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Jack Y. Holocaust testimony (HVT-332) interviewed by Zev Harel,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-332

Videotape testimony of Jack Y., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1926. He recalls his traditional family; German invasion; his father's brief flight to Warsaw; ghettoization; forced factory labor; hiding his younger brother during round-ups; pervasive starvation, disease, and deaths; deportation to Auschwitz in 1944; separation from his parents and brothers; transfer to Oberbayern soon after; slave labor repairing bombing damage; transfer to Buchenwald, then Theresienstadt; liberation by the Red Cross and Soviet troops; learning his father was alive; their reunion in Łódź; his father's remarriage; smuggling himself to Germany; living in Landsberg displaced persons camp; emigration to the United States in June 1949; marriage in 1950 to a woman he met on the ship to the U.S.; and discovering, when his father visited, that his father's wife and his own wife were bunk mates in a concentration camp. Mr. Y. discusses constant fear in the ghetto; learning sixteen years after the war that one of his brothers had survived; health problems resulting from beatings in camps; pervasive painful memories and nightmares; sharing his experiences with his children; participating in survivor organizations; and encouraging respect for every human.

Author/Creator
Y., Jack, 1926-
Published
Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984
Interview Date
August 7, 1984.
Locale
Poland
Łódź
Łódź (Poland)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Jack Y. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-332). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.