Otto L. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Otto L., who was born in Djakovo, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1915, the youngest of five children. He recalls his family's affluence; working in Osijeck; arrest by Ustaša in July 1941; imprisonment; train transport to Gospić, another town, then to Jasenovac; slave labor constructing the camp; frequent shootings by Ustaša; transfer to Krapje to work as a lumberjack; return to Jasenovac after about six months; volunteering for the shoe workshop; transfer to Stara Gradiska; improved conditions during a Red Cross visit; his brother-in-law assisting him when he had typhus; receiving packages from the Zagreb Jewish community; retributive killings when there were escapes; transfer back to Jasenovac in 1943; volunteering as a mechanic; briefly being sent to harvest plums in the Kozara Mountains; not escaping, fearing reprisals on those left in Jasenovac; working in the automobile shop upon return; staging an uprising on April 21, 1945, knowing they would be killed; escaping to the woods; contacting the partisans; incarceration for a month; returning to Osijek; learning no other family had survived; and support from the Jewish community. Mr. L. discusses living day to day in camp; difficulty informing families of relatives' deaths at Jasenovac; and Jasenovac survivors in Israel.

2 videocassettes