- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Harold K., who was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1920. He recalls his impoverished home; their orthodoxy; leaving school to begin working at age twelve; Polish antisemitism; German invasion; a public hanging of Jews; forced labor as a bricklayer in Katowice; transfer to a labor camp; arrest while visiting home; release and transfer to Annaberg, which he helped build; Allied bombardments; Yom Kippur services; his privileged status as a bricklayer; visiting his family in the Sosnowiec ghetto; transfer to Auschwitz in June 1944, then to Birkenau and Gleiwitz; a death march in December 1944; train transport to Oranienburg (about twenty percent of those who left Gleiwitz survived); transfer to another camp; digging tunnels for airplane factories; transfer to Dachau; liberation by United States troops; selling food and material provided by an American officer; living in Munich; returning briefly to Sosnowiec (neither his parents nor siblings survived); marriage to a survivor; and emigration in 1949 to the United States with assistance from HIAS. Mr. K. discusses the importance of luck to his survival; being treated well by Americans at liberation; painful memories of total humiliation; and sharing his experiences with his children and grandchildren.
- Author/Creator
- K., Harold, 1920-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1992
- Interview Date
- May 14, 1992.
- Locale
- Poland
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie)
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
Katowice (Poland)
Munich (Germany)
- Cite As
- Harold K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2040). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Rappaport, Naomi, interviewer.