Harold K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Harold K., who was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1920. He recalls his impoverished home; their orthodoxy; leaving school to begin working at age twelve; Polish antisemitism; German invasion; a public hanging of Jews; forced labor as a bricklayer in Katowice; transfer to a labor camp; arrest while visiting home; release and transfer to Annaberg, which he helped build; Allied bombardments; Yom Kippur services; his privileged status as a bricklayer; visiting his family in the Sosnowiec ghetto; transfer to Auschwitz in June 1944, then to Birkenau and Gleiwitz; a death march in December 1944; train transport to Oranienburg (about twenty percent of those who left Gleiwitz survived); transfer to another camp; digging tunnels for airplane factories; transfer to Dachau; liberation by United States troops; selling food and material provided by an American officer; living in Munich; returning briefly to Sosnowiec (neither his parents nor siblings survived); marriage to a survivor; and emigration in 1949 to the United States with assistance from HIAS. Mr. K. discusses the importance of luck to his survival; being treated well by Americans at liberation; painful memories of total humiliation; and sharing his experiences with his children and grandchildren.
Extent and Medium
3 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
- K., Harold, -- 1920-
Corporate Bodies
- HIAS (Agency)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Oranienburg (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- Annaberg (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mass killings.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Death marches.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Jews -- Poland -- Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie)
- Jewish ghettos.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
- Poland.
- Katowice (Poland)
- Munich (Germany)
- Gleiwitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Sosnowiec ghetto
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat