- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Kurt M., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1915. He recalls his excellent education prior to 1933; Hitler's ascent to power; anti-Jewish restrictions barring him from university; cantorial training; teaching in a Jewish school; the trauma of Kristallnacht; deportation to Theresienstadt in 1943; conducting religious services; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in fall 1944 (he later learned his wife volunteered to follow him); remaining with his brother; observing prisoners trampling another prisoner to death because he had sent others to their deaths; the stench of burning humans; transfer with his brother to Golleschau a week later; slave labor in a quarry; public hangings; singing Yiddish songs; the death march in January 1945; train transport to Sachsenhausen, then Flossenbürg; his transfer to Traunstein (he never saw his brother again); walking away from a death march; traveling to Munich; learning his wife had survived; employment conducting religious services for radio broadcast; and working as a cantor in the United States from 1951 to 1985. Mr. M. discusses times of severe psychological stress in camps and a recent trip to Berlin.
- Author/Creator
- M., Kurt, 1915-
- Published
- Auburn, Me. : Holocaust Human Rights Center of Maine, 1987
- Interview Date
- November 18, 1987.
- Locale
- Germany
Berlin (Germany)
Munich (Germany)
- Cite As
- Kurt M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1172). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Meyer, M., interviewer.
Lipstadt, H., interviewer.
Haas, Gerda, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Associated material: Sonja M. Holocaust testimony [wife] (HVT-1173), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.