Henry M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Henry M., born in approximately 1915, one of nine children. He recalls living on a farm in Ti?a?chiv, Czechoslovakia; his family's orthodoxy and Zionism; apprenticing as a tailor; cordial relations with non-Jews; draft into the Czech military in 1937; German annexation in 1938; returning home; Hungarian occupation; draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion; assignments in Kyjov and Dormitz; returning home in March 1944; ghettoization; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; remaining with his father, brothers, and uncle; slave labor cutting hay; seeing his sisters in an adjacent barrack; transfer to Stutthof in October, then another camp in December; separation from his brothers; his father's death; transfer to Allach; witnessing cannibalism; receiving extra food from a friend; increasing apathy; liberation from a train by United States troops; assistance from the Red Cross; recuperating in Feldafing displaced persons camp; traveling to Prague; reunion with a brother-in-law in Budapest, then with his sisters, wife, and cousin in Prague; traveling to Ti?a?chiv; finding a brother; and emigration to the United States in 1949 to join an uncle. He discusses losing faith in God, then regaining it later in life; pervasive painful memories; and sharing his story with his children.
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
- M., Henry, -- 1915?-
Corporate Bodies
- Allach (Concentration camp)
- Feldafing (Displaced persons camp)
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Mutual aid.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Faith.
- Zionists.
- Cannibalism.
- Forced labor.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Conscript labor -- Hungary.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Ti︠a︡chiv.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Brothers.
- Fathers and sons.
- Refugee camps.
- Brothers and sisters.
Places
- Ti︠a︡chiv ghetto.
- Czechoslovakia.
- Dormitz (Germany)
- Kyjov (Hodonín, Czechoslovakia)
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Ti︠a︡chiv (Ukraine)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat