Ralph W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Ralph W., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1924. He recalls economic hardships when his father lost his job in 1935; living in a Jewish neighborhood; German invasion in 1939; two German soldiers severely beating his father; ghettoization; his parents' deportation to Chelmno in 1941 (he never saw them again); obtaining a privileged job as a factory cook with assistance from a family friend; transfer to factory labor in March 1944; volunteering for deportation in someone's place for extra food and clothing; transfer to Cze?stochowa; slave labor building a HASAG factory; exchanging possessions with Polish civilian workers for extra food; train transfer to Buchenwald in late summer; public hangings of escapees; transfer to Sonneberg; slave labor as an electrician; a death march in March 1945; escaping near Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia after about four weeks, knowing he could not continue walking; claiming to be a Pole; being given food, shoe coupons, and a train ticket to Chomutuv; volunteering to work for Germans; their departure on May 8, 1945; recuperating in Go?rlitz; returning to ?o?dz?; and his profound sorrow on learning only three survived of some 350 who had lived in his courtyard. He shows documents.
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
- W., Ralph, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Hugo Schneider Aktiengesellschaft.
- Częstochowa (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- Child survivors.
- Escapes.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Death marches.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Forced labor.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Poland.
- Łódź ghetto.
- Sonneberg (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Chomutov (Czech Republic)
- Görlitz (Dresden, Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat