Robert W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Robert W., who was born in Skarz?ysko-Kamienna, Poland in 1931, the youngest of six childen. He recalls antisemitic harassment; German invasion; a public hanging; ghettoization; his father arranging for him to hide with non-Jews; returning to rejoin his family; his mother's deportation; being smuggled into the labor camp by his brothers; slave labor; sharing extra food received from a civilian worker with his brothers, father, or sister; his father hiding him when he was sick; his father arranging his escape to the partisans; returning due to antisemitic hostility from the partisans; transfer to dig anti-tank ditches near Przedbo?rz, then to Cze?stochowa (he never saw his family again); slave labor in a munitions factory; transfer with a friend to Buchenwald; categorization as political prisoners resulting in preferential treatment; liberation by United States troops; assistance from the Red Cross; living in an OSE home in Paris; learning his family had perished; acting out his rage with other children; counseling; and emigration to Canada. Mr. W. discusses numbing himself in the camps; losing his belief in God; not discussing his experiences for many years; sharing them with his children when they were older; and recently speaking in schools. He shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
4 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
- W., Robert, -- 1931-
Corporate Bodies
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- World Union OSE.
- Częstochowa (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jews -- Poland -- Skarżysko-Kamienna.
- Brothers.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Faith.
- Forced labor.
- Fathers and sons.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Child survivors.
- Escapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- Hiding.
- Mutual aid.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
Places
- Paris (France)
- Przedbórz (Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland)
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Poland)
- Poland.
- Skarżysko-Kamienna ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat