Peter H. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Peter H., who was born in Spišská Nová Ves, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1935, an only child. He recalls his secular household; having to wear the yellow star; former friends harassing him; his father's deportation to Majdanek in 1942 (he never saw him again); deportation with his mother to Nováky in July 1943; release in the fall; living in Nitra; imprisonment with his mother and grandparents in Prešov in fall 1944; deportation to Ravensbrück; separation from his family; finding his grandfather in another block; sharing his bread with him; assistance from a Russian prisoner; hospitalization; two Czech doctors treating him and keeping him there, which saved his life; his grandfather's transfer (he never saw him again); transfer in April to Ludwigslust; corpses everywhere; liberation by United States troops in May 1945; placement in Celle displaced persons camp; reunion with his mother in Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp (his grandmother had died two days after liberation); and their return home. Mr. H. discusses details of camp life; several psychological responses and nationality groups in the camps; feeling alone, but surviving due to help from others; permanent effects on him; postwar antisemitism to the present; and thinking that those who did not experience the camps cannot understand or even believe what survivors experienced.

1 videocassette