- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Paul S., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1926. Mr. S. recounts his father's early prominence as a Russian Bolshevik; losing favor; his emigration to Germany; his mother's death during his birth; his family's emigration to Juan-les-Pins in 1933; a secular childhood (he was not circumcised); moving to Paris; completing high school; arrest in 1943; transfer to Drancy; forming close friendships; an intense social life in Drancy; deportation to Auschwitz two weeks later, then to Monowitz; the head kapo favoring him due to his fluent German (he saved his life six times); losing contact with his friends; slave labor for I. G. Farben; exhaustion, cold, and humiliation; hospitalization for hepatitis (from the tattooing); his best friend's death; continuing ailments; assistance from a prisoner nurse and doctor; placement in a convalescent room; close relations with other French men in that room; discussions of music and poetry; passing a test for assignment to the chemists' unit; a beating for speaking to English POWs; his privileged status; a death march to Gleiwitz in January 1945; train transport in open cars to Buchenwald; Czechs throwing them food from overpasses; briefly losing hope; assistance from German political prisoners; removing his identification as a Jew to avoid further transports; liberation by United States troops; traveling to Longuyon, then Paris; and processing at Hotel Lutetia.
Mr. S. discusses prisoners killing a kapo from Monowitz in Buchenwald; scars and illnesses resulting from the camps; nightmares when he was ill; surviving due to many “miracles”; the camps as a parallel universe with its own logic; the importance of adapting quickly, which was easier for younger people; the breakdown of human relationships when survival becomes paramount; the persistence of hope despite the certainty of death; adjusting to normal life after the war; non-survivors' disinclination to hear about the camps; reluctance to share his experiences, even with his children; current media attention on the Holocaust; writing about his experiences; and their permanent psychological effects.
- Author/Creator
- S., Paul, 1926-
- Published
- Paris, France : Témoignages pour mémoire, 1995
- Interview Date
- March 9, 1995.
- Locale
- Poland
Germany
Berlin (Germany)
Paris (France)
Juan-les-Pins (France)
Longuyon (France)
- Cite As
- Paul S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3229). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Zarka, Josette, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Related publication: Chronique d'ailleurs : récit / Paul Steinberg. -- Paris : Ramsay, 1996.
Related publication: [Chronique d'ailleurs. English] Speak you also : a memoir / Paul Steinberg ; translated by Linda Coverdale. -- New York : Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Co., c2000.
This testimony is in French.
