Wolf W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Wolf W., who was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1921. He recalls attending French school; speaking Yiddish at home; living in several European cities from 1929 to 1931; settling in Antwerp; antisemitism in school; apprenticing as a diamond cutter; German invasion; fleeing to Ghent, then Saint-Vincent; living with French farmers; his parents' internment in Re?ce?be?dou in spring 1942; visiting them; arrest; imprisonment in Caussade, whose police chief had tried to warn him to hide; internment in Septfonds, then Drancy; deportation to Janislawice (Johannisdorf); singing Yiddish songs with Polish prisoners; Jewish prisoners fasting on Yom Kippur; transfer to Blechhammer; receiving help from British POWs; smuggling food from his work detail, which was outside the camp; sadistic public hangings; receiving one package from his mother; Karl Demerer's (the Jewish head) efforts to help inmates; the death march to Gross-Rosen in January 1945; evacuation to Buchenwald; another death march; transfer to Oranienburg; hiding during the evacuation; liberation by Polish troops; transfer to an American displaced persons camp; repatriation to Brussels; and reunion with his mother. Mr W. insightfully discusses intergroup relationships in the camps; efforts to raise morale; and paralysis of body and spirit resulting from humiliation.
Extent and Medium
6 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
- Demerer, Karl.
- W., Wolf, -- 1921-
Corporate Bodies
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Oranienburg (Concentration camp)
- Blechhammer E/3 (Concentration camp)
- Drancy (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Concentration camps -- Songs and music.
- Prisoners of war -- Poland.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Death marches.
- Refugee camps.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Egypt.
- Caussade (France)
- Cairo (Egypt)
- Ghent (Belgium)
- Antwerp (Belgium)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Saint-Vincent (France)
- Janislawice (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Septfonds (France : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat