Harry W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Harry W., who was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1921 and raised in Vienna. He recalls his affluent childhood; his family's assimilation, emphasis on Viennese culture, and education; the Anschluss; expulsion from school; his older sisters' emigration; traveling to Prague to continue school; arrest; returning home; being sent to Paris in September 1938; internment in Melsay-du-Maine as an enemy alien after the outbreak of war in September 1939; release and emigration to the United States in January; assistance from HIAS in New York; being drafted in 1942; special training due to his language skills; landing on Normandy Beach on D-Day plus three; volunteering at the Nuremberg trials as his form of revenge; transfer to the Dachau trials; visiting Dachau; visiting his cousin Doris W. after learning from his parents in Argentina that she had survived; bringing Doris to the U.S.; military discharge in New York in 1946; marriage in 1947 to a childhood acquaintance; bringing his parents to the U.S. in 1949; and their deaths in 1950. Mr. W. discusses his fervent patriotism; continued animosity toward Germany despite frequent business trips there; and gratitude for his own luck in escaping Europe.
Extent and Medium
3 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., Harry, -- 1921-
Corporate Bodies
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- HIAS (Agency)
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Dachau trial, Dachau, Germany, 1946.
- Revenge.
- Noncitizens -- Evacuation and relocation.
- War crime trials -- Germany.
Places
- Czechoslovakia.
- Vienna (Austria)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Nuremberg (Germany)
- Paris (France)
- Austria -- History -- Anschluss, 1938.
- Meslay-du-Maine (France)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat