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Martin K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2241) interviewed by Joni-Sue Blinderman,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2241

Videotape testimony of Martin K., who was born in Hrubieszów, Poland in 1925. He recalls his father's death in 1939; German invasion; brief Soviet occupation (one sister left with Soviet troops); German return; mass killings; forced labor; hiding with his family in a bunker during a round-up in fall 1942; leaving after a local woman discovered them (he never saw his mother and siblings again); hiding on a farm; returning to Hrubieszów; assistance from a non-Jewish neighbor; seeing corpses everywhere; months of forced labor in a burial detail; transfer to Budzyń in October 1943, then Mielec; working at the Heinkel factory; transfer to Wieliczka, then Flossenbürg via Auschwitz; a whipping from which he still suffers; the death march in April 1945; and liberation by United States troops in Pasing. Mr. K. recounts staying with a German family; relocation to Hattersheim; working for U.S. occupation forces in Frankfurt; living in Zeilsheim displaced persons camp; communication from his sister who was in Israel; preparing for emigration to Israel in Italy; emigration to the United States in 1947; marriage; visiting Poland with his wife and daughter; and continuing contact with the Pole who helped him. He shows photographs and documents.

Author/Creator
K., Martin, 1925-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1992
Interview Date
December 8, 1992.
Locale
Poland
Hrubieszów (Poland)
Pasing (Germany)
Hattersheim (Germany)
Italy
Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Martin K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2241). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.