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Gabriel D. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1082) interviewed by Dina Choshen and Nathan Beyrak,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1082

Videotape testimony of Gabriel D., who was born in Hradec Králové, Czechoslovakia in 1922. He recalls his father's death in 1935; moving to Prague in 1936; participation in Maccabi, a Zionist youth group; German occupation; his brother's and sister's emigration; his mother's death; living in a Maccabi commune; volunteering for deportation to Theresienstadt in November 1941 in order to be with his friends; overcrowding and starvation; deportations resulting in separation trauma; secret Maccabi meetings; cultural and educational activities; working as a gardener; participating in theater productions despite painful hunger; sham improvements for a Red Cross visit and Nazi filming; providing flowers for Eichmann from the garden; organizing a lending library; an unsuccessful attempt to establish an underground; organizing help for the elderly with his friends; contacts with Leo Baeck; keeping a diary (recovered after the war); and deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in October 1944. Mr. D. describes meaningless slave labor; transfer to Gleiwitz; the death march to Blechhammer; hiding during the evacuation; being discovered; posing as dead during a mass killing; receiving food from an escaped British POW and Soviet troops; and traveling to Katowice, Częstochowa, and Košice. He discusses cultural life and organization of Terezín; his state of mind; the importance of friendship; and sharing his diary with his son.

Author/Creator
D., Gabriel, 1922-
Published
Ramat Aviv, Israel : Beth Hatefutsoth, Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, 1984
Interview Date
October 8, 1984.
Locale
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Hradec Králové (Czech Republic)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Katowice (Poland)
Częstochowa (Poland)
Košice (Slovakia)
Language
Hebrew
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Gabriel D. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1082). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4283193
Record last modified: 2018-05-30 11:44:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4283193