- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Manus D., who was born near Katowice, Poland, in 1921, the fourth of five children. He recounts his family's move to Katowice in 1932; their affluence; attending a Jewish school; fights with non-Jews; participating in a Zionist youth group; attending a lecture by Jabotinsky and Zionist summer camp; he, his parents, and younger sister joining his brother in Warsaw in late August 1939; meeting Janusz Korczak; German invasion; he, his parents, and younger sister joining relatives in Sosnowiec; establishing an agricultural commune in cooperation with the Judenrat and its head, Moshe Merin; learning his brother in Warsaw had been killed by the Germans in 1940; deportations in spring 1942; arrest with his mother in June; Merin obtaining his release; his mother's deportation (he never saw her again); another brother's death; sending anonymous letters to Germans warning them of the war's futility; obtaining weapons and making bombs; assistance from a Viennese businessman; producing false papers; his sister volunteering for labor in Germany as a non-Jew; visits from resistance leaders from other cities, including Mordecai Anielewicz, and Eliezer Geller; his resistance group being hidden by a German factory owner during a round-up; ghettoization; building bunkers; his father's capture (he did not return); being wounded; and escaping with a friend.
Mr. D. recounts living as a non-Jew in Chęciny; obtaining documents as a Polish volunteer laborer; traveling to Katowice, then Vienna with twenty others; working in Rauchenwarth; moving to Vienna fearing denouncement; arrest as a suspected thief; transfer to Maria Lanzendorf; an unsuccessful escape attempt; solitary confinement and beatings; release to work in a hospital in Graz because his false documents indicated he had medical training; learning to perform autopsies; traveling illegally to Budapest in January 1944; reunion with his brother and other Zionist underground members; obtaining weapons and false papers; moving as a group to Mohács; German invasion in March 1944; being sent to Cluj to smuggle Jews to Arad; arrest in Hungary as Polish workers; escape from a train during an Allied bombing; capture; imprisonment in Budapest, then Sátoraljaújhely; his release; returning to Budapest; meetings with Joel Brand and Rudolf Kasztner; liberation by Soviet troops; moving to Bucharest; and joining his sister and brother in Israel in 1949. Mr. D. discusses details and people involved in the ghetto administration and the resistance and relations among the Zionist groups.
- Author/Creator
- D., Manus, 1921-
- Published
- Tel Aviv, Israel : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1993
- Interview Date
- February 23, 1993.
- Locale
- Poland
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie)
Katowice (Poland)
Warsaw (Poland)
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
Chęciny (Województwo Świętokrzyskie, Poland)
Vienna (Austria)
Rauchenwarth (Austria)
Graz (Austria)
Budapest (Hungary)
Mohács (Hungary)
Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
Arad (Romania)
Sátoraljaújhely (Hungary)
Bucharest (Romania)
Munich (Germany)
- Cite As
- Manus D. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3322). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Beyrak, Nathan, interviewer.
Frank, Levana, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Hebrew.
Related publication: Geheimauftrag--Mission Eichmann / Manus Diamant ; aufgezeichnet von Moshe Meisels ; mit einem Vorwort von Simon Wiesenthal. -- Wien : J&V, c1995.
Related publication: ha-Meśimah--Aikhman : sipur maḥteret, ḥaverut, u-neḳamah / meʻat Manus Diʼamanṭ. -- Tel-Aviv : Hotsaʼat Yaron Golan, c2004.
