Leon F. Holocaust testimony

Videotape of Leon F., who was born in Bia?ystok, Poland in 1919. He remembers the vibrant Jewish community; Polish antisemitism; brief German occupation, then Soviet occupation; German invasion in June 1941; Germans burning Jews alive in the synagogue and Jewish quarter; his family's rescue by a Pole; ghettoization; forced labor; escaping from a round-up in which his father was killed; the Judenrat organizing a transfer to the Pruzh?a?ny ghetto for him, his mother, and one sister; obtaining food from non-Jewish farmers; liquidation of the ghetto in January 1943; deportation to Auschwitz; separation from his mother and sister (he never saw them again); abusive kapos; hospitalization; surviving selections with help from other prisoners; evacuation to Sachsenhausen, then Ohrdruf; the death march to Buchenwald; liberation by United States troops; and not taking revenge on guards due to his weakness. Mr. F. recalls a hospital convalescence; revenging himself by beating several Germans; transfer to Landsberg displaced persons camp; help from the Joint; emigrating to the United States; and marriage. He discusses not sharing his experiences with his children, wanting them to be "normal"; later responding to his son's desire to know; a recent trip to Poland with his son; and dreams about his past.

2 videocassettes