Harry W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Harry W., who was born in Żychlin, Poland in 1927, one of four children. He recounts attending cheder and public school; German invasion; forced construction labor; ghettoization; his father's deportation; transfer to forced labor constructing roads with his father; their transfer to another camp; his cousin freezing to death; transfer to Poznań, then Kreuzsee; his father's deterioration since he was doing much of his (Harry's) work; his father's transfer to Auschwitz (he never saw him again); losing his will to live; transfer to Auschwitz five months later, then to another camp; slave labor in a Krupps factory; a German overseer giving him extra food; a death march; collapsing from exhaustion; being left for dead; hiding in a forest with other prisoners; assistance from locals; liberation by United States troops; living and working with U.S. troops in Nuremberg; emigration to the United States in 1949; marriage; and the births of three children. Mr. W. notes he was in Gross-Rosen; pervasive painful memories; and not wanting to frighten his children with stories of his experiences. He shows documents and photographs.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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, -- 1927-2013.
Corporate Bodies
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Fried. Krupp AG.
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Forced labor.
- Fathers and sons.
- Jews -- Poland -- Żychlin (Konin)
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Escapes.
- Death marches.
- Mutual aid.
- Child survivors.
- Forests.
- Aid by non-Jews.
Places
- Żychlin ghetto.
- Poznań (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Żychlin (Konin, Poland)
- Nuremberg (Germany)
- Poland.
- Kreuzsee (Poland : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat