Aron S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Aron S., who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1930. He recalls Sabbath and holiday meals at his maternal grandparents; attending a Jewish school; cordial relations with non-Jews; summers with a priest's family; German occupation in 1940; his bar mitzvah on July 10, 1943; going into hiding with his family on October 1, 1943 (as did most Danish Jews), waiting for boats to Sweden; being caught; one week imprisonment; transfer to Gedser; transport by boat to Warnemunde, Germany, then cattle trains to Theresienstadt; separation from his mother and sisters upon arrival, then from his father in December; brief hospitalization; living in a boys' barrack until summer 1944; transfer with his family and all other Danes to special accommodations; receiving Red Cross packages; trading and sharing the extra food; sham improvements for a Red Cross visit; seeing a pile of corpses (he still has nightmares about this); having to load deportation trains, which included many of his friends, knowing they were bound for Auschwitz; Swedish buses arriving in April 1945 to transport the Danes; observing the destruction of Dresden and Potsdam en route; a hero's welcome in Denmark; staying in Odense en route to Sweden; living in a camp; returning to Denmark after the war; becoming an architect; marriage; his son and daughter attending Jewish camps; divorce; emigration to England; and his son's death in Israel. Mr. S. discusses his reluctance to share his experiences until 1978, and finding his family's names when visiting Theresienstadt in 1990. He shows photographs.

2 videocassettes