Yehuda M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Yehuda M., who was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1914, the only child of an eighth generation Dutch-Jewish family. He recalls moving to Hilversum at age fourteen; attending public school; his bar mitzvah; participating in Hashomer Hatzair, then Betar; working in steel production; enlisting in the Dutch military; marriage in Rotterdam in 1940; capitulation to Germany; anti-Jewish restrictions; obtaining false papers; living as non-Jews; working with the underground to hide other Jews; his mother's death in Eindhoven; her Christian funeral; being shot when fleeing from arrest in Utrecht; hospitalization, then imprisonment; transfer to Vught in October 1943. then to Moerdijk; receiving packages from the Red Cross and mail from his wife; translating for French prisoners; transfer to sĚ-Hertogenbosch; forming a close group with a few other prisoners; futile escape plans by the camp underground; transfer to Westerbork, Auschwitz/Birkenau, then Monowitz; working in a privileged position as an accountant; receiving special rations; sharing the regular food with others; his group's separation from other prisoners; public hangings; brief hospitaltization; a death march to Gleiwitz; train transport to Dora; separation from his group when he was sent to Osterode; slave labor digging tunnels; transfer back to Dora; liberation by United States troops; living in a nearby villa; working for the U.S. military; assistance from UNRRA; returning home; recovering from tuberculosis; the birth of a son; encountering antisemitism in the Dutch military; his wife and son emigrating to Palestine in July 1947; his emigration in November, after military discharge; and twice testifying at Dutch war crime trials. Mr. M. discusses how worthless life became in the camps; his strong will to live; treatment for psychological issues and nightmares resulting from his experiences; not sharing his story with his children; and attributing his survival to luck. He shows his wife's letter to him when he was in camp.
Extent and Medium
16 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
- M., Yehuda, -- 1914-
Corporate Bodies
- Dora (Concentration camp)
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
- Betar.
- Vught (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Westerbork (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Monowitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar effects.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Nightmares.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Death marches.
- Concentration camps -- Underground movements.
- Mutual aid.
- Hiding.
- False papers.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Husband and wife.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Netherlands.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Survivor-child relations.
- Utrecht (Netherlands)
- Eindhoven (Netherlands)
- Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- Osterode (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Gleiwitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
- sĚ-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands : Concentration camp)
- Moerdijk (Netherlands : Concentration camp)
- Hilversum (Netherlands)
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Netherlands.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat