Rudolf R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Rudolf R., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922. He recounts his father's service in World War I; his ardent German patriotism which resulted in him minimizing the Nazi threat; anti-Jewish laws and harassment; his bar mitzvah; temporary improvement during the 1936 Olympics; expulsion from school; assistance from non-Jews on Kristallnacht; his sister's emigration to England in August 1939; forced labor on farms with his brother; being returned to Berlin in 1942; their deportation to Auschwitz; learning his parents had preceded them; slave labor for I.G. Farben in Buna/Monowitz; a German prisoner saving him from selection while in the hospital after a severe beating; public hangings; greater difficulties for non-German speakers; losing his belief in God; an Allied bombing in 1944; his brother's shooting during the death march to Gleiwitz in January 1945; train transfer to Dora/Nordhausen/Ellrich; posing as a non-Jewish German during train transfer to Oranienburg/Sachsenhausen; liberation by Soviet troops; assistance from the Red Cross; and working for the government. Mr. R. discusses surviving due to luck; details of camp life; sharing his story with his wife and son; nightmares; his wife influencing him to return to Judaism; a negative experience testifying at a war crimes trial; and his son's social isolation due to his experiences.
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
- R., Rudolf, -- 1922-
Corporate Bodies
- Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft.
- Monowitz (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Oranienburg (Concentration camp)
- Ellrich (Concentration camp)
- Dora (Concentration camp)
- Nordhausen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Faith.
- Bar mitzvah.
- Forced labor.
- Brothers.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Death marches.
- War crime trials -- Germany.
- Nightmares.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Mutual aid.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Child survivors.
Places
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany.
- Gleiwitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat