Chaim G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Chaim G., who was born in Lithuania in 1926, one of two sons. He recalls his family's affluence; attending Hebrew school from age three; speaking Yiddish at home; his older brother's emigration to the United States in 1936; antisemitic violence in 1938; his bar mitzvah at his grandmother's house; participating in Hashomer Hatzair; Soviet occupation; confiscation of their home; visiting Kaunas; German invasion (his mother was in Panevėžys); mass killings of Jews by Lithuanians; arrest with his father; their release (the others were all shot); ghettoization; falsifying his birth date to be older so he could work; slave labor at the airport to obtain work papers; a mass killing in October 1941; killing of children and the elderly; deportation with his father to Landsberg; slave labor, starvation and lice infestation; working with his father until he died; a severe beating for taking extra potatoes; others hiding him while he recovered; transfer to Dachau; escaping with others from an evacuation march; receiving food from United States troops; traveling to Munich; returning to Kaunas seeking relatives; traveling to Vilnius, then to Panevėžys; learning his family had all been killed there; finding human remains at a mass grave; erecting a monument; and emigration to Israel. Mr. G. discusses reopening "wounds" when speaking with camp and ghetto survivors; many of the killers living with impunity; and conveying his story so younger generations will know the truth. He shows photographs and documents.
Extent and Medium
6 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
- G., Chaim, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- Landsberg (Concentration camp)
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Escapes.
- Child survivors.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Soviet occupation.
- Mass killings.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Bar mitzvah.
- Jews -- Lithuania -- Kaunas.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Fathers and sons.
Places
- Munich (Germany)
- Kaunas (Lithuania)
- Lithuania.
- Kovno ghetto.
- Panevėžys (Lithuania)
- Vilnius (Lithuania)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat