Koppel K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Koppel K., who was born in Bia?obrzegi, Poland in 1928 to an affluent, Hasidic family. He recalls attending public school and cheder; antisemitic harassment; joyous holiday celebrations; German invasion in 1939; his father serving on the Judenrat; his round-up when a German was killed (they never saw him again); ghettoization; obtaining food from his father's non-Jewish associates and the Kommandant's sons; the Kommandant warning them of a deportation; the Kommandant separating him from his mother and sisters (he never saw them again); slave labor locally; transfer to Skarz?ysko; a privileged job; smuggling food and wood; a nurse hiding him when he was too sick to work; selection for killing; a kapo allowing him to stay behind; public hangings of escapees; singing to raise morale; transfer to Buchenwald; improved conditions; a prisoner official having them identify bad kapos from Skarz?ysko (others beat them to death); transfer to Schlieben; debilitation due to work with poisonous materials; reassignment after the factory was bombed; working with his friend; transfer to Theresienstadt; receiving Red Cross packages; liberation by Soviet troops; briefly returning home; joining the first transport to Windermere; wonderful conditions; living in hostels in Newport Pagnell and London; marriage; purchasing a business; and raising three children. Mr. K. discusses his Zionism and religious beliefs; yearly reunions of Windermere friends; and not judging people by their origins.
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
- K., Koppel, -- 1928-
Corporate Bodies
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Schlieben (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Friendship.
- Child survivors.
- Revenge.
- Zionists.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Poland -- Białobrzegi (Radom)
- Jewish councils.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
Places
- Białobrzegi ghetto.
- Newport Pagnell (England)
- London (England)
- Poland.
- Windermere (England)
- Białobrzegi (Radom, Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat