Irwin W. Holocaust testimony (HVT-661)

Videotape testimony of Irwin W., who was born in Sladkow Maly, Poland in 1920. He recalls a difficult, but socially rich, life; ghettoization; escaping from a mass killing with his brother; hiding with farmers; joining the Polish underground as a non-Jew; leaving when exposure was imminent; entering Kielce concentration camp; forced labor for HASAG; sabotaging production; transfer to Częstochowa; evacuation to Buchenwald, then Stassfurt; working in coal mines; being abandoned by the guards on a death march in Czechoslovakia; attempting to enlist in the Soviet army; rejection due to ill health; returning to Częstochowa, Chmielnik, and Kielce to seek family members; leaving his hometown to avoid antisemitic violence; learning two sisters had survived; finding one and seeking the other in many cities; living in Berlin, Munich, and a displaced persons camp; and emigration to the United States. Mr. W. discusses many incidents in hiding, the camps, and after the war, and notes frequent nightmares as a consequence of his experiences.