Kenneth R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Kenneth R., who was born in Gorlice, Poland in 1926, the only child in an affluent family. He recounts his mother's death in 1931; antisemitic harassment; attending Catholic church with his nanny; wonderful extended family gatherings; belonging to Hashomer Hatzair and No'ar ha-Tsiyoni; German invasion; assistance from a German soldier who befriended his aunt; ghettoization; smuggling food; working for a Volksdeutch; receiving extra food from him; hiding after warnings from the soldier of round-ups; transfer alone to the work camp; a mass shooting and deportation in August 1942, including all his family; transfer in January 1943 to Muszyna with sixty others from Gorlice, then to Mielec in March; slave labor in a Heinkel factory; receiving extra food from a Polish civilian worker; transfer to Wieliczka, then train transfer to Flossenbu?rg; a beating resulting in permanent deafness in one ear; assignment to the children's barrack; being chosen as an assistant by a kapo who raped him; receiving extra food; sharing it with his friend Joseph K.; singing at kapo gatherings; obtaining release from punishment from his kapo for Joseph K.; his kapo changing his identity card to Catholic; obtaining boots for Joseph K. when the Jews were evacuated; a death march with the non-Jewish prisoners; liberation by United States troops on April 23, 1945; prisoners beating kapos to death; returning to Flossenbu?rg; obtaining documents as a Polish Catholic; and traveling with an Italian prisoner to his home near Perugia.
Extent and Medium
5 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., Kenneth, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Ernst Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke.
- Wieliczka (Concentration camp)
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- FlossenbuĚrg (Concentration camp)
- NoĘťar ha-Tsiyoni (Organization)
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Death marches.
- Male rape victims.
- Revenge.
- Friendship.
- Jews -- Poland -- Gorlice.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mass killings.
- Child survivors.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Identification (Religion)
- Faith.
- Nightmares.
- Christian converts from Judaism.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Postwar effects.
- Mutual aid.
Places
- Muszyna (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Gorlice (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Gorlice ghetto.
- London (England)
- Ancona (Italy)
- Naples (Italy)
- Gubbio (Italy)
- Rome (Italy)
- Mielec (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Poland.
- Perugia (Italy)
- Gorlice (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat