Berek S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Berek S., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1915, one of four children. He recalls his family's poverty; his father beating him; his mother's decency; military enlistment in 1935; his mother's death; military discharge; working as an electrician; recall in 1939; deserting after defeat; escaping to Brest; posing as a non-Jew; traveling to Warsaw, then Łódź; remaining with a non-Jewish girlfriend during ghettoization; entering the ghetto, fearing recognition; joining the fire brigade; marriage; his son's birth and his murder by Nazis at ten months; deportation with his brother to Auschwitz, then Friedland; slave labor in an airplane factory; liberation by Soviet troops; living in Kłodzko; reunion with his wife; the birth of a daughter; their emigration to Israel; a second daughter's birth; reunions with relatives from the United States and England; divorce; emigration to Berlin, Germany; and remarriage to a German non-Jew. Mr. S. notes he survived because he ceased to think and was lucky. He shows items from the concentration camp.
Extent and Medium
2 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. This testimony or excerpts from it cannot be used for public broadcast (radio or television) without prior permission of the donor. It cannot be used in any way in Israel.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- S., Berek, -- 1915-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Polish.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Brothers.
- Husband and wife.
- Children -- Death.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Postwar experiences.
- Forced labor.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Łódź (Poland)
- Kłodzko (Poland)
- Israel.
- Friedland (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Brest (Belarus)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Poland.
- Łódź ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat