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Jerry S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2311) interviewed by Allen M. Siegel,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2311

Videotape testimony of Jerry S., who was born in Siedlce, Poland in 1928 and raised in Otwock. He recalls the impoverished Jewish community; antisemitic harassment; German invasion; ghettoization; smuggling himself in and out of the ghetto to obtain food; traveling on trains as a Polish beggar; the deaths of his stepfather and brother; learning of the ghetto's liquidation (he never saw his mother or other brother again); entering the world of black marketeers and beggars, traveling by trains via Warsaw to Siedlce, Garwolin, and many towns and stations; fleeing from the Warsaw uprising of 1944; and liberation by Soviet troops. Mr. S. recounts reunion with a friend in Otwock; staying with a Polish family in Garwolin, then in a Jewish orphanage in Lublin; leaving the orphanage; moving from Warsaw to a kibbutz in Katowice, then displaced persons camps in Austria and Germany with assistance from Beriḥah; unsuccessful attempts to find relatives; and emigrating to the United States. He discusses struggling as a child to understand why he was different, alone, and hunted; the importance of his family; and a recent trip to Poland. Mr. S. details life on the run and incidents of near discovery and he shows photographs.

Author/Creator
S., Jerry, 1928-
Published
Wilmette, Ill. : Holocaust Education Foundation, 1992
Interview Date
May 31, 1992.
Locale
Poland
Otwock
Siedlce (Poland)
Otwock (Poland)
Warsaw (Poland)
Garwolin (Poland)
Lublin (Poland)
Katowice (Poland)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. master: and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Jerry S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2311). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.