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Jack S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-435) interviewed by Janet Hadda and Morris Beckwitt,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-435

Videotape testimony of Jack S., who was born in Janów, Poland in 1923. He recalls his mother's death in 1935; moving to Będzin in 1938; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions; the role of the Judenrat and Moshe Merin; learning about the extermination camps; avoiding deportations with assistance from non-Jews; moving into the ghetto with his family; public execution of Jewish police; his brother's deportation to Auschwitz for underground activities in April 1943; his father's deportation to Auschwitz; acquiring false papers through an underground Zionist movement; deportation of the Judenrat; hiding with his sister and niece in a bunker; their discovery and deportation to Auschwitz; separation from his sister upon arrival; selections in Birkenau; slave labor at a Krupp factory in Marksta̤dt; witnessing cannibalism on the death march to Gross-Rosen in February 1945; transfer to Buchenwald; a death march to Flossenbürg in April 1945; assistance from friends who were posing as Poles; and liberation by United States troops during a death march toward Munich. Mr. S. describes recovering in a hospital; returning to Będzin in July 1945; reunion with his brother; living in a Jewish community in Bavaria; and emigrating to the United States.

Author/Creator
S., Jack, 1923-
Published
Los Angeles, Calif. : UCLA Holocaust Documentation Archives, 1984
Interview Date
January 29, 1984.
Locale
Poland
Będzin
Janów Lubelski (Poland)
Będzin (Poland)
Gross-Rosen (Germany : Concentration camp)
Bavaria (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Jack S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-435). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.