Leon L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Leon L., who was born in Krako?w, Poland in 1923. He recalls his affluent, orthodox family; antisemitic incidents; one sister's emigration to Palestine; German invasion; anti-Jewish measures; joining the underground; denouncement by a Jew as a black marketeer; imprisonment; release; living with his parents in the ghetto; deportation with his family; jumping from the train after his brother did (he never saw his parents and sister again); hiding with his father's Polish friend; returning to the ghetto; reunion with his brother; their transfer to P?aszo?w; his brother sharing bread with him; transfer to Zschachwitz in 1944; slave labor at a Miag factory; receiving food from a German; hospitalization; hiding during the bombing of Dresden; the death march to Litome?r?ice in April; transfer to Theresienstadt; liberation by Soviet troops; reunion with his brother; recuperating in Ebensee displaced persons camp; assistance from the Joint and UNRRA; living in Vienna; emigrating to the United States in April 1948; marriage; two daughters' births; and his wife's death. Mr. L. discusses the hope of seeing his sister helping him to survive; willing himself to forget his experiences; reluctance to share them with his daughters; and anguish from his wife's death, and denouncement by a Jew.
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
- L., Leon, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- Litomêr̂ice (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Escapes.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kraków.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Refugee camps.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Collaborationists -- Poland.
- Death marches.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Brothers.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Hiding.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- False papers.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Zschachwitz (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Ebensee (Austria : Refugee camp)
- Vienna (Austria)
- Kraków ghetto.
- Poland.
- Kraków (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat