Leon M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Leon M., who was born in Ciechanowiec, Poland in 1924. He recalls moving to Bran?sk when he was nine; anti-Semitic incidents in public school; moving to Bia?ystok in 1937; apprenticing as a tailor; Soviet occupation; German invasion; a German officer who told him to "get out" of a round-up area; murders of Jewish hostages; ghettoization; transport with his family to Pruz?h?any in October 1941 and Bia?owiez?a in April 1942; forced labor; frequent killings; and transport to Auschwitz in January 1943. Mr. M. recounts his parents' last words to him; sorting the possessions and hair of those murdered in the gas chambers; trading valuables he found for food; death marches and transport to Gross Rosen, Dachau, Mu?hldorf and another camp; receiving food from a German farmer; and liberation. He describes living in Landsberg and Rosenheim displaced persons camps; farm training on a kibbutz in Bavaria; marriage; and emigration to the United States in 1949. He notes he is the only survivor of a family of seventy-two; the difficulty of raising children with no extended family; and his distress describing what he witnessed.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
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., Leon, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Gross Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Landsberg am Lech (Displaced persons camp)
- Mühldorf (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Zionist activities.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Mass killings.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jews -- Poland -- BiaŁystok.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Death marches.
- Family.
- Soviet occupation.
- Refugee camps.
Places
- Ciechanowiec (Poland)
- Brańsk (Poland)
- Poland.
- Białystok ghetto.
- Białowieża (Białystok, Poland)
- Rosenheim (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Białystok (Poland)
- Pruz︠h︡any (Belarus)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat