Mario B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Mario B., who was born in London, England in 1926, the older of two brothers. He recounts his parents were Catholic, Italian emigre?es; he, his mother, and brother visiting his grandmother in Piacenza in May 1939; not being able to return to England after the war started; living in Cadeo; Italian capitulation; German occupation; local hostility to Germans; contacts with partisans; hiding to avoid military draft in 1944; arrest with his brother and uncle when visiting his mother; imprisonment in Piacenza; separation from his relatives when he was transferred to Milan (they were released); deportation to Altona, then Brunsbuettelkoog; slave labor in a chemical factory; he and others sabotaging the work; female Russian prisoners giving him extra food; occasional work on farms with improved rations; interrogation for sabotage; refusing to name others; transfer to Itzehoe; severe beatings; transfer to Kiel; clearing bombing rubble; frequently finding corpses; transfer back to Brunsbuettelkoog, then a farm; liberation by British troops; recuperating in Itzehoe, then Hamburg; returning to Italy with assistance from the Red Cross; reunion with his mother and brother; receiving funds from his father; and their return to England. Mr. B. discusses never seeing Jews and not knowing about the Holocaust; relations between ethnic groups in camps; prisoner hierarchies; health problems and continuing nightmares resulting from his experiences; and trying to suppress his painful memories. He shows many documents.
Extent and Medium
3 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. This testimony cannot be used for commercial purposes.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- B., Mario, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Postwar effects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Italian.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Italy.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Concentration camp inmates.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, British.
- Hiding.
- Partisans.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Forced labor.
- Sabotage.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Nightmares.
Places
- Cadeo (Italy)
- Piacenza (Italy)
- Kiel (Germany)
- Milan (Italy)
- London (England)
- England.
- Hamburg-Altona (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Brunsbuettelkoog (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Kiel (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Itzehoe (Germany : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat