Rudolph G. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Rudolph G., who was born in Libau (now Liepa?ja), Latvia in 1918. He recalls his religious upbringing; his father's death when Mr. G. was thirteen; repairing watches in his family's jewelry store; and apprenticeship to a local watchmaker. Mr. G. describes the Soviet occupation; German invasion in June 1941; bombing of Libau; anti-Jewish measures; deportations; round-ups; mass shootings, which included his brother; transport of his mother and sister to Ri?ga (he never heard from them again); and repairing watches for the German army. He tells of Jews forced to destroy synagogues and Torahs; mass killings on Yom Kippur in 1941 and in February 1942; ghettoization in June 1942; and liquidation of the ghetto on Yom Kippur in 1942. Mr. G. recounts deportation to Kaiserwald; experiences of forced labor, beatings, and hunger there, and at Ereda (where he met his future wife and her mother), Goldfilz and Stutthof, where he gave an extra bread ration to Cantor Gregor S. He relates his liberation on March 11, 1945 by Soviets; conscription into the Soviet army; working as a watchmaker; escaping to Munich; locating his girlfriend and her mother; marriage on September 25, 1946; emigration to New York in June 1949; their son's birth; and working as an watchmaker.

2 videocassettes