Frederick T. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Frederick T., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1923. Mr. T. recalls his family moving to Benes?ov, then Prague; their assimilated lifestyle; his mother's death in 1932; increasing anti-Jewish restrictions; expulsion from gymnasium in 1939; his father obtaining false papers for him; working as a non-Jew on a farm for a year (the owners knew he was Jewish); returning to Prague when he was exposed; forced labor in another location beginning in October 1941; transfer to Theresienstadt in March 1943; reunion with his father; learning a great deal from him during their visits; his father's deportation to Auschwitz (he perished); sham improvements for a Red Cross visit and propaganda film; attending organized lectures by prisoners; deportation to Auschwitz in October 1944; placement in the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager); the pervasive smell of burning; transfer to Kaufering; slave labor; starvation rations; assistance from an SS man; liberation by United States troops; convalescing in Bad Wo?rishofen; returning to Prague; a nine-month hospitalization; moving to Paris with his future wife in October 1946; beginning his career as an artist; emigration to the United States via Canada in 1952; his wife's death; and remarriage. Mr. T. describes obsessive thoughts of food and being sustained in camps by thoughts of German defeat; pervasive, painful memories and vivid visual memories of Auschwitz that influence his art; and speaking to groups about his experiences.

8 videocassettes