Simon B. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Simon B., who was born in the Soviet Union (now Estonia) in 1920. He recounts his family's emigration to France in 1922; growing up in Courbevoie; his bar mitzvah; his mother's death in 1934; military draft in 1940; German invasion; demobilization; staying in a youth camp near Cluny for eight months; moving to Paris; arrest in August 1942; internment in Drancy; transfer to Pithiviers, Beaune-la-Rolande, then back to Drancy; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in September 1942; hospitalization in December; assistance from a non-Jewish nurse; a privileged assignment in the laundry; transfer to Golleschau; slave labor in a cement factory; return to Auschwitz, transfer to another camp, then back to Birkenau; becoming an assistant kapo; transfer to Warsaw; slave labor clearing ghetto rubble; collecting and burning corpses daily, including executed Polish prisoners from Pawiak prison; Polish civilians throwing stones at them; a public hanging; a death march to Kutno, then train transport to Dachau in July 1944; transfer to Waldlager, then Mühldorf; his privileged kitchen position; liberation by United States troops in April 1945; transport to Feldafing; repatriation via Mulhouse to Hotel Lutetia in Paris; living in Aix-en-Provence, then in Tunis for two years; returning to Paris; and continuing contact with camp friends (he names many). Mr. B. discusses relations among prisoner groups; the importance of luck to his survival; and changing his perspective on life due to his experiences.

2 videocassettes