Theodor G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Theodor G., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1912. He recalls a loving, assimilated home; withdrawing from gymnasium due to antisemitism; attending high school; his father's death in 1936 from an SS beating; selling his business in January 1939 due to anti-Jewish laws; menial jobs through an official Jewish agency; a coal company owner befriending him; arrest in August 1939; incarceration in Sachsenhausen; assistance from a guard who sent messages to his wife; a beating resulting in permanent injuries; escaping with two friends having notified their wives to meet them; living illegally in Glindow for a year (their wives returned home to avoid suspicion); the company owner suggesting they move to Rheinsberg and work for him; learning their wives had been deported; obtaining false papers; returning to Berlin; briefly living with the company owner; returning to Rheinsberg fearing recognition; gathering weapons with other Jews to resist rather than be deported; meeting his future wife; working as a courier; building a bunker for the company owner in Berlin; and hiding there during Soviet liberation. Mr. G. tells of employment by the Soviets; marriage; reunion with his mother; visiting his brother in Australia; and the deaths of most of his family in the Holocaust.
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
- G., Theodor, -- 1912-
Corporate Bodies
- Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Escapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance -- Germany.
- Husband and wife.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- False papers.
- Hiding.
- Bunkers.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mothers and sons.
- Forced labor.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Postwar effects.
Places
- Glindow (Germany)
- Rheinsberg (Germany)
- Germany.
- Berlin (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat