Akiva K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2715) interviewed by Brana Gurewitsch,
Videotape testimony of Akiva K., who was born in Katowice, Poland in 1929. He describes his affluent family; antisemitic incidents; moving to Warsaw shortly before German invasion; returning to Katowice; his father traveling to the Soviet-occupied zone; living with his grandmother in Wolbrom; his bar mitzvah; moving to Sosnowiec; participating in No'ar ha-Tsiyoni; staying in a village with his father; returning to his mother in Sosnowiec; being protected from deportation by a doctor who lived with his mother; ghettoization; hiding in a bunker; obtaining false papers; a futile escape attempt; smuggling themselves to the Kamionka ghetto; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; remaining with his mother's friend (he eventually perished); falsifying his age; forced labor; public executions; helping a friend smuggle food; a death march and train transport to Althammer, then Mauthausen; cannibalism; transfer to Gunskirchen; and liberation by United States troops. Mr. K. recounts living in Wels displaced persons camp; illegally traveling to Italy with the Jewish Brigade; emigration to Palestine; detention by the British; fighting in the Israeli War of Independence; emigration to the United States in 1958; marriage; and sharing parts of his story with his children. He shows photographs, documents and his belt worn during the war.
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-New York Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1993
- Interview Date
- November 23, 1993.
- Locale
- Poland
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie)
Italy
Katowice (Poland)
Warsaw (Poland)
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
Wolbrom (Poland)
Palestine - Language
-
English
- Copies
- 2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
- Cite As
- Akiva K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2715). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
-
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4288710
Record last modified: 2018-05-29 11:58:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4288710