Overview
- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Meyer R., who was born in Kielce, Poland in 1917. He recalls his family's Zionist commitment and organizational participation; joining the family lumber business at age eighteen; draft into the Polish military in 1938; fighting on the German front (90% of his unit was killed); withdrawing to Warsaw; capture in battle; incarceration in a POW camp in Germany; transfer by train to Poland in spring 1940; escaping from a mass killing of POWs; returning to Kielce, which had been ghettoized; marriage; attempts to organize resistance; liquidation of the ghetto in August 1942; deportation to Pionki; a Ukrainian guard assisting his escape with his wife; spending a winter in the forest; returning to Pionki because of his wife's illness; Gestapo interrogation and beatings in prison; transfer to Gross-Rosen, then nine other camps ending at Neuengamme; slave labor in a steel factory; transfer to Bergen-Belsen; resigning himself to death after witnessing cannibalism; assignment to a burial detail; liberation by British troops; hitting a German with his last bit of strength; and transfer to Sweden with assistance from the Swiss Red Cross. Mr R. recounts reunion with his wife; four years of recuperation; and emigration to the United States in 1952.
- Published
- Wilmette, Ill. : Holocaust Education Foundation, 1985
- Interview Date
- October 10, 1985.
- Locale
- Poland
Kielce
Germany
Kielce (Poland)
Warsaw (Poland)
Sweden - Cite As
- Meyer R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-645). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Copies
- 3 copies: 3/4 in. master; 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time
- Physical Description
- 1 videorecording (1 hr., 7 min.) : col
Keywords & Subjects
- Subjects (Local Yale)
- Mass killings.
Postwar experiences.
Hiding.
Marriage in Jewish ghettos.
Forests.
Aid by non-Jews. - Subjects
- Holocaust survivors. Video tapes. Men. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Jewish resistance. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish. World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, German. World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Polish. World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities. World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Jewish. Draft--Poland. Forced labor. Husband and wife. Jewish ghettos. Revenge. Jews--Poland--Kielce. Prisoners of war--Germany. Cannibalism. Poland. Kielce (Poland) Warsaw (Poland) Sweden. Oral histories (document genres) Concentration camp inmates--Escapes. R., Meyer,--1917- Pionki (Concentration camp) Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz. Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp) Neuengamme (Concentration camp) Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Special Collection
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Link to Yale University Library Catalog:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/1110356
- Record last modified:
- 2018-05-30 11:32:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt1110356
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