- Summary
- Videotape testimony of David O., who was born in a Polish village in 1916, one of five children. He describes his orthodox childhood, attending a local public school and cheder; his bar mitzvah in 1929; attending yeshivahs in Kielce and Będzin; living on an orthodox hachsharah for a year, preparing to emigrate to Palestine; working in Olkusz; conscription into the Polish military in March 1939; German invasion six months later; capture by Germans; a Polish farmer informing him Jews were being sent away; escaping with assistance from the farmer; returning home; his mother's death in 1941; hiding with a Polish family for one night; round-up to Słomniki; transport with his brother to Rzeszów in 1942 (he never saw his father or sisters again); slave labor in a factory; receiving food from non-Jewish civilian workers; transfer to Kraków, then Ostrowiec; his brother's death; transfer to Auschwitz/Birkenau in 1944; a death march to Mauthausen, Gusen, then Gunskirchen; liberation by United States troops; recuperating in an American hospital in Wels; living with a cousin in a displaced persons camp; emigration to join an uncle in the United States in 1949; and marriage to a survivor. Mr. O. discusses the importance to his survival of not losing hope; reluctance to share his experiences with his children; and missing the orthodoxy of his childhood. He shows photographs.
- Author/Creator
- O., David, 1916-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1987
- Interview Date
- November 22, 1987.
- Locale
- Poland
Kielce (Poland)
Będzin (Poland)
Olkusz (Poland)
Słomniki (Poland)
Wels (Austria)
- Cite As
- David O. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-963). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Neumann, Susanna, interviewer.
Eger, Jane, interviewer.
