Gunther S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Gunther S., who was born in a small town near Poznan, then Germany, in 1908. Mr. S. speaks of his family's move to Berlin in 1918; his education; job training; and his work as an export salesman. He tells of the worsening situation for Germany's Jews; his departure from Germany in 1938; and the deportations and deaths of his parents and a sister, who had remained in Germany. He describes his emigration to the United States and his successful effort to help his other sister emigrate. He recounts joining the United States army; wartime transfers to France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany; joining army intelligence; and his postwar visits to former concentration camps, including Ohrdruf, to interrogate former camp officers in preparation for the Nuremberg trials. He comments on the widespread denial of guilt by those whom he interrogated; the maintenance of fairness in interviewing; German versus Austrian antisemitism; and reasons why more Jews did not leave Nazi Germany. Mr. S. tells of his postwar life in the United States; his ambivalence regarding his flight from Germany without the rest of his family; and reactions to a postwar trip to Germany.

2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)