Otto S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Otto S., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1921. He recounts his parents' move to the United States in 1899; his brother's birth there in 1911; their return visit to Austria before World War I; his father's draft when war broke out; his return in 1918 with injuries which precluded their return to the U.S.; Viennese welcoming Hitler during the Auschluss in 1938; anti-Jewish laws; his brother's incarceration in Buchenwald; release as a U.S. citizen provided he left immediately; his father's death in 1941; his mother's emigration to the U.S.; hiding with his girlfriend's family; being smuggled to join relatives in Budapest; his uncle turning him away; the smuggler finding him a place to stay with thieves; arrest; incarceration; escaping; briefly joining relatives in Kapospula; arrest; deportation to Birkenau; slave labor; transfer to Sachsenhausen, then Kaufering; slave labor for Organisation Todt; help from a Viennese prisoner while hospitalized; transfer to Dachau; liberation in April 1945; working for U.S. troops; reunion with his brother, a U.S. soldier; marriage to his girlfriend; and emigration to the United States in July 1946. He discusses nightmares; no contact with other survivors; and not sharing his experiences until now, even with his mother.

2 videocassettes