Josef G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Josef G., who was born in Będzin, Poland in 1924, one of eight children. He recalls his family's orthodoxy; their relative affluence; attending seven years of public school, then one year of business school; attending cheder afternoons; his father's death; German invasion in September 1939; working to help support his family; being rounded-up with twenty other young people to Sosnowiec; deportation a week later to Ottmuth; slave labor building the autobahn; a German soldier giving him extra food; transfer a year later to Markstädt; arrival of two brothers; volunteering as a mechanic; a privileged position building stoves and chimneys for Krupp; smuggling food to his brothers, with assistance from a guard whom he bribed; transfer to Fünfteichen eighteen months later; his brothers' privileged position in the kitchen providing them with extra food; a death march in September 1944 to Gross-Rosen; transfer a week later in open railcars to Flossenbürg; slave labor constructing tunnels; a death march to Dachau; liberation a month later by United States troops; feeding his brother who had typhus; becoming sick; leaving the camp with his brothers; living with them in Munich; marriage; his son's birth; his brothers emigrating to the United States in 1951; and joining them with his family in 1952. Mr. G. attributes his survival to being with his brothers. 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
- G., Josef, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Fried. Krupp AG.
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Ottmuth (Concentration camp)
- Markstädt (Concentration camp)
- Flossenbürg (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Death marches.
- Brothers.
- Mutual aid.
- Child survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
Places
- Poland.
- Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
- Będzin (Poland)
- Fünfteichen (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Munich (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat