Idek R. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Idek R., who was born in Proszowice, Poland in 1922. He recalls his close extended family; attending public school and cheder; German invasion; forced labor through 1941; fleeing with his friend to the Kraków ghetto to escape the liquidation of Jews in Proszowice (he never saw his parents again); transfer to Płaszów, then to Auschwitz in 1944; working in the Unionwerke until January 1945; a death march to the Czechoslovakian border; travel on freight cars to Mauthausen; working for Messerschmitt in Gusen II; and liberation by United States troops in 1945. Mr. R. recounts walking to Linz with his friend; recuperating in a hospital with assistance from the Red Cross; traveling with the Jewish brigade from Bindermichl to Bari; returning to Austria after learning his sister had survived; marriage in Bad Ischl in 1946; moving with his wife to Vienna; and emigration to Boston in 1949 with assistance from HIAS. He discusses his first trip to Poland in 1986; restoring the Jewish cemetery in Proszowice with his friends; and his most recent trip to Poland with his daughter, son-in-law, and nephew.

1 videocassette (betacam sp)