Haim S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Haim S., who was born in Brussels, Belgium in approximately 1923, one of six children of Turkish e?migre?s. He recounts he and one brother were Belgian citizens, but his parents and other siblings, Turkish; speaking Ladino at home; observing Jewish holidays; German invasion in May 1940; briefly going to southern France; completing high school; participation in a Zionist group; studying agronomy at the University of Gembloux; expulsion due to anti-Jewish laws; attending a Zionist horticultural school in Brabant and the clandestine University of Brussels; denunciation in March 1943; incarceration in Malines (his family was protected as Turks and his Belgian brother went into hiding); deportation to Auschwitz in September; remaining with his friends, including Paul H.; sharing extra food among their group; transfer to Mys?owice (Fu?rstengrube); slave labor; at times losing his will to live, but encouraging himself; "organizing" extra food and clothing, but not from other prisoners; an SS man once giving him extra food; a death march to Gleiwitz in January 1945; train transfer to Dora, then Bergen-Belsen; liberation by British troops; returning to Brussels via Mol; and learning that his parents had been deported (his father died and his mother and sisters were sent to Turkey). Mr. S. discusses assistance from doctors in camp hospitals; camp hierarchies and vocabularies; surviving due to group support, and his belief his family was not deported; and frequent nightmares due to his experiences.

2 videocassettes