Frank B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Frank B., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1928. He recalls his family's affluence; pervasive antisemitism; his family's strong German identity; not feeling Jewish or observing any holidays; anti-Jewish restrictions changing that feeling; attending a Jewish school; emigration to Prague in 1938 (his father was a Czech citizen); attending Jewish school; German occupation in March 1939; his father's position in the Judenrat which protected them from deportation; participating in a Zionist youth group and Maccabi; working as a gardener in the Jewish cemetery; his bar mitzvah; a former German colleague sending funds to his father; deportation to Theresienstadt in July 1943; visiting his parents daily; a variety of jobs; sharing extra food with his mother; learning advanced mathematics and music from barrack mates; lectures, concerts, and discussions groups; pervasive disease and starvation; his father's deportation to Auschwitz; his and his mother's ten days later in October 1944; separation from his mother (neither parent survived); transfer to Friedland two days later; slave labor in factories and digging anti-tank ditches; disappearance of the guards in April; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling to Prague; staying with an aunt; working in Teplice; hearing from relatives in England through the Red Cross; joining them in May 1946; becoming an engineer; marriage; briefly living in Canada; and raising two daughters.
Extent and Medium
4 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
- B., Frank, -- 1928-
Corporate Bodies
- Maccabi World Union.
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Bar mitzvah.
- Identification (Religion)
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Child survivors.
- Forced labor.
- Mothers and sons.
- Fathers and sons.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Teplice (Czech Republic)
- England.
- Canada.
- Friedland (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany.
- Prague (Czech Republic)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat