Harry B. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 2360
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Harry B., who was born in Gorlice, Poland in 1929, one of five children. He recalls his family's affluence; German bombardment; escaping to Jas?o; his father and oldest brother boarding a train which left before the rest had boarded; returning home; ghettoziation; a Gestapo shooting his brother; a friend on the Judenrat convincing the Gestapo not to touch the rest of the family; deportation of all Jews in 1941; remaining behind to clear bodies (he never saw his mother or siblings again); transfer to P?aszo?w; a privileged position caring for the Kommandant and his family; sharing extra food; his bar mitzvah; a Ukrainian guard saving him from execution when Amon Goeth became Kommandant; public hangings and mass shootings; transfer to Skarz?ysko; slave labor in a munitions factory; transfer to Sulejow, then Cze?stochowa; slave labor in HASAG/Pelzery; transfer to Buchenwald, then Rehmsdorf in winter 1945; a death march to Theresienstadt; friends assisting when he was sick; liberation by Soviet troops; visiting Prague; registering to go to England; living in a group home in Windermere; close bonds with the other youths; learning his father and brother had survived in the Soviet Union; visiting relatives in London, then his father and brother in Germany; remaining in England (his father and brother emigrated to Israel); marriage, and raising a family. Mr. B. discusses his luck in surviving; sharing his story with his children; pervasive painful memories; and his sense that five year's experience was fifty.

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

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Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.