Leon W. Holocaust testimony (HVT-268) interviewed by Syd Mandelbaum

Videotape testimony of Leon W., who was born in Zwola, Poland in 1919. He recounts his father's bakery business; attending yeshiva until age thirteen; destruction of the town in the German invasion; living briefly with relatives in Radom; returning home; Germans killing Jews; escaping to a forest with his younger brother; working for a Polish engineer; returning home; deportation with his brother to Skarżysko-Kamienna in fall 1942; encountering his sister once and giving her bread; being sent to Majdanek to bring back clothing for the prisoners; deciding against escaping, fearing his brother would be killed in retribution; transfer with his brother to Buchenwald, then Schlieben; slave labor in a quarry, then an ammunition factory; obtaining extra food for his brother when he was sick, with assistance from a German prisoner; a death march in winter 1945; escaping with his brother and two others at the Czech border; assistance from a local farmer; liberation by Soviet troops; hospitalization; continuing help from the Czech farmer; traveling to Prague, Plzeň, then Munich; reunion with a sister and another brother; living in the Stuttgart displaced persons camp; and emigrating to the United States in 1947. Mr. W. notes sharing his story with his children.