Werner K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Werner K., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1919. Mr. K. recalls attending school; expulsion after passage of the Nuremberg laws; futile attempts to emigrate with his brother, legally and illegally; the destruction of Jewish businesses on Kristallnacht eliminating work opportunities; doing manual labor; his parents' deportation to the ?o?dz? ghetto in October 1941; joining them weeks later; volunteering with his brother to leave the ghetto; transfer to Rawitsch; slave labor; public hangings; his brother's death from a beating; transfer to Auschwitz/Birkenau in 1943; being selected for gassing; hiding in a hole for fourteen days; taking the coat of a gassed prisoner and joining his group; discovery; being sent to the punishment block; transfer to Sachsenhausen; hospitalization for typhus; transfer to Buchenwald; liberation by United States troops; the Americans compelling locals to visit the camp; returning to Berlin; seeking Red Cross assistance to find surviving relatives (there were none); marriage; and his son's birth. Mr. K. discusses details of camp life, including the hierarchy; believing he would not survive, but at the same time, not losing hope; discussions in camp noting no one would ever believe their experiences if they survived; not sharing his experiences, particularly with his son; a recent visit to Auschwitz/Birkenau; recurring nightmares; and his continuing sense of belonging in Germany. He shows photographs.
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
- K., Werner, -- 1919-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Rawitsch (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Survivor-child relations.
- Nuremberg laws.
- Nightmares.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Citizenship -- Germany.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Brothers.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Jews -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Germany.
- Child survivors.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Mutual aid.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Łódź ghetto.
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat