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Leopold P. Holocaust testimony (HVT-433) interviewed by Florabel Kinsler and Arnold J. Band,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-433

Videotape testimony of Leopold P., who was born in Kraków, Poland in 1913. He recalls his large, extended family; Jewish life in Kraków; working as a high school teacher; helping Jews expelled from Germany after Hitler came to power; serving as an officer in the Polish army; German invasion; capture and escape to Kraków from a prisoner of war transport in October 1939; anti-Jewish restrictions; meeting Oskar Schindler; choosing not to escape from the ghetto because of his wife; an encounter with Amon Goeth when the ghetto was liquidated; brutality and frequent killings in Płaszów; a German soldier who provided food for him and his wife and helped them get on "Schindler's list"; sabotaging manufacturing in Brněnec with Schindler's complicity; and overpowering the guards prior to liberation by Soviet troops. Mr. P. recounts traveling to Budapest, then Germany; working for UNRRA in Munich; and emigrating with his wife to the United States in 1947. He discusses the importance of an optimistic attitude and luck to his survival, participating in Holocaust survivors' organizations, and his role in the writing of Thomas Keneally's "Schindler's List." Mr. P. details many instances of Schindler and his wife protecting Jews.

Author/Creator
P., Leopold, 1913-
Published
Los Angeles, Calif. : UCLA Holocaust Documentation Archives, 1984
Interview Date
October 21, 1984.
Locale
Poland
Kraków
Kraków (Poland)
Budapest (Hungary)
Munich (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Leopold P. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-433). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/1100260
Record last modified: 2018-06-04 13:27:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt1100260