Henry W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Henry W., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1927. He recounts moving to Mainz in 1929; his sister's birth in 1933; returning to Frankfurt in 1934; emigration to Paris in 1935; persecution as a foreigner and German; outbreak of war in 1939; his father's internment as an enemy alien; his bar mitzvah in 1940 (his father could not attend); German invasion in May 1940; escaping with his family to unoccupied France; living in Chartre, Bellac, and Limoges; his father's visits (he was detained nearby); hiding when non-Jewish neighbors warned them of German raids; his father's last visit in 1943 (he later learned of his deportation to Majdanek); school graduation; working as an auto mechanic; obtaining false papers and working as a non-Jew on a farm in Pe?rigueux; liberation; traveling through Oradour (it was still smoldering) to join his mother and sister in Bellac; and their emigration to the United States to join his great uncle. Mr. W. discusses disillusionment with Judaism due to his father's deportation, but returning to orthodoxy in the United States. He shows photographs and documents.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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
- W., Henry, -- 1927-
Subjects
- Bar mitzvah.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Mothers and sons.
- Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre, 1944.
- Fathers and sons.
- Child survivors.
- Faith.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- False papers.
Places
- Mainz-Bingen (Germany)
- Paris (France)
- La Chartre-sur-le-Loir (France)
- Bellac (France)
- Limoges (France)
- PeĚrigueux (France)
- Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Germany.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat