- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Herman H., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1924. He recounts that his parents were divorced; living with his mother; attending public school until 1935; transferring to a Jewish school due to anti-Jewish laws; destruction of his mother's furniture store on Kristallnacht; being sent with his younger brother to an uncle in Brussels; living with relatives in Antwerp, Brunoy, then being returned to Antwerp; learning his mother had emigrated to England and his father to Palestine; German invasion in 1940; he and his brother living on their own; being caught in a round-up in 1942; his brother's escape; forced labor on France's Atlantic coast for Organisation Todt; hospitalization in Boulogne; deportation to Auschwitz via Malines; attending brick-laying school; working in a Krupp factory; trading with Polish workers for food and cigarettes; a privileged job as a mechanic; smuggling letters between male and female prisoners; trading with Polish civilian workers for food and sharing it with others; women smuggling explosives to the Sonderkommando that blew up a crematorium; a death march and train transport to Gross-Rosen in January 1945; transfer to Bolkenhain; a death march to Wrocław, then train transport to Buchenwald; life-saving assistance from prisoners who ran the camp; liberation by United States troops; hospitalization in Weimar; returning to Brussels; assistance from the Joint and HIAS; reunion with his brother; emigrating to join relatives in the United States; and marriage. Mr. H. notes having nightmares for several years after the war and his daughters' current interest in his experiences. He shows photographs and documents.
- Author/Creator
- H., Herman, 1924-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1991
- Interview Date
- May 22, 1990.
- Locale
- Germany
Berlin (Germany)
Brussels (Belgium)
Brunoy (France)
Antwerp (Belgium)
Boulogne-sur-Mer (France)
Wrocław (Poland)
Weimar (Thuringia, Germany)
- Cite As
- Herman H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2083). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Strochlic, Kathy, interviewer.