Léon K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2651) interviewed by Berthe Burko and Annette Wieviorka,

Videotape testimony of Léon K., who was born in Lotte, Germany in 1911. He recalls moving to Paris in 1933; difficulties with his citizenship status starting in 1934; enlisting in the French military in 1941; German invasion; returning to Paris after the armistice; deportation to Pithiviers in May; playing chess and sharing food packages among his group; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in June 1942; slave labor doing various jobs; public hangings; assistance from a prisoner-doctor when he was ill; observing corpses everywhere; a death march, then train transport to Ebensee; transfer to Mauthausen; liberation in May 1945; hospitalization in France; marriage, his daughter's birth; and becoming blind. Mr. K. discusses not understanding how he survived the severe conditions he experienced; the total randomness of survival; not trusting anyone due to his experiences; and not sharing them with anyone, including his daughter, when she asked.