Leopold K. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Leopold K., who was born in Peremyshli?a?ny, Poland in 1918. He recalls his family's history as famous klezmer musicians; attending a multi-ethnic school; studies in L'viv; friendships with non-Jews; Soviet occupation; German invasion; escape east; returning home after Germans overtook them; formation of the ghetto and Judenrat; working in a hospital; a mass killing which included his father; building a bunker under their house; hiding in an outhouse, which still haunts him, and in the bunker; receiving food from non-Jewish friends; reluctance to escape from the ghetto; escaping execution after playing music for the German police; deportation to Jaktoro?w concentration camp; working in Krosenko quarry; playing in a camp band; teaching an SS-guard to play a waltz under threat of severe punishment; a German for whom he played bringing Mr. K.'s mother to Jaktoro?w; transfer to Kurowice; being abused while playing to a group of drunken Germans; making contact with A.K. partisans; "stealing" weapons for them; his mother being shot during his escape to the partisans with his brother; fighting Germans and Ukrainian partisans; writing songs and playing for his platoon; returning to Peremyshli?a?ny; moving to L'viv; joining the Polish Peoples Army; playing for the soldiers; meeting American troops at the Laba River; living in Krako?w; organizing a singing and dancing group; studying conducting at the Academy of Music; becoming the music director of the Jewish Theater in Warsaw; and writing songs and music for film and theater.

4 videocassettes