Rudolf R. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Rudolf R., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922. He recounts his father's service in World War I; his ardent German patriotism which resulted in him minimizing the Nazi threat; anti-Jewish laws and harassment; his bar mitzvah; temporary improvement during the 1936 Olympics; expulsion from school; assistance from non-Jews on Kristallnacht; his sister's emigration to England in August 1939; forced labor on farms with his brother; being returned to Berlin in 1942; their deportation to Auschwitz; learning his parents had preceded them; slave labor for I.G. Farben in Buna/Monowitz; a German prisoner saving him from selection while in the hospital after a severe beating; public hangings; greater difficulties for non-German speakers; losing his belief in God; an Allied bombing in 1944; his brother's shooting during the death march to Gleiwitz in January 1945; train transfer to Dora/Nordhausen/Ellrich; posing as a non-Jewish German during train transfer to Oranienburg/Sachsenhausen; liberation by Soviet troops; assistance from the Red Cross; and working for the government. Mr. R. discusses surviving due to luck; details of camp life; sharing his story with his wife and son; nightmares; his wife influencing him to return to Judaism; a negative experience testifying at a war crimes trial; and his son's social isolation due to his experiences.

3 videocassettes