Frederic B. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Frederic B., who was born in Karlsbad, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1915. He recalls growing up in Krako?w; his close, extended family; attending Polish school; occasional antisemitism; studying architecture; joining a Zionist organization; working in Katowice; German invasion; fleeing with his brother east to Jaros?aw; returning to Krako?w; forced labor; ghettoization in 1941; working in an architectural firm (an exemption from deportation); round-ups including his parents and girlfriend; hearing of the resistance; seeing his father's corpse in a pile of hundreds (he never saw his mother or girlfriend again); transfer with his brother to P?asz?ow in March 1943; executions and beatings; escaping; obtaining false papers; hiding with friends and on a farm with his brother for seven months; paying to be smuggled to Slovakia; train travel to Jordano?w; arrest by Slovak border guards; incarceration in Mikula; release; employment on a farm and in Sered ?(his brother worked elsewhere); meeting his wife; hiding in bunkers in a forest and with a farmer; liberation by Soviet troops; living in Kez?marok; moving to Mikula; and emigration to the United States in 1954. Mr. B. notes better conditions in Slovak camps than those in Poland and the importance of luck to his survival.

4 videocassettes