred to Milan (they were released); deportation to Altona, then Brunsbuettelkoog; slave labor in a chemical factory; he and others sabotaging the work; female Russian prisoners giving him extra food; occasional work on farms with improved rations; interrogation for sabotage; refusing to name others; transfer to Itzehoe; severe beatings; transfer to Kiel; clearing bombing rubble; frequently finding corpses; transfer back to Brunsbuettelkoog, then a farm; liberation by British troops; recuperating in Itzehoe, then Hamburg; returning to Italy with assistance from the Red Cross; reunion with his mother and brother; receiving funds from his father; and their return to England. Mr. B. discusses never seeing Jews and not knowing about the Holocaust; relations between ethnic groups in camps; prisoner hierarchies; health problems and continuing nightmares resulting from his experiences; and trying to suppress his painful memories. He shows many documents.

3 videocassettes