Walter K. Holocaust Testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Walter K., who was born in Ro?hrenfurth, Germany in 1922. He recounts anti-Jewish laws banning him from high school in 1936; Kristallnacht; imprisonment with his father and relatives in Kassel, then Buchenwald; his father's and uncles' release as World War I veterans; his release to Erfurt two weeks later; forced labor in Kassel; emigration to the Netherlands on a Kindertransport in February 1939; entering through Oldenzaal; living in Rotterdam, Eindhoven, and Amsterdam; obtaining emigration documents for the United States in March 1940; transfer to Westerbork refugee camp in April; German invasion; transfer to Friesland; returning to Westerbork (now a concentration camp); receiving letters from his parents; meeting his future wife in 1942; transport to Theresienstadt in September 1944; encountering an uncle and aunts; transfer to Auschwitz/Birkenau; receiving food from friends; transfer to Hirschberg, then Bad Warmbrunn; working in a factory; receiving food from a civilian worker; burying corpses in mass graves; the guards' desertion; returning to the Netherlands; recuperating in Amsterdam and Arnhem; marriage in December 1945; his son's birth; and emigration to the United States in 1951. Mr. K. notes reluctance to discuss his story with non-survivors. He shows documents.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- K., Walter, -- 1922-
Corporate Bodies
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Hirschberg (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Westerbork (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Kindertransports (Rescue operations)
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Fathers and sons.
- Forced labor.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Postwar experiences.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Refugee camps.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Child survivors.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
Places
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Arnhem (Netherlands)
- Eindhoven (Netherlands)
- Friesland (Netherlands)
- Westerbork (Netherlands : Refugee camp)
- Bad Warmbrunn-Cieplice (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Erfurt (Germany)
- Germany.
- Kassel (Germany)
- RoĚhrenfurth (Germany)
- Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- Oldenzaal (Netherlands)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat