- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Kurt W., who was born in Würzburg, Germany in 1920, raised in Weikersheim until 1922, then in Ostróda. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; cordial relations with non-Jews; membership in Die Falken, the Social Democratic Party youth group; antisemitic harassment in school beginning in 1933; completing high school in 1935; moving to Breslau (Wrocław) for a masonry apprenticeship; his younger sister being sent on a kindertransport to the United States in 1937; his father's arrest in 1938, his release upon promising to emigrate; destruction on Kristallnacht, including burning of the synagogue he attended; moving to Berlin; his parents joining him; obtaining financial support and assistance from the Jewish Hilfsverein; obtaining visas for Uruguay in Turin; emigration with his parents to Montevideo in December 1938; joining a German anti-fascist group; emigrating to Houston, Texas in 1947; reunion with his sister; marriage to a German emigrée; contacts with the local Communist Party; incurring his relatives' anger for joining strikers at his uncle's company where he was employed; his relatives alerting authorities resulting in his and his wife's deportation in 1951 for their Communist Party contacts; and settling in Hamburg. Mr. W. discusses ceasing to be orthodox after the war, and identifying as both a German and a Jew. He shows documents.
- Author/Creator
- W., Kurt, 1920-
- Published
- Potsdam, Germany : Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum für europäisch-jüdische Studien, Universität Potsdam, 1995
- Interview Date
- June 22, 1995.
- Locale
- Germany
Würzburg (Germany)
Weikersheim (Germany)
Ostróda (Poland)
Wrocław (Poland)
Berlin (Germany)
Turin (Italy)
Montevideo (Uruguay)
Houston (Tex.)
- Cite As
- Kurt W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3124). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Preisler, Maximilian, interviewer.
Gelbin, Cathy S., interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in German.
