Hans Werner H. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Hans Werner H., who was born in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany in 1924. He recounts his father was Jewish and his mother converted to Judaism; his family's affluence; six half-siblings from his father's previous marriage (one was killed in World War I, the others emigrated); attending school; antisemitic harassment; destruction of the synagogue during Kristallnacht; his father's three-week incarceration in 1938; expulsion from school; attending a Jewish vocational training program in Hamburg; working as a locksmith; his father's death in August 1941; his burial in Słubice; working on Jewish agricultural camps; forced labor in several German forest camps; transfer to a camp for Jews with one non-Jewish parent; meeting his future wife; transfer back to Frankfurt; incarceration in the Jewish hospital in Berlin; forced labor; deportation with his future wife to Theresienstadt; sham improvements prior to a Red Cross visit; liberation by Soviet troops; returning home; reunion with his mother; working as a policeman; becoming a public prosecutor; and his daughter's birth. Mr. H. discusses the importance of never losing hope and psychological support of friends to his survival; Leo Baeck's speech in Theresienstadt; "leaving Judaism" due to his experiences; limited job opportunities in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) because he was Jewish; identifying with the anti-fascist stance of the GDR; and futile attempts to recover family property. He shows documents and objects.

2 videocassettes