- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Willy F., who was born in Działoszyce, Poland in 1928. He describes his parents' move to a small village to run a business; remaining with his grandparents and siblings so they could attend Jewish schools; his parents' return due to antisemitic violence; their move to Sosnowiec in 1936; traveling to Działoszyce with his grandmother in 1939; German invasion; food shortages; his parents' and brother's return (his sister remained in Sosnowiec); hiding with his family during a round-up; joining an uncle in Pinczów; briefly returning to Działoszyce; fleeing to Wodzisław, then the Kraków ghetto; slave labor with his father and cousin doing construction; transfer to Płaszów; his father's death in May 1943; he and his cousin helping each other when they had typhus; transfer to Skarżysko-Kamienna; slave labor in a HASAG munitions factory; turning yellow from the picric acid; hiding to avoid difficult labor; transfer to Buchenwald; hospitalization; assistance from a prisoner physician and Norwegian prisoners; liberation by United States troops; transfer to an OSE home in Ecouis via Metz and Paris; and learning his mother, brother, and sister and her child did not survive. Mr. F. discusses camp hierarchies; surviving due to help from others and “stealing”; annual visits with his wife, son, and grandchildren to his cousin in Israel; and visiting Poland several times. He sings camp songs.
- Author/Creator
- F., Willy, 1928-
- Published
- Paris, France : Témoignages pour mémoire, 1994
- Interview Date
- March 18, 1994.
- Locale
- Poland
Kraków
Działoszyce (Poland)
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
Pińczów (Województwo Świętokrzyskie, Poland)
Wodzisław (Poland)
Metz (France)
Ecouis (France)
Paris (France)
- Cite As
- Willy F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2844). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Borlant, Henri, interviewer.
Wieviorka, Rachel, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.