Simon S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Simon S., who was born in Poland in 1922. He recalls attending public school; an apprenticeship at age fourteen; the outbreak of war; public hanging of the Jewish leaders; ghettoization in 1940; forced labor for eighteen months in Leszno; the hanging of two friends who had asked local Poles for food; transport to Birkenau in 1943; a severe beating; transfer to Jaworzno; forced labor in coal mines; receiving extra food for playing on the prisoner soccer team; and prisoners singing the Czech national anthem while awaiting hanging after an escape attempt. Mr. S. recounts the death march to Blechhammer in January 1945; hiding to avoid another march; aid from Italians in a nearby prisoner of war camp; arrival of Soviet troops; returning home; learning his parents had been killed in Che?mno and his brother was alive in Germany; leaving for Germany in October 1945; reunion with his brother and two cousins; living in Freilassing; and emigration to the United States in 1949 with his brother's family. He discusses testifying at war crime trials in Germany in 1980 and 1989.

2 videocassettes