Alfred W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Alfred W., who was born in Fu?rth, Germany in 1908. He recalls his family's orthodoxy; their strong German identity; cordial relations with non-Jews; attending Henry Kissinger's bar mitzvah; joining the family manufacturing business; serving on the town council; resigning after the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in April 1933; helping Jews emigrate; observing the synagogues burning on Kristallnacht and arrest by a former colleague; incarceration overnight in Nuremberg; helping a rabbi climb into the train, thus saving his life; internment in Dachau; assistance from an SS officer, his brother's childhood friend; beatings and killings by SS guards; release in January 1939 based on his wife's pledge they would emigrate; meeting his parents and wife in Munich; traveling with his wife and son via Frankfurt to join relatives in London; his daughter's birth; and emigrating to Bolivia from Liverpool via Arica, Chile. Mr. W. notes he helped build a synagogue in La Paz in 1941, symbolically replacing the destroyed synagogues of Fu?rth.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (hi8)
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
- Kissinger, Henry, -- 1923-
- W., Alfred, -- 1908-
Corporate Bodies
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish refugees.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Video tapes.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
Places
- Munich (Germany)
- Liverpool (England)
- Arica (Chile)
- London (England)
- Nuremberg (Germany)
- Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Germany.
- FuĚrth (Bavaria, Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat