Jacques S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Jacques S., who was born in Thessalonikē, Greece in 1913. He recalls training as a violinist; completing engineering studies in Marseille, Paris, and Bordeaux; military service; discharge; working as a government engineer; Italian invasion in fall 1940; six months of front-line service with his brother; German occupation of Thessalonikē; military colleagues offering to hide him; refusing in order to return to his family; marriage; deportation to Birkenau with his and his wife's families in May 1943 (his wife was eight months pregnant); remaining with his brother (he never saw his wife or parents again); assignment as a violinist in the orchestra and as an engineer; sharing extra food with his brother; occasionally seeing his sisters; receiving food from a non-Jewish Polish prisoner; transfer to Auschwitz after thirty days (he never saw his brother again); his German civilian supervisor saving many Jews; transfer to Mauthausen, then Gusen in January 1945; liberation by United States troops in May; living in France; marriage to a Greek survivor; and emigration to Israel with their children twenty years later. Mr. S. discusses his book; lecturing about his experiences, especially in Germany; never feeling "free" from Auschwitz; and attributing his survival to luck. He shows photographs and documents and plays the violin.

3 videocassettes