Jiri F. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Jiri F., who was born in Vysoké Mýto, Czechoslovakia (presently Czech Republic) in 1922. He recalls his family's assimilated life; cordial relations with non-Jews; his father's death when he was nine; attending school; bar mitzvah training in Pardubice; German occupation in March 1939; anti-Jewish measures; expulsion from gymnasium in 1940; attending a Jewish gymnasium in Brno until its closure; assistance from non-Jews; forced transfer with his mother and brother to Pardubice; deportation to Theresienstadt in December 1942; working as a children's counselor; deportation of his mother and brother to Auschwitz/Birkenau; volunteering for deportation to join them; traveling in the same freight car as Jacob Edelstein, the Jewish head of Theresienstadt; placement in the family camp; learning his mother and brother had been killed; working in the children's block with Fredy Hirsch; joining the Communist underground; liquidation of the original family camp transport, including three cousins; his close relationship with his aunt; planning a revolt that did not occur; transfer to Schwarzheide in June 1944; slave labor in a factory; being injured in an Allied bombing; hospitalization and surgery; transfer to Sachsenhausen; liberation by Soviet troops; returning home via Prague in July 1945; recovering some family property; confiscation of it by the Communist government; earning a doctorate; marriage; the births of two children; and his career. Mr. F. discusses details of camp life; total dehumanization; and the importance of assistance from fellow prisoners and non-Jews to his survival. He shows photographs.

3 videocassettes