John R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of John R., who was born in Breslau, Germany in 1920. He recalls attending elementary and technical high school in ?o?dz?; active participation in Jewish socialist organizations; antisemitic incidents; participating in Deror, a Zionist socialist movement; training on a kibbutz in Be?dzin in 1939; German invasion; walking to ?o?dz?; reconstituting the kibbutz in Be?dzin to aid the Jewish community; meeting his future wife; Frumk?ah Plot?nitsk?ah's visit to begin to organize resistance; rescuing children smuggled from the Warsaw ghetto; the kibbutz organizing a children's escape from a selection in August 1943; the Judenrat not revealing their identities; rescuing people from deportation using false papers; arrest and deportation to Auschwitz; working at a synthetic gasoline factory in Blechhammer; arranging his future wife's escape and her concealment with assistance from a Pole and a German guard; the death march to Buchenwald; assistance from German political prisoners; liberation in April 1945; and reunion with his future wife in Paris.
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
- Ploṭnitsḳah, Frumḳah, -- 1914-1943.
- R., John, -- 1920-
Corporate Bodies
- Deror (Organization : Poland)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Blechhammer E/3 (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- False papers.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Zionist organizations.
- Zionists.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- Resistance.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jews -- Poland -- Będzin.
- Jewish councils.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
Places
- Będzin ghetto.
- Będzin (Poland)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Wrocław (Poland)
- Germany.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat