Gabriel M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Gabriel M., who was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1934. Mr. M. recalls his prewar neighborhood; close family ties with Jews and Christians; German occupation; his family's strong Polish sympathies; daily life in the ghetto; his sense of loss at the death of a friend; the "nightmarish, unreal" feeling of the occupation; the role of war news as a tenuous link with reality; relocating when the Germans reduced the ghetto's size in mid-1942; his father's role in the ghetto uprising; and escaping with his mother in early 1943, aided by a Polish policeman active in rescuing Jews. He tells of being hidden in various places; hiding with ten Jews active in the resistance; living on forged papers; apprehension and internment with his mother at Preussenau during the 1944 Warsaw uprising; escaping on false papers to Krako?w and Zakopane; liberation by Soviet forces; emigration with Youth Aliyah to Palestine in 1946; and the "different reality" of Jews in Palestine and their initial reluctance to confront the Holocaust.
Extent and Medium
3 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., Gabriel, -- 1934-
Corporate Bodies
- Jewish Agency for Israel. -- Youth Aliyah Department. -- Mador le-hadrakhah.
Subjects
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- False papers.
- Child survivors.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Escapes.
- Resistance.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Hiding.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
Places
- Zakopane (Poland)
- Warsaw ghetto.
- Preussenau (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Poland.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- KrakoĚw (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat