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Sam N. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2411) interviewed by Rex Rains and Debra Rosenthal,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2411

Videotape testimony of Sam N., who was born in Przemyśl, Poland in 1920. He recalls apprenticing as a plumber from 1935 to 1939; Soviet occupation; German invasion in 1941; working as a plumber for the Germans; ghettoization; mass killings; witnessing many incidents when Josef Schwammberger, the German in charge of the ghetto, beat and killed Jews; his parent's deportation during the ghetto's liquidation; witnessing the last round-ups and killings of people who were hiding; deportation to another town; meeting his father; transfer to Auschwitz, then Birkenau, where he was selected as a mechanic; and separation from his father (he never saw him again). Mr. N. relates terrible conditions of labor in many concentration camps; the importance of his plumbing and mechanical skills to his survival; transfer to Mauthausen; Allied bombings; transfer to Ebensee; liberation by the American troops; his emotional depression and that of many other former prisoners upon realizing the extent of their losses; traveling to Munich with assistance from the Jewish Brigade; fleeing from Munich to Italy with help from an American Jewish officer; marriage; the birth of his first son in 1945; and emigration to the United States in 1948. This testimony includes many detailed incidents of ghetto and camp life and an account of testifying against Schwammberger at a war crime trial.

Author/Creator
N., Sam, 1920-
Published
Kansas City, Mo. : Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, Inc., 1994
Interview Date
April 26, 1994.
Locale
Poland
Przemyśl
Przemyśl (Poland)
Italy
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Sam N. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2411). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/1083423
Record last modified: 2018-05-30 11:32:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt1083423