Naftali L. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Naftali L., who was born in Kraków, Poland in 1926. He recalls moving to Piotrków when his father became its rabbi in 1935; his bar mitzvah in Kraków in 1939; German invasion in September; anti-Jewish restrictions; his father having to collect money to meet German demands; hiding the synagogue's Torahs; an influx of Jews from the surrounding area; ghettoization; deportation to Auschwitz in 1941; slave labor; Polish non-Jews protecting him; public hangings; contacting his family; his arranged escape with a Polish baker who made deliveries to Auschwitz; hiding in his parents' house; slave labor in Difi in Bugaj; his mother hiding with his younger siblings during round-ups; his father volunteering for deportation to Treblinka to be with his congregation; his mother running a soup kitchen; deportation with his five-year-old brother to Częstochowa; slave labor in a factory; others helping him care for his brother; transport to Buchenwald in January 1944; bribing an official to place his brother in a children's barrack; slave labor in a quarry; visiting his brother; transfer to Dora; sneaking into a transport to Buchenwald; observing Hungarian Jews praying; separation from his brother during the evacuation; escaping from the train; returning to Buchenwald; prisoners taking over; liberation by United States troops; hospitalization; transfer with his brother to Normandy; and their illegal emigration to Palestine. Mr. L. notes his brother, Israel Lau, became a Chief Rabbi in Israel.

8 videocassettes