- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Julian M., who was born in Kraków, Poland in 1924. He recalls antisemitism in Polish schools he attended, particularly gymnasium; his father's prewar death; disbelief that conditions in Germany would impact them; German invasion; increasing restrictions and persecution; fleeing with his family to Nowy Wiśnicz; his capture; a forced labor camp in Kraków; transfer to the ghetto; learning all Jews in Nowy Wiśnicz had been liquidated including his family; and his aunt's and cousins' deportation (he lived with them). He describes factory work; obtaining chemicals for people who wished to commit suicide; evacuation of the Kraków ghetto to Płaszow; building railroad tracks for Siemans; transfer to Pionki; working in a munitions factory; transfer to Auschwitz, then Gleiwitz; frequent beatings and hangings; the forced march to Gross Rosen, Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald; assisting his friend who was killed; atrocities by Ilse Koch; and liberation by Americans in April 1945. He recounts recuperation in Davos, Switzerland; moving to Geneva; joining relatives in New York; illness from a spinal injury incurred during forced labor; and his postwar adjustment. He attributes his survival to luck and reflects on how unprepared the relief community was to help survivors adjust psychologically.
- Author/Creator
- M., Julian, 1924-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1987
- Interview Date
- May 4, 1987.
- Locale
- Poland
Kraków
Nowy Wiśnicz (Poland)
Kraków (Poland)
Geneva (Switzerland)
Davos (Switzerland)
- Cite As
- Julian M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-890). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Strochlic, Kathy, interviewer.
Morton, Peggy, interviewer.
