Alter W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Alter W., who was born in Chrzano?w, Poland in 1926. He recalls his family's affluence; his mother's death when he was four; his father's remarriage; antisemitic harassment; German invasion; fleeing east with his stepmother, older brother, and younger half-brother; returning home three months later (his father had disappeared in their absence); finding his father's corpse when it was exhumed from a mass grave; his older brother's deportation in 1941; his deportation to Blechhammer; meeting his brother there; slave labor; transfer to Brande; separation from his brother (he never saw him again); slave labor on the Reichsautobahn; transfer to Gross Masselwitz, Klettendorf, then Waldenburg; a German civilian worker bringing him extra food; contemplating suicide; liberation by Soviet troops in May 1945; recuperating in a sanatorium; returning home; learning three cousins from his family of 120 had survived; illegally traveling to Italy with assistance from the Jewish brigade; illegal emigration to Palestine; imprisonment by the British; military service in the 1948 war; marriage in 1952; the births of two sons; and emigration to the United States in 1960. Mr. W. discusses focusing only on food and survival in the camps, and his loneliness and isolation after the war.
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
- W., Alter, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Gross Masselwitz (Concentration camp)
- Blechhammer E/3 (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar effects.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Mass killings.
- Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949.
- Child survivors.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Suicide.
- Forced labor.
- Brothers.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Poland.
- ChrzanoĚw (Poland)
- Waldenburg (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Klettendorf (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Brande (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Palestine -- Emigration and immigration.
- Italy.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat