Overview
- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Rudolf R., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922. He recounts his father's service in World War I; his ardent German patriotism which resulted in him minimizing the Nazi threat; anti-Jewish laws and harassment; his bar mitzvah; temporary improvement during the 1936 Olympics; expulsion from school; assistance from non-Jews on Kristallnacht; his sister's emigration to England in August 1939; forced labor on farms with his brother; being returned to Berlin in 1942; their deportation to Auschwitz; learning his parents had preceded them; slave labor for I.G. Farben in Buna/Monowitz; a German prisoner saving him from selection while in the hospital after a severe beating; public hangings; greater difficulties for non-German speakers; losing his belief in God; an Allied bombing in 1944; his brother's shooting during the death march to Gleiwitz in January 1945; train transfer to Dora/Nordhausen/Ellrich; posing as a non-Jewish German during train transfer to Oranienburg/Sachsenhausen; liberation by Soviet troops; assistance from the Red Cross; and working for the government. Mr. R. discusses surviving due to luck; details of camp life; sharing his story with his wife and son; nightmares; his wife influencing him to return to Judaism; a negative experience testifying at a war crimes trial; and his son's social isolation due to his experiences.
- Published
- Potsdam, Germany : Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum für europäisch-jüdische Studien, Universität Potsdam, 1995
- Interview Date
- November 23, 1995.
- Locale
- Germany
Berlin (Germany) - Cite As
- Rudolf R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3415). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in German.
Physical Details
- Language
- German
- Copies
- 2 copies: Betacam SP dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
- Physical Description
- 1 videorecording (4 hr., 30 min.) : col
Keywords & Subjects
- Subjects (Local Yale)
- Postwar experiences.
Postwar effects.
Survivor-child relations.
Mutual aid.
Hospitals in concentration camps.
Crystal Night, 1938.
Aid by non-Jews.
Antisemitism Prewar.
Child survivors. - Subjects
- Olympic Games--(11th :--1936 :--Berlin, Germany) Holocaust survivors. Video tapes. Men. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish. World War, 1939-1945--Children. Kristallnacht, 1938. Faith. Bar mitzvah. Forced labor. Brothers. World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities. Concentration camps--Psychological aspects. Concentration camps--Sociological aspects. Death marches. War crime trials--Germany. Germany. Berlin (Germany) Oral histories (document genres) Nightmares. R., Rudolf,--1922- Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Monowitz (Concentration camp) Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft. Nordhausen (Concentration camp) Dora (Concentration camp) Ellrich (Concentration camp) Oranienburg (Concentration camp) Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp) International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Special Collection
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Link to Yale University Library Catalog:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4291642
- Record last modified:
- 2018-05-30 11:33:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4291642
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