Lothar R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Lothar R., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1926. He recalls being shunned by non-Jewish children; the family move to Cernăuti in 1933; Soviet occupation; expropriation of their business; German invasion; ghettoization; a forced march to Mărculești, then Yampolʹ; a mass shooting by Romanian soldiers; living in the Bershadʹ ghetto from 1941 to 1944; his mother and father disappearing; moving with his sister to the Balta ghetto; forced labor; receiving food from a German soldier; surviving an execution by feigning death; hiding with his sister in an outhouse; their escape to Bershadʹ; liberation by Soviet troops; disinterment of his parents from a mass grave; buying a tombstone for them; moving to Sokiryany, then Chernivt︠s︡i; being drafted into the Soviet Army; forced labor in Khabarovsk; marriage in 1949; and release in 1950 due to his wife's pregnancy. Mr. R. discusses his son's birth en route to Chernivt︠s︡i; futile attempts to emigrate; joining his sister in Israel in 1969; moving to Germany in 1973; wanting to visit his parents' grave and to confront the family of the German who killed his parents; reluctance to discuss his past with his children; current antisemitism; and discomfort living in Germany.
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
- R., Lothar, -- 1926-
Subjects
- Survivor-child relations.
- Hiding.
- Mass killings.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Child survivors.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Soviet occupation.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Forced labor -- Soviet Union.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Escapes.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Chernivt︠s︡i.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Bershadʹ.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Balta.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Czernowitz ghetto.
- Yampolʹ (Ukraine)
- Balta ghetto.
- Bershadʹ ghetto.
- Sokiryany (Ukraine)
- Balta (Ukraine)
- Israel.
- Khabarovsk (Russia)
- Soroca (Moldova)
- Chernivt︠s︡i (Ukraine)
- Bershadʹ (Ukraine)
- Mărculești (Moldova)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat