Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Willy F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2844) interviewed by Henri Borlant and Rachel Wieviorka,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2844

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)
Language
French
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Willy F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2844). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4288941
Record last modified: 2018-05-30 11:44:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4288941