Herman F. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Herman F., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in approximately 1925, the only child of a wealthy family. He recounts attending private school; antisemitic harassment; his father's death in 1939; German invasion; his mother's efforts to hide their assets (gold, diamonds, etc.) in clothing and on their bodies; ghettoization; attending school until it closed; working in offices; his mother's selection for deportation (she bribed her way out); her death; deportation to Auschwitz in 1944; transfer to Gleiwitz several days later; slave labor digging ditches; briefly escaping from a death march with three others; transfer to Gross-Rosen; a German prisoner official offering him easier work for sexual favors; refusing, resulting in assignment moving bodies of prisoners who committed suicide; transport five days later to Buchenwald; beatings by Soviet POWs; transfer to Berga; assistance from friends when he was injured; escaping with friends from a death march; hiding; arrest; convincing officials they were Polish workers; obtaining papers as such; working on local farms; traveling to Spiegelau when the war ended; marriage to a survivor; his son's birth; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Mr. F. attributes his survival to his never losing hope due to his young age and to being alone, thus focusing only on himself. He discusses recurring nightmares.
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
People
- F., Herman, -- 1925?-
Corporate Bodies
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Berga (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Escapes.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Child survivors.
- Prisoners of war -- Germany.
- Sexual harassment.
- Nightmares.
- Death marches.
- Hiding.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar effects.
Places
- Gleiwitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Łódź ghetto.
- Spiegelau (Germany)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat