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Abraham S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2250) interviewed by Bonnie Dwork and Kathy Strochlic,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2250

Videotape testimony of Abraham S., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1929. He recalls his secular home; German invasion; moving to his father's hometown of Radoszyce; difficulties adjusting to orthodoxy and shtetl life; their return to Łódź; ghettoization; his father's privileged status as a factory director; horrendous physical and psychological effects of the starvation; escaping a round-up due to his father's position; deportation to Auschwitz with his family in August 1944; separation from his brother and mother (he never saw them again); remaining with his father; pretending to be older to avoid selection; the smell of burning flesh; their transfer to Kaufering; forced labor; transfer to Dachau; his father's death; transfer to several camps; escape from a train with his uncle; capture; incarceration in Landsberg; liberation by United States troops; his uncle's death; recovering in Gauting tuberculosis sanitarium, then an ORT facility; and emigration to the United States. Mr. S. discusses becoming hardened from his experience, but teaching his children to care for others and take moral stances; his stroke at age forty-one which doctors ascribe to his camp experiences; reluctance to share his experiences with his children; and testifying at the trial of Kaufering's Kommandant. He shows photographs and documents.

Author/Creator
S., Abraham, 1929-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1992
Interview Date
December 7, 1992.
Locale
Poland
Łódź
Germany
Łódź (Poland)
Radoszyce (Poland)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Abraham S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2250). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.