Menashe L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Menashe L., who was born in Cluj, Romania in 1934, a twin. He recalls his family's affluence; attending cheder and a Neolog school; his father leading prayers in local synagogues; Hungarian occupation; being beaten by Arrow Cross youth; his father and uncles being drafted into Hungarian slave labor battalions; participating in Bene-ʻAḳiva; German invasion in spring 1944; his mother sending him and his twin sister to their grandparents' village; transfer to the Szilágysomlyó (Șimleu Silvaniei) ghetto; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; he and his sister being separated from his grandmother and aunt when they were identified as twins; placement in a barrack where "experiments" were conducted on twins and others by Josef Mengele and his staff; his assignment to deliver food to the barrack; smuggling extra food for his sister and others; his sister's hospitalization resulting from an "experiment"; feigning a toothache to join her; convincing her to return to the barrack; his privileged assignment as a messenger, providing access to many parts of the camp; encountering his aunt; obtaining food and clothing from the Canada Kommando for those in his barrack and a special meal for Rosh ha-Shannah; celebrating Hanukkah; praying with his smuggled siddur; and observing the destruction of a crematorium during a prisoner uprising.
Extent and Medium
11 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
- L., Menashe, -- 1934-
- Mengele, Josef, -- 1911-1979.
Corporate Bodies
- Nyilaskeresztes Párt.
- Bene-ʻAḳiva be-Hungaryah (Organization)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Subjects
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Child survivors.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Mutual aid.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Nightmares.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Public opinion.
- Public opinion -- Israel.
- Human experimentation in medicine.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Forced labor.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Romania -- Șimleu Silvaniei.
- Twins.
- Brothers and sisters.
Places
- Szilágysomlyó ghetto.
- Bucharest (Romania)
- Slutsk (Belarus)
- Chernivt︠s︡i (Ukraine)
- Kraków (Poland)
- Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
- Romania.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat