Josef C. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Joseph C., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1926. He recalls poverty; his family's Hasidism; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions; ghettoization; arrest by Jewish police for taking bread from the garbage; fleeing with a friend to Praga, De?blin, and Kuro?w; slave labor; kindness from one German soldier; returning to Warsaw; learning his father and one sister had died; deportation to Treblinka; escaping to a work group; gassings and mass shootings; a visit by Heinrich Himmler; vicious personnel, including John Demjanjuk, Franz Stangl, and Kurt Franz ("Lalka"); a severe beating; obtaining a privileged job; prisoners baking matzos at Passover; and arrival of Warsaw ghetto resistants in May 1943. Mr. C. recounts fleeing during the August 1943 rebellion; hiding in the woods and on a farm with help from a Pole; escaping execution by the AK; capture by German troops in 1945; transport to Bergen-Belsen; sabotaging German military uniforms; witnessing the birth of a child who was immediately killed; liberation by British troops; several months hospitalization; reunion with a cousin; living in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; emigration to Palestine; marriage to a survivor; and service in the Israel-Arab War of 1948. He discusses Nazi dehumanizing techniques and psychological manipulation; nightmares; and the trauma of reliving his experiences while testifying.

6 videocassettes