William P. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of William P., who was born in Cze?stochowa, Poland in 1923, one of eight children in an impoverished family. He recalls German invasion; forced farm labor in 1940; assistance from his brother; returning home; incarceration in a labor camp; escape; returning to Cze?stochowa; entering the ghetto; working as a tailor; deportation to Auschwitz; slave labor; liberation in 1945; recovering in Theresienstadt; returning to Cze?stochowa; hearing two brothers had survived; traveling to Warsaw, Poznan?, Prague, Budapest, and Vienna; living in Salzburg; emigration to the United States in 1949; and marriage. Mr. P. discusses the importance to his survival of luck and always obeying orders; his sense of never knowing what was happening in the camps; the deaths of many relatives during the Holocaust; fears of sharing his experiences until 1955; and his surviving brothers' lives. He shows photographs.
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
- P., William, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Theresiendstadt (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Brothers.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Poland -- Częstochowa.
- Child survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
Places
- Częstochowa ghetto.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Częstochowa (Poland)
- Poland.
- Salzburg (Austria)
- Poznań (Poland)
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Vienna (Austria)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat