Chaim F. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Chaim F., who was born in Tuszyn, Poland in 1930. He recalls his family living there for ten generations; their orthodoxy; antisemitism; a large extended family; German invasion; forced relocation to Piotrko?w three months later; ghettoization; his bar mitzvah; slave labor in a glass factory; separation from his mother and sister (he never saw them again); remaining with his father and brother; their transfer to Piotrko?w, Buchenwald, then Dora in early 1944; a privileged position distributing food; sharing extra food with his father and brother; transfer to Nordhausen, then Herzog; obtaining extra food from a friend; his father's death in 1945; an SS man letting him go when he was caught smuggling food; he and a friend helping each other; train transport and a death march to Theresienstadt; he and a friend helping his brother; separation from his brother; liberation by Soviet troops; throwing a German into the river for revenge (he did not drown); reunion with his brother; transfer to Windermere, England via Prague in August; and living in a hostel. Mr. F. discusses his close relationship with his brother; the importance of luck to his survival; the effects of starvation; pervasive painful memories of his losses; and becoming hardened by his experiences.

3 videocassettes