- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Moshe B., who was born in Działoszyce, Poland in 1921, one of five children. Mr. B. recounts participating in a Zionist youth group; moving to Kraków; German invasion; fleeing east with his brother and friends; hiding in Leżajsk; returning to Kraków; visiting his family in Działoszyce; creating false papers for Jewish women to use as Polish forced laborers in Germany; working in Kraków; sending packages to his family; attending clandestine Zionist meetings; returning to Działoszyce; establishment of a Judenrat; deportation to Miechów; remaining with two brothers when separated from his family (they were deported to Bełżec); transfer to Prokocim, then a nearby camp; slave labor breaking coal; a supervisor sharing food; transfer to another camp; escaping; returning to Działoszyce; hiding in a bunker; returning to Kraków; hiding with a non-Jewish friend; and joining his brothers in the labor camp.
Mr. B. recalls transfer to Płaszów; sneaking into the Kraków ghetto to meet with the underground; slave labor in a construction unit; his older brother giving him extra food; Amon Goeth's brutality; public executions; a group Yom Kippur service; disinterring corpses from mass graves to be burned; living in the same barrack as Itzhak Stern and his brother; he and his brothers being placed on Schindler's list; transfer of the men on the list to Rogoznica, then Brünnlitz; improved conditions; writing a document to protect Schindler when he left them; liberation by Soviet troops; others trying and executing a kapo; assistance from local Czechs; traveling to Prague; assistance from the Red Cross; passing though Mauthausen, Gusen, and Ebensee seeking other survivors; placement in the Spittal an der Drau refugee camp; contact with the Jewish Brigade; entering Italy with their assistance; living in the Brigade's camp in Pontebba; working with Mordechai Surkis and Abba Kovner in Mogliano organizing Beriḥah immigration to Palestine; and illegal immigration from Bari by ship to Palestine. Mr. B. discusses the importance of hope to his survival; organizational aspects of the camps; becoming a lawyer; Israeli ignorance and lack of understanding of survivor experiences; testifying at the Eichmann trial; and continuing contact with Schindler.
- Author/Creator
- B., Moshe, 1921-2007.
- Published
- Tel Aviv, Israel : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1986-1990
- Interview Date
- December 25, 1986, February 13, 1987, March 26, 1987, and February 1, 1990.
- Locale
- Poland
Kraków
Israel
Działoszyce (Poland)
Leżajsk (Poland)
Kraków (Poland)
Miechów (Miechów, Poland)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Pontebba (Italy)
Mogliano (Italy)
Bari (Italy)
Palestine
- Cite As
- Moshe B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1832). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Beyrak, Nathan, interviewer.
Tarsi, Anita, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Hebrew.
