Maurice A. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Maurice A., who was born in 1912, and lived in Thessalonike?, Greece. He recounts his father's death when he was fifteen; serving briefly in the Greek military in Peloponnesus; returning to Thessalonike? after German occupation; anti-Jewish measures; ghettoization; refusing to escape due to his reluctance to leave his family; their deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; horrendous conditions during the six day trip; separation from his family upon arrival; meeting his brother who arrived with the next transport; transfer to Buna/Monowitz; obtaining a privileged position as a tailor for German camp administrators; his brother joining him in the tailor shop with assistance from a German; providing extra food for his friends; and learning his family had been gassed. Mr. A. describes the death march from Auschwitz in January 1945; transport to Buchenwald; digging mass graves in Langenstein; praying with other prisoners; escaping from a death march with his brother's assistance; hiding on a farm; liberation by United States troops in April; traveling to Paris with repatriated French prisoners; reunion with his brother; marriage; postwar trips to Greece; and his reluctance to discuss his experiences.
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
- A., Maurice, -- 1912-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Monowitz (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Langenstein (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Death marches.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jews -- Greece -- Thessalonikē.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Brothers.
- Friendship.
- Escapes.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
Places
- Peloponnesus (Greece)
- Thessalonikē (Greece)
- Salonika ghetto.
- Paris (France)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat