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George S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2426) interviewed by Alberta Strage,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2426

Videotape testimony of George S., who was born in Vilna, Poland (presently Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1925. He recounts moving frequently due to his father's career in the Polish military; living in Kielce, then Warsaw; participating in Maccabi; attending public school; German invasion in 1939; no contact with his father; he and his mother remaining outside the ghetto, posing as non-Jews; his mother placing him in a boarding school for children of Polish military; observing her hiding Jews when he visited; imprisonment in Pawiak in 1943; refusing to divulge where his mother was (she had been betrayed by blackmailers and did not survive); deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; transfer a few months later to Mauthausen; slave labor in the quarry; remaining in the barrack when he gave up hope; being forced to return to work by others since he was endangering them; receiving a Red Cross package in spring 1944 after writing a form letter to his father; sharing the package with his supervisor, resulting in reassignment to easier factory work; encountering prisoners from other countries; liberation by United States troops in May 1945; others taking revenge on guards and kapos; hospitalization in Zurich; reunion with his father in Como, Italy; and their emigration to England.

Author/Creator
S., George, 1925-
Published
London, England : British Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1993
Interview Date
March 25, 1993.
Locale
Poland
Vilnius (Lithuania)
Kielce (Poland)
Warsaw (Poland)
Zurich (Switzerland)
Como (Italy)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
George S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2426). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.