Kalman A. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Kalman A., who was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1928, an only child. He recounts attending a Yavneh school; antisemitic harassment; Soviet invasion; attending a Soviet school; German invasion; Lithuanians openly stealing their possessions; his father's round-up (they never saw him again); ghettoization; slave labor at the airport; smuggling food into the ghetto; a selection prior to a mass shooting at the 9th Fort; hiding during the children's selection; a public hanging; transfer to Aleksotas with his mother, aunt, and her children; deportation to Stutthof; separation from his family; transfer to Landsberg; placement in a children's group led by Ze'ev G.; their transfer to Dachau, then Auschwitz/Birkenau one month later; assignment as a camp cleaner, which resulted in receiving extra food; train transfer to Mauthausen in January 1945; a death march to Gunskirchen; hearing about cannibalism; a German soldier giving him food; liberation by United States troops; hospitalization in Wels; transfer by the Jewish Brigade to a hospital in Udine, then Milan; his adoption by a survivor in 1945; their emigration to Israel in 1955; reunion with his aunt (his mother did not survive); marriage; and adopting a child. Mr. A. discusses songs in the ghetto and camps (he sings several); not losing his belief in God; nightmares resulting from his experiences; sharing his experiences with his daughter; and attending reunions of the children's group.
Extent and Medium
9 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
- A., Kalman, -- 1928-
Corporate Bodies
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
- Landsberg (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Mauthausen (Concentration camp)
- Gunskirchen (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Songs and music.
- Jews -- Lithuania -- Kaunas.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Death marches.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Forced labor.
- Mothers and sons.
- Concentration camps -- Songs and music.
- Faith.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Mutual aid.
- Soviet occupation.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Adoptees.
- Nightmares.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Child survivors.
- Cannibalism.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
Places
- Aleksotas (Kaunas, Lithuania : Concentration camp)
- Kaunas (Lithuania)
- Wels (Austria)
- Udine (Italy)
- Kovno ghetto.
- Milan (Italy)
- Lithuania.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat