Shlomo S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Shlomo S., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1924. He recalls his mother's severe illness; being raised in Chernyshevskoye by his father and grandmother; his family's Zionisim; attending German primary school until 1934; leaving due to antisemitism; studying with private tutors; attending a Hebrew gymnasium in Kaunas beginning in 1936; Soviet occupation; arrival of Jewish refugees from Poland; German invasion in June 1941; a non-Jewish woman hiding them during a mass killing by Lithuanians; his grandfather being killed; ghettoization; his mother and grandmother being killed; his father's position with the Judenrat; a privileged clerical job in a factory; publishing a clandestine Zionist paper titled Nitzotz; frequent round-ups, including one of children; building bunkers with others; hiding in one with friends during the ghetto liquidation in July 1944; discovery a day later; deportation to Stutthof; transfer after a few days to Dachau; brief hospitalization; writing an issue of Nitzotz in September; transfer to Kaufering; encountering his father; his father's friend providing extra food; forming a Zionist group; writing a monthly issue of Nitzotz; train transfer with his father to Dachau in April 1945; liberation by United States troops the next day; his father's death three weeks later; traveling to St. Ottilien displaced persons camp; publishing Nitzotz in Landsberg; meeting with David Ben-Gurion; moving to Munich; receiving support from UNRRA; organizing pro-Zionist demonstrations; marriage; moving to Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp in 1948; legal emigration to Israel; the births of two daughters; and continuing his education. Mr. S. names many he knew in the Kovno ghetto and notes copies of Nitzotz are at Yad Vashem.

6 videocassettes