Erwin B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Erwin B., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1926, the youngest of seven children. He recounts his father's death in 1936; his mother's struggle to support the family; being accepted at the Korczak orphanage; German occupation; ghettoization; leaving the orphanage; watching Janusz Korczak's deportation with the orphans; smuggling food for his family; fleeing to the Wyszogro?d ghetto; joining his siblings in the P?on?sk ghetto; working as a non-Jew for a Polish farmer; deportation with his mother and siblings to Auschwitz in late 1942; separation from his mother and sisters (he never saw them again); slave labor in Buna/Monowitz, then Birkenau; receiving medicine from a friend; transfer to Stutthof; assistance from a German officer and two French doctors; building airstrips in several labor camps; a death march from Dachau to Allach; and liberation by United States troops. Mr. B. recalls recuperating in Mu?hldorf; assistance from HIAS in Munich; reunion with his brothers in Belgium; emigration to Israel; military service in 1948; marriage; returning to Belgium; and emigrating to Canada in 1951. He discusses the Korczak orphanage; trips to Poland in 1983 and 1988, including an orphanage reunion; and sharing his experiences with his daughter.
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
- B., Erwin, -- 1926-
- Korczak, Janusz, -- 1878-1942.
Corporate Bodies
- Monowitz (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- HIAS (Agency)
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Jews -- Poland -- Wyszogród.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Jewish councils.
- Jews -- Poland -- Płońsk.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Orphanages.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- Child survivors.
- Mutual aid.
Places
- Wyszogród ghetto.
- Płońsk ghetto.
- Allach (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Belgium.
- Munich (Germany)
- Israel.
- Warsaw ghetto.
- Poland.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Mühldorf am Inn (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat