Hirsh A. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Hirsh A., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1914. He recalls his large, extended family; their affluence; attending Jewish schools; participating in a Zionist group; antisemitic harassment at university; German invasion in September 1939; ghettoization; his family remaining together due to their affluence; hiding in a bunkers during round-ups; being discovered; deportation to Majdanek; separation from his mother and sister; remaining with his father and brother; slave labor; encountering his sister and learning his mother had been killed; the deaths of his brother and father; transfer to Skarz?ysko, then Cze?stochowa; help from a friend from Warsaw; transfer to Buchenwald, then Colditz; a death march to Theresienstadt; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling to Landsberg displaced persons camp with Berih?ah; marriage; his daughter's birth; working in the camp administration; visits by Ben-Gurion and Leonard Bernstein; shipping ORT school equipment to Israel when the camp was closing; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Mr. A. discusses learning his sister perished in Auschwitz; pervasive painful memories and nightmares; involvement in survivor and commemorative events in the United States; and trips to Poland and Israel. He shows photographs and documents.
Extent and Medium
6 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
- A., Hirsh, -- 1914-
- Ben-Gurion, David, 1886-1973.
- Bernstein, Leonard, -- 1918-1990.
Corporate Bodies
- Częstochowa (Concentration camp)
- Majdanek (Concentration camp)
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Landsberg am Lech (Displaced persons camp)
- Beriḥah (Organization)
- World ORT Union.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Postwar effects.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Brothers.
- Fathers and sons.
- Death marches.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Mutual aid.
- Refugee camps.
- Bunkers.
- Hiding.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Zionists.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Forced labor.
- Nightmares.
Places
- Colditz (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Poland.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Warsaw ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat