Roman F. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Roman F., who was born in Kraków, Poland in 1933, the youngest of three children. He recalls German invasion; ghettoization in 1941; transfer to Płaszów in 1943; slave labor in factories; his brother arranging for him, their parents, and sister to be on Schindler's list; public execution of his brother; transfer with his family to Gross-Rosen, then Brünnlitz; transfer to Auschwitz/Birkenau with five other children and seven parents, including his father, cousin, and future brother-in-law; separation from his father (he never saw him again); assignment to a cleaning brigade; hiding with his cousin during evacuation; liberation; witnessing anti-Jewish violence by Poles while traveling; encountering his sister and future brother-in-law; traveling to Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; reunion with his mother; joining Betar; his mother taking him off a train for illegal immigration to Israel; attending school; difficulties dealing with his mother's emotional problems resulting from his father's and brother's deaths; attending school; his bar mitzvah, which was painful due to memories of his father; emigration with his mother to the United States with assistance from HIAS; military draft in 1953; attending college; marriage; the births of three children; and working for New York City. Mr. F. notes most of his large extended family were killed in the Holocaust. He shows photographs and documents.
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
- F., Roman, -- 1933-
Corporate Bodies
- DP-Camp Bergen-Belsen.
- Betar.
- HIAS (Agency)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Brünnlitz (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Mutual aid.
- Child survivors.
- Bar mitzvah.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Postwar experiences.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Mothers and sons.
- Refugee camps.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Brothers.
- Forced labor.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Fathers and sons.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kraków.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Kraków ghetto.
- Kraków (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat