Joseph B. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 0331
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Joseph B., a non-Jew who was born in Stráže, Czechoslovakia in approximately 1921. He recalls attending school in Prague; enlisting in the Czech air force; German annexation; joining the underground; traveling with a group being smuggled to England; hiding in Komárno where a Jewish woman was hiding; bringing her with them; arrest at the Hungarian border; imprisonment in Budapest; release by the underground; traveling to Constanța, then to England; training in Scapa Flow and then an RAF school; flying missions against German planes; being shot down over Germany; arrest in Emden; a year of solitary confinement and torture in Zelenstrasse prison (Nuremberg), then almost another year in Stadelheim prison (Munich); transfer to Dachau; resisting threats of shooting if he did not reveal information; transfer to Buchenwald in November 1943; contact with United States POWs; stripping uniforms from dead non-Jews and supplying them to Jews, which saved their lives; transfer to another camp; forced labor in an airplane factory; a Belgian partisan supplying him and another prisoner with false papers and civilian clothing; escaping on December 28, 1944; returning to England; joining Allied forces in Germany to get revenge; reunion with his parents after the war; a Czech diplomatic appointment in Munich; remaining after Czechoslovakia became communist; emigrating to the United States; marriage to an American; and serving in Korea. Mr. B. discusses sharing his experiences with his wife and children; speaking at schools; a recent RAF reunion; and visiting Dachau and Buchenwald. He shows photographs and documents.

Extent and Medium

3 videocassettes

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

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Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.