Samuel A. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Samuel A., who was born in Paris, France in 1925 to a family of seven children. He recalls close relations with neighbors in a building housing only Jews; German invasion; arrest with his family on September 23, 1942; their incarceration in Drancy; separation from his family, when he and one brother were removed from a deportation train (he never saw them again); slave labor constructing roads in Cosel; their transfer to Blechhammer; assistance from Lageraltester Karl Demerer; hospitalization which resulted in transfer to another camp; recovering from typhus with assistance from a Polish doctor; transfer to other camps, then Birkenau; a privileged assignment to the "Scheisskommando"; transfer to Buchenwald; non-Jewish prisoners sharing Red Cross packages; sabotaging work at an airplane factory; escaping with a friend from a death march in April 1945; hiding with assistance from French POWs; and liberation by African-American troops. Mr. A. recounts a hostile reception upon returning to Paris; recovering from tuberculosis; difficulty recovering his family's apartment; and reunion with a sister. He discusses the atmosphere of the building in which his family lived; the importance of friendship to his survival; relations between prisoner groups; and continuing nightmares. He shows photographs.
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.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- Demerer, Karl.
- A., Samuel, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Drancy (Concentration camp)
- Blechhammer E/3 (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Escapes.
- Friendship.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Prisoners of war -- Germany.
- Postwar effects.
- Child survivors.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Sabotage.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Men.
- Nightmares.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Forced labor.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Paris (France)
- France.
- Cosel (Poland : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat