Israel R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Israel R., who was born in Piotrko?w, Poland in 1927, one of nine children. He recalls attending Polish school and cheder; his family's orthodoxy; German invasion; one older sister leaving for the Soviet Union; his father being rounded-up and beaten; his return and death; ghettoization; forced factory labor outside the ghetto; obtaining extra food for his family; being detained in the factory; learning almost the entire town was deported to Treblinka, including his family; feeling he lived in a ghost town; transfer to Skarz?ysko; slave labor in a munitions factory; hospitalization; a prisoner warning him of a pending liquidation; leaving despite his health; assistance from the camp doctor; joining a group that fashioning a shofar and prayed; a public hanging; transfer to Buchenwald; improved conditions; slave labor in Schlieben; briefly escaping after a bombing; recapture; a local farmer giving him food; transfer to Theresienstadt; liberation by Soviet troops; being taken to England; learning tailoring; marriage in 1950; and raising his family. Mr. R. discusses learning his older sister had survived in the Soviet Union (she lives in Israel); maintaining his religious beliefs; and the importance of his children and grandchildren. He shows photographs and artifacts.
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
- R., Israel, -- 1927-
Corporate Bodies
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Schlieben (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Jews -- Poland -- Piotrków Trybunalski.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Escapes.
- Faith.
- Child survivors.
Places
- Piotrków Trybunalski (Poland)
- Poland.
- Piotrków ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat