Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Sydney B. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2348) interviewed by Joanne Weiner Rudof and Frances Proctor Cohen,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2348

Videotape testimony of Sydney B., who was born in Connecticut in 1914. He recalls Army induction in October 1943; transfer to England in March 1944; arrival on Omaha Beach on D-Day plus thirty; assignment to the 80th Infantry Division Counter Intelligence Corps; and seeking out Nazi sympathizers and former Nazis in France, then in Ludwigshafen, Weimar, Nuremberg and Kempten. Mr. B. describes a brief visit to Ebensee (on his way to Altausee) shortly after its liberation; shock and disbelief at the prisoners' condition; the crematorium and a room full of bodies; and skepticism when local residents said they did not know about the camp. Mr. B. recounts finding and arresting Ernst Kaltenbrunner; returning to the United States in November 1945; speaking little of his experiences; his heightened sense of Jewish identity resulting from his visit to Ebensee; contacts with an Ebensee survivor; and a former army colleague who has studied Kaltenbrunner extensively. He shows pictures of Ebensee and a copy of a sign he removed from the crematorium and recently donated to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Author/Creator
B., Sydney, 1914-
Published
New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1994
Interview Date
February 17, 1994.
Locale
Connecticut
Ludwigshafen am Rhein (Germany)
Altaussee (Austria)
Weimar (Thuringia, Germany)
Kempten (Germany)
Nuremberg (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: 3/4 in. master; 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Sydney B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2348). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.