Walter B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Walter B., who was born in Coburg, Germany in 1911. He describes cordial relations with non-Jews until the Nazi period; arrest with his father and older brother in 1933; their release after three weeks; having to liquidate the family business and property; joining relatives in Berlin; both of his brothers emigrating to Palestine; increasing restrictions, including wearing the yellow star; forced labor; marriage in 1941; his parents' deportation; a factory supervisor warning him of an impending action to liquidate Jews; a non-Jewish friend advising him that one of the other supervisors might hide him and his wife; paying the supervisor to hide in his cellar in Altlandsberg; spending evenings upstairs with their rescuers; observing Allied bombings of Berlin; liberation by Soviets troops after almost three years; detention until their Jewish identity was verified; working at a local hospital; learning his parents had been killed in Ri?ga; and testifying on behalf of his rescuers at war crime trials in Potsdam. Mr. B. discusses lack of compensation from the German Democratic Republic and learning his rescuers considered killing him and his wife during their hiding.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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
- B., Walter, -- 1911-
Subjects
- Hiding.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Husband and wife.
- War crime trials -- Germany -- Potsdam.
- Forced labor.
Places
- Coburg (Germany)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany.
- Altlandsberg (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat