Otto S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Otto S., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1921. He recounts his parents' move to the United States in 1899; his brother's birth there in 1911; their return visit to Austria before World War I; his father's draft when war broke out; his return in 1918 with injuries which precluded their return to the U.S.; Viennese welcoming Hitler during the Auschluss in 1938; anti-Jewish laws; his brother's incarceration in Buchenwald; release as a U.S. citizen provided he left immediately; his father's death in 1941; his mother's emigration to the U.S.; hiding with his girlfriend's family; being smuggled to join relatives in Budapest; his uncle turning him away; the smuggler finding him a place to stay with thieves; arrest; incarceration; escaping; briefly joining relatives in Kapospula; arrest; deportation to Birkenau; slave labor; transfer to Sachsenhausen, then Kaufering; slave labor for Organisation Todt; help from a Viennese prisoner while hospitalized; transfer to Dachau; liberation in April 1945; working for U.S. troops; reunion with his brother, a U.S. soldier; marriage to his girlfriend; and emigration to the United States in July 1946. He discusses nightmares; no contact with other survivors; and not sharing his experiences until now, even with his mother.
Extent and Medium
2 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
- S., Otto, -- 1921-
Corporate Bodies
- Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Organisation Todt (Germany)
- Kaufering (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Mutual aid.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Anschluss.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Forced labor.
- Escapes.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
Places
- Kapospula Vasúti Megállóhely (Hungary)
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Vienna (Austria)
- Austria.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat