Mordechay W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Mordechay W., who was born in Żarki, Poland in 1922, one of six children. He recalls increasing antisemitism in the 30s; participation in Hashomer Hatzair; German invasion; escaping to Pilica during a round-up; forced transfer to the Radomsko ghetto; escaping with one brother to Częstochowa; smuggling themselves into the ghetto; working with the resistance, including Mordecai Anielewicz; hiding in a bunker; discovery; slave labor at the HASAG factory; deportation to Buchenwald in January 1945; hiding among French and Polish prisoners; transfer to Theresienstadt; liberation by Soviet troops; assistance from the Red Cross; returning to Sosnowiec, Poland; reunion with a sister; learning the rest of his family had been killed; traveling to Italy; preparing for illegal emigration to Palestine in Bari and Rome; assistance from the Joint; meeting his future wife in Genoa; boarding an illegal ship; incarceration on Cyprus by the British; marriage; his daughter's birth in 1954; traveling to Sachsenhausen in 1961 as a guest of East Germany; visiting Buchenwald and Warsaw; and moving to Berlin. Mr. W. discusses many incidents of resistance; assistance from non-Jews; the prisoner organization in Buchenwald; repressiveness in East Germany; and visiting his hometown with his daughter and grandchildren. He shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
3 videocassettes
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- Anielewicz, Mordecai, -- 1919-1943.
- W., Mordechay, -- 1922-
Corporate Bodies
- Hugo Schneider Aktiengesellschaft.
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Jews -- Poland -- Radomsko.
- Jews -- Poland -- Częstochowa.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
- Escapes.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Forced labor.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Berlin (Germany)
- Cyprus.
- Palestine -- Emigration and immigration.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Bari (Italy)
- Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
- Genoa (Italy)
- Rome (Italy)
- Poland.
- Pilica (Poland)
- Żarki (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat