Hans R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Hans R., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1924, the oldest of four children. He recalls attending Hebrew school; its closure due to antisemitic laws; harassment by former playmates; his parents losing their jobs; attending a Jewish trade school; brief incarceration with his father and grandfather in Sachsenhausen in 1938; fleeing to the Netherlands in 1941; returning home at his father's request; working in the Jewish cemetery, then in a factory; deportation with his family in October 1942; jumping from the train at his father's urging (he never saw his family again); returning to Berlin; resuming work illegally; deportation in June 1943 to Auschwitz/Birkenau; transfer to Buna/Monowitz; slave labor for I. G. Farben; brief hospitalization; assistance from friends; the pervasive smell of burning flesh; public hangings; a death march to Gleiwitz in January 1945; transport to Sachsenhausen, then Flossenbürg; becoming ill; being placed in an open mass grave; liberation by United States troops two days later; hospitalization in Germany until 1951; returning to Berlin; completing his education; marriage to a non-Jew; and the births of two children. He discusses repressing painful memories of the camps; his reluctance to share his experiences, even with his children; antisemitism in Germany; visits to Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen; and his belief that Hitler won the war against the Jews.
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., Hans, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Flossenbürg (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft.
- Monowitz (Concentration camp)
- Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Hiding.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Fathers and sons.
- Grandparent and child.
- Escapes.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Child survivors.
- Postwar effects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany.
- Gleiwitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Netherlands.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat