Leo B. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Leo B., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1921, the oldest of four children. He recalls his family's affluence; his bar mitzvah in 1934; anti-Jewish restrictions; deportation with his father to Sachsenhausen in September 1939; arduous slave labor; assisting his father; transfer to Braunschweig in 1941; slave labor for Volkswagen-Vorwerk; return to Sachsenhausen; transfer with his father to Auschwitz in 1942, then to Buna/Monowitz; his father's selection for death in 1943; his friends from Berlin helping each other; public hangings; starvation and sadistic beatings; helping friends escape in 1944; hiding in the hospital to avoid punishment; a death march in January 1945; transport to Buchenwald, then Altenburg; working in a munitions factory; sabotaging his machine; liberation by United States troops in April; hospitalization; returning to Berlin; reunion with his mother, brother, and one sister (they were hidden by a non-Jew); learning his other sister was killed; and emigration to the United States, with assistance from HIAS, in June 1946 to join an uncle. Mr. N. discusses many details of camp life; the impossibility of conveying everything; claustrophobia resulting from his experiences; and his son's interest in children of survivors.

2 videocassettes