Mordechai M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Mordechai M., who was born in Jabłonna, Poland in 1931, the older of two brothers. He recalls attending cheder and public school; antisemitic harassment in school; his father's draft into the Polish military; German invasion in 1939; his father's return; ghettoization in Legionowo; his mother obtaining food outside the ghetto from Poles she knew; her escape after she was caught and beaten; his grandfather's and uncle's deaths during an epidemic; his father persuading a non-Jewish physician to operate on his mother, which saved her life; creating an attic hiding place; the Jewish police warning them of the ghetto's liquidation; hiding with others during the round-up; their family (his brother, parents, grandmother, aunt, and two cousins) escaping the next night; hiding with a Polish woman for over ten months, then with two Polish sisters; studying Catholicism with the sisters after their priest warned them not to hide "pagans"; his grandmother surrendering herself (she was killed); their escape to the woods when the front neared; assistance from Soviet POWs; separation from his aunt and cousins; a German military unit employing them; his father creating false papers using their Polish neighbor's name; his aunt's and cousins' return; remaining with the Germans when the unit moved; working for another unit in a village; abandonment as the Soviets approached; hiding in a ditch during the bombardment; living in a displaced persons camp in Germany; emigration to Israel in 1948; serving in the military; and moving to the United States. Mr. M. discusses a trip to Poland with his wife and children. He shows photographs.

2 videocassettes