Ernst W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Ernst W., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1910, an only child. He recalls attending school until 1924; his father losing his business during the hyperinflation; harassment by and street fights with Nazis; joining the Zionist group Hechalutz; agricultural training in Neuendorf to prepare for emigration, seeing no future in Germany as a Jew; his girlfriend's emigration to the United States; his emigration to Palestine in 1937; getting his parents out in 1939; his father's death a year later; his marriage; his son's birth in 1940; learning of the camps and extermination of the Jews after the war; his divorce; his mother's death in 1954; and returning to Germany in 1970 at the government's invitation. Mr. W. discusses his life in Israel; his continuing sense of Israeli identity; sharing his story with his son; the deaths of most of his family; and organizing a library in the residential facility in which he lives. He shows photographs and documents.
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.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- W., Ernst, -- 1910-
Corporate Bodies
- Hechalutz (Organization)
Subjects
- Antisemitism -- Prewar
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany.
- Palestine.
- Neuendorf (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat