Jack P. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Jack P., who was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1912. He recalls his family's long history in Holland; holiday and Sabbath observances; their Zionist affiliations; meeting his first wife at Mizrachi summer camp; believing events in Germany would not impact them; German invasion in May 1940; his mother's non-Jewish friends offering to hide them; marriage; round-ups; constant fear; being caught and released in 1942; assistance from his non-Jewish boss; deportation to Westerbork in July 1943; learning his parents had just been deported east (he never saw them again); running the school; weekly deportations "east"; meeting his future second wife; transfer to Bergen-Belsen in May 1944; seeing his sister-in-law; assignment to a privileged kitchen position, then the shoe kommando; smuggling food to friends while working in the kitchen; train evacuation in spring 1945; liberation by Soviet troops; repatriation; reunion with his sister who had been in hiding; learning another sister and his parents had perished; divorce in August; remarriage in January 1946; and emigration to the United States, wanting to leave a "dead" community. Mr. P. details prewar and camp life, including inter-group relations and religious observances. He shows photographs and documents.

4 videocassettes