Walter L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Walter L., who was born in Gerolzhofen, Germany in 1924. He recalls his father's death in 1931; significant local support for Nazism; anti-Jewish restrictions; attacks by other children when returning from school; his grandfather being marched through town to be cursed and spat upon; moving to Buttenhausen in 1936; expulsion from public school in 1937; his bar mitzvah; burning of the synagogue on Kristallnacht; forced labor in a nearby town; moving to Cologne; receiving emigration papers through relatives in Palestine; traveling to Haifa under the auspices of Youth Aliyah; his brother's arrival in 1941; and emigration to the United States in 1946. Mr. L. tells of his grandmother's deportation to Terezi?n and his mother's to Riga?; his mother's last letter to him, which he still cannot bear to read; his visit to Buttenhausen in 1980 when the mayor described his mother's and grandmother's deportation; a non-Jew who cares for the Buttenhausen Jewish cemetery; the erection of a monument in 1988 memorializing the Jews of Gerolzhofen; and its desecration shortly thereafter.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
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
- L., Walter, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Jewish Agency for Israel. -- Youth Aliyah Department. -- Mador le-hadrakhah.
Subjects
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Child survivors.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Postwar experiences.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Forced labor.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
Places
- Germany.
- Buttenhausen (Germany)
- Gerolzhofen (Germany)
- Cologne (Germany)
- Haifa (Israel)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat