Matetehu L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Matetehu L., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1929, the youngest of three brothers. He recounts speaking Polish at home; German invasion; his oldest brother fleeing to Russia (he never saw him again); ghettoization; smuggling food into the ghetto almost daily (he "looked Polish"); his brother being killed when accompanying him outside the ghetto; his father's death from typhus in 1941; round-up and train deportation in spring 1942; escaping with other children; returning to the ghetto; his mother's hospitalization (he never saw her again); escaping from the ghetto through the sewers; his eye being injured by a grenade (he has only one eye as a result); hiding in the forests; avoiding both Germans and Armia Krajowa; working for Polish farmers (one knew he was Jewish); liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Warsaw; registering with the Jewish community and Red Cross in Praga; transfer to Łódź; living on a Dror kibbutz; traveling illegally with the group to Paris; assistance from UNRRA; transfer to Marseille, then Bandol; boarding an illegal ship to Palestine; interception by the British; four months' incarceration on Cyprus; living on several kibbutzim; returning to Europe in March 1953; living in Föhrenwald displaced persons camp; assistance from the Joint; emigration to São Paulo; living in Rio; marriage in 1956; the births of his children; returning to Israel in 1973; serving in the Yom Kippur War; and sharing only small segments of his story with his wife and children, who find it difficult to believe.
Extent and Medium
3 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
- L., Matetehu, -- 1929-
Corporate Bodies
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- Deror (Organization : Poland)
- Poland. -- Polskie Siły Zbrojne. -- Armia Krajowa.
- Föhrenwald (Displaced persons camp)
Subjects
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Forests.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Israel-Arab War, 1973.
- Child survivors.
- Escapes.
- Refugee camps.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
Places
- São Paulo (Brazil)
- Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
- Warsaw ghetto.
- Poland.
- Palestine -- Emigration and immigration.
- Cyprus.
- Bandol (France)
- Marseille (France)
- Paris (France)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Praga (Warsaw, Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat