Gunter N. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Gunter N., who was born in Filehne, Germany (presently Weiluń, Poland) in 1913 and raised in Schneidemühl (Piła, Poland) and Berlin. He recalls his family's distinguished rabbinical lineage; attending gymnasium and university; antisemitic violence; participation in leftist organizations (SAJ, SPD, SAP); marriage in 1934; expulsion from university; continuing illegal political activities; arrest with his wife; imprisonment in Moabit and Brandenburg; restrictions on Jewish prisoners after Kristallnacht; meeting Bruno Baum; their release contingent upon leaving Germany; emigration to Shanghai (his parents were in Palestine and one brother in the United States); support from the Joint; ghettoization after Japanese invasion; cordial relations with the Chinese (they saved their lives); forming an illegal leftist group; arrest in 1945 for leaving the ghetto without an ID; one week imprisonment; and returning to Germany after the war because of correspondence from Baum and leftist ideals. Mr. N. discusses life in former East Germany; prohibition of contacts with the west (his parents and brothers); visits from his brothers, one of which resulted in punishment; adopting a daughter; recently visiting Israel and his parents' graves in Jerusalem; and identifying with Jewish culture, not religion, despite postwar antisemitism. He shows photographs, documents, and artifacts.
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
- N., Gunter, -- 1913-
- Baum, Bruno.
Corporate Bodies
- Zellengefängnis Moabit (Berlin, Germany)
- Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend (Germany)
- Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands.
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei (Germany)
Subjects
- Husband and wife.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- China -- Shanghai.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Japanese.
- Identification (Religion)
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Postwar experiences.
- Anti-Nazi movement.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Germany.
- Wieluń (Łódź, Poland)
- Piła (Poland)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Shanghai (China)
- Hongkou Qu (Shanghai, China)
- Schneidemühl (Germany)
- Hongkew ghetto (Shanghai, China)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat