Siegfried H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Siegfried H., who was born in Zdzieci, Poland in 1909. He recalls the family move to Tarnowskie Gory in 1914; attending German school; learning Polish after the area became Poland in 1922; forming a Zionist group; apprenticeship with a pharmaceutical company; attending Polish military officer's school; antisemitic incidents; participating in the Zionist group Akiba; German invasion; rejoining the Polish army; returing to Tarnowskie Gory during the retreat; traveling to Berlin for the Zionist movement; returning home; arrest with a friend while fleeing to Yugoslavia in October 1939; deportation to Sachsenhausen; working as a carpenter; slave labor moving rocks in Gross-Rosen in 1941; transfer to Auschwitz, then Buna/Monowitz in January 1942; working in the Auschwitz hospital; receiving medicine from a German soldier; efforts to save prisoner lives; helping his family in the Be?dzin ghetto in 1943; transfer to another camp where he worked in the hospital, then to Nordhausen; and liberation by United States troops. Mr. H. describes the organization of the camps; observing Yom Kippur in camp; working for the Americans on the Nuremberg trials; and deciding not to kill German war criminals so he would not be "like them".
Extent and Medium
2 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
- H., Siegfried, -- 1909-2008.
Corporate Bodies
- Nordhausen (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Monowitz (Concentration camp)
- Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp)
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Polish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Youth movements.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Revenge.
- Zionist organizations.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Berlin (Germany)
- Yugoslavia.
- Zdzieci (Poland)
- Tarnowskie Gory (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat