- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Mordechay W., who was born in Żarki, Poland in 1922, one of six children. He recalls increasing antisemitism in the 30s; participation in Hashomer Hatzair; German invasion; escaping to Pilica during a round-up; forced transfer to the Radomsko ghetto; escaping with one brother to Częstochowa; smuggling themselves into the ghetto; working with the resistance, including Mordecai Anielewicz; hiding in a bunker; discovery; slave labor at the HASAG factory; deportation to Buchenwald in January 1945; hiding among French and Polish prisoners; transfer to Theresienstadt; liberation by Soviet troops; assistance from the Red Cross; returning to Sosnowiec, Poland; reunion with a sister; learning the rest of his family had been killed; traveling to Italy; preparing for illegal emigration to Palestine in Bari and Rome; assistance from the Joint; meeting his future wife in Genoa; boarding an illegal ship; incarceration on Cyprus by the British; marriage; his daughter's birth in 1954; traveling to Sachsenhausen in 1961 as a guest of East Germany; visiting Buchenwald and Warsaw; and moving to Berlin. Mr. W. discusses many incidents of resistance; assistance from non-Jews; the prisoner organization in Buchenwald; repressiveness in East Germany; and visiting his hometown with his daughter and grandchildren. He shows photographs.
- Author/Creator
- W., Mordechay, 1922-
- Published
- Potsdam, Germany : Moses Mendelsohn Zentrum für europäisch-jüdische Studien, Universität Potsdam, 1996
- Interview Date
- March 7, 1996.
- Locale
- Poland
Radomsko
Częstochowa
Żarki (Poland)
Pilica (Poland)
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
Bari (Italy)
Rome (Italy)
Genoa (Italy)
Cyprus
Berlin (Germany)
Warsaw (Poland)
Palestine
- Cite As
- Mordechay W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3423). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Lipphardt, Anna, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in German.
