Itzchak S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Itzchak S., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1915. He recounts his father's military service in World War I; attending public and Jewish schools; bar mitzvah; participating in Jewish and Zionist youth groups; antisemitic harassment; traveling to Amsterdam; his mother joining him; founding a Zionist youth group; returning to Berlin to obtain a certificate to emigrate to Palestine (his mother remained); establishing a Youth Aliyah center in Cologne; improvements during the 1936 Olympics; teaching at a Jewish school in Herrlingen; returning to Berlin; obtaining false papers as a non-Jew; working at a Youth Aliyah school with Recha Freier, its founder; vain attempts to convince his parents to leave; hiding during Kristallnacht; organizing clandestine meetings and religious services; his mother's disappearance from the Netherlands and his father's deportation (he never saw them again); living on the streets and with many non-Jews for short periods; a brief trip to Nordhausen; obtaining new false papers from a German officer when his were compromised; being warned to leave; traveling to Singen, then Radolfzell; illegally entering Switzerland; traveling to Schaffhausen; arrest; release with assistance from the Jewish community; living in a refugee camp in Zurich; and emigration to Israel in 1953. Mr. S. discusses visiting Berlin with a fellow underground member in 1979; a reunion of hidden Jews from Berlin; and speaking to students in Germany. He sings Zionist songs and shows documents.
Extent and Medium
5 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
- S., Itzchak, -- 1915-
- Freier, Recha.
Corporate Bodies
- Jewish Agency for Israel. -- Youth Aliyah Department. -- Mador le-hadrakhah.
- Hechalutz (Organization)
Subjects
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- False papers.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Anti-Nazi movement -- Germany.
- Zionists.
- Escapes.
- Refugee camps -- Switzerland.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Bar mitzvah.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
Places
- Schaffhausen (Switzerland)
- Nordhausen (Thuringia, Germany)
- Zurich (Switzerland)
- Germany.
- Berlin (Germany)
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Cologne (Germany)
- Singen am Hohentwiel (Germany)
- Radolfzell am Bodensee (Germany)
- Herrlingen (Blaustein, Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat