Norman M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Norman M., a prize-winning author, who was born in Burdujeni, Romania, a section of Suceava, in 1936, an only child. He recounts moving to Ițcani; few memories prior to deportation with his parents and other relatives to Transnistria in October 1941; starvation and extreme cold; their Romanian foster child bringing them food; his maternal grandparents' deaths the first winter; attending school for about eighteen months; their return to Fălticeni, Rădăuți, then Suceava in 1945; resuming his education; expressing his desire to emigrate in 1947; his father's refusal based on his strong identification with Bukovina; completing university as an engineer despite his love of literature; working as an engineer; marriage in 1968; visiting relatives in Israel in 1976; beginning to publish; attacks by the press in 1981 for his anti-communist perspective; living in Germany in 1986-87 for about a year; moving to the United States in 1988; his mother's death in Suceava; his father's emigration to Israel in 1989; attacks by the Romanian press in 1992 and 1998; and his faculty position at Bard College. Mr. M. discusses the influence of many writers and critics on his work; his childhood memories marked by suffering; his experiences in Transnistria informing his writing, citing several of his books; his identity as a Romanian first, then as a Jew; issues with translations of his work; and unresolved moral issues for nations arising from the Holocaust.

25 videocassettes