Lothar R. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Lothar R., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1926. He recalls being shunned by non-Jewish children; the family move to Cernăuti in 1933; Soviet occupation; expropriation of their business; German invasion; ghettoization; a forced march to Mărculești, then Yampolʹ; a mass shooting by Romanian soldiers; living in the Bershadʹ ghetto from 1941 to 1944; his mother and father disappearing; moving with his sister to the Balta ghetto; forced labor; receiving food from a German soldier; surviving an execution by feigning death; hiding with his sister in an outhouse; their escape to Bershadʹ; liberation by Soviet troops; disinterment of his parents from a mass grave; buying a tombstone for them; moving to Sokiryany, then Chernivt︠s︡i; being drafted into the Soviet Army; forced labor in Khabarovsk; marriage in 1949; and release in 1950 due to his wife's pregnancy. Mr. R. discusses his son's birth en route to Chernivt︠s︡i; futile attempts to emigrate; joining his sister in Israel in 1969; moving to Germany in 1973; wanting to visit his parents' grave and to confront the family of the German who killed his parents; reluctance to discuss his past with his children; current antisemitism; and discomfort living in Germany.

2 videocassettes