Akiva K. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Akiva K., who was born in Katowice, Poland in 1929. He describes his affluent family; antisemitic incidents; moving to Warsaw shortly before German invasion; returning to Katowice; his father traveling to the Soviet-occupied zone; living with his grandmother in Wolbrom; his bar mitzvah; moving to Sosnowiec; participating in No'ar ha-Tsiyoni; staying in a village with his father; returning to his mother in Sosnowiec; being protected from deportation by a doctor who lived with his mother; ghettoization; hiding in a bunker; obtaining false papers; a futile escape attempt; smuggling themselves to the Kamionka ghetto; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; remaining with his mother's friend (he eventually perished); falsifying his age; forced labor; public executions; helping a friend smuggle food; a death march and train transport to Althammer, then Mauthausen; cannibalism; transfer to Gunskirchen; and liberation by United States troops. Mr. K. recounts living in Wels displaced persons camp; illegally traveling to Italy with the Jewish Brigade; emigration to Palestine; detention by the British; fighting in the Israeli War of Independence; emigration to the United States in 1958; marriage; and sharing parts of his story with his children. He shows photographs, documents and his belt worn during the war.

4 videocassettes