Efraim S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Efraim S., who was born in Poland in 1916, one of six children. He recounts attending cheder, then, briefly, a yeshiva in Ostrowiec; participating in Hechalutz; his uncle, father, and brother moving to Brussels for economic reasons; following in 1930; joining Hashomer Hatzair; printing a Yiddish paper; working with the Bund; German invasion; two brothers illegally emigrating to Switzerland to avoid deportation; printing underground newspapers; stealing ration cards to sell on the black market; refusing to register as Jews; marriage in 1942; hiding his younger sisters with non-Jews in a village; his mother's death due to illness; obtaining false papers; arrest in 1943; admitting he was a Jew; deportation to Malines; escaping with his wife from a deportation train; walking to Tongeren; assistance from a priest; traveling to Liège, then Brussels, with assistance from the underground; his wife having an abortion; obtaining new false papers; moving to Charleroi; the underground arranging a municipal job for his wife so she would not be deported for forced labor as a non-Jew; liberation by United States troops; reunion with his family in Brussels; his father and siblings emigrating to Israel; moving to Brazil in 1951; the births of two daughters; his father's death in 1959; and emigration to Israel in 1968. Mr. S. discusses attempting to find the informant who led to their arrest and Yad Vashem honoring the family who hid his aunt.
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., Efraim, -- 1916-
Corporate Bodies
- Hechalutz (Organization)
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
- Allgemeyner Idisher arbayṭerbund in Liṭa, Poylen un Rusland.
- Malines (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- Escapes.
- Husband and wife.
- Abortion.
- False papers.
- Aid by non-Jews.
Places
- Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski (Poland)
- Poland.
- Tongeren (Belgium)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Charleroi (Belgium)
- Liège (Belgium)
- Brazil.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat