Samuel A. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Samuel A., who was born in Paris, France in 1925 to a family of seven children. He recalls close relations with neighbors in a building housing only Jews; German invasion; arrest with his family on September 23, 1942; their incarceration in Drancy; separation from his family, when he and one brother were removed from a deportation train (he never saw them again); slave labor constructing roads in Cosel; their transfer to Blechhammer; assistance from Lageraltester Karl Demerer; hospitalization which resulted in transfer to another camp; recovering from typhus with assistance from a Polish doctor; transfer to other camps, then Birkenau; a privileged assignment to the "Scheisskommando"; transfer to Buchenwald; non-Jewish prisoners sharing Red Cross packages; sabotaging work at an airplane factory; escaping with a friend from a death march in April 1945; hiding with assistance from French POWs; and liberation by African-American troops. Mr. A. recounts a hostile reception upon returning to Paris; recovering from tuberculosis; difficulty recovering his family's apartment; and reunion with a sister. He discusses the atmosphere of the building in which his family lived; the importance of friendship to his survival; relations between prisoner groups; and continuing nightmares. He shows photographs.

3 videocassettes