Samuel W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Samuel W., who was born in Chorzów, Poland in 1927. He recalls his family's affluence; his brother's death in 1936; moving to Kraków in 1939; vacationing in Krynica-Wiés; returning home; German invasion the next day; moving east from Weiliczka to Zalishchyky; Soviet occupation; moving to Lʹviv; attending school; German invasion; returning to Kraków; moving to Wolbrom; his mother arranging a tutor for him and others; a round-up; selection with his mother; her insistence he join his father; her deportation with relatives to Belzec (he never saw them again); deportation with his father to Płaszów; his uncle obtaining a privileged position for him with a German official; the officer providing a pass to Wolbrom for him and his father; returning there; hiding during a round-up; a non-Jew in Słomniki transporting them to Kraków; smuggling themselves into the ghetto; deportation back to Płaszów; working as Kommandant Amon Goeth's personal servant; obtaining extra food for his father; Goeth arranging their transfer to Gross-Rosen; hospitalization; assistance from a Jewish doctor; a death march and rail transport to Bergen-Belsen in late 1944; his father's death three days before liberation by British troops; the high death rate after liberation; observing the camp being burned; living in the displaced persons camp there; and marriage in August 1946. Mr. W. discusses the rebirth of Jewish life in the displaced persons camp; a recent visit there and to Poland with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law; and encountering antisemitism in Poland. He shows 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
- Göth, Amon, -- 1908-1946.
- W., Samuel, -- 1927-
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- DP-Camp Bergen-Belsen.
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Mutual aid.
- Soviet occupation.
- Child survivors.
- Refugee camps.
- Death marches.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kraków.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Fathers and sons.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
Places
- Słomniki (Poland)
- Kraków ghetto.
- Lʹviv (Ukraine)
- Wolbrom (Poland)
- Wieliczka (Poland)
- Zalishchyky (Ukraine)
- Kraków (Poland)
- Krynica-Wiés (Poland)
- Poland.
- Chorzów (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat