- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Fred R., who was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1921 and served in the Ninth Army Air Force during World War II. He recalls pilot training in 1942-1943; being stationed in Folkingham, England; transporting supplies and wounded after Normandy; being shot down and captured on September 14, 1944 during a paratrooper drop for Operation Market Garden; and the month-long transfer to Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany. Mr. R. describes the camp of approximately 9,000, primarily American Air Force officers; the prisoner chain of command; sports and educational activities; underground prisoner activities; the order to segregate Jews; unsuccessful efforts of the American leaders to have the order nullified; his decision to join approximately nine hundred segregated Jews in January 1945 when he could have posed as a non-Jew; and liberation by Soviet troops in May. He describes accompanying Soviet troops who liberated a nearby concentration camp; the extreme deprivation of its prisoners; and evacuation to Camp Lucky Strike in Le Havre two weeks after liberation. Mr. R. reads excerpts from his diary, shows his sketches of the camps and documents from the collection of another POW, Hubert Zemke.
- Author/Creator
- R., Fred, 1921-
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1993
- Interview Date
- November 11, 1993.
- Locale
- Germany
Jersey City (N.J.)
Folkingham (England)
- Cite As
- Fred R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2255). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Rudof, Joanne Weiner, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Additional written materials available in repository.
Related publication: Zemke's Stalag: the final days of World War II / Hubert Zemke, as told to Roger A. Freeman. -- Washington : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
