Overview
- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Mayer B., who was born in approximately 1921 and lived in Kraków, Poland. He describes attending public school; pervasive antisemitism; active participation in Akiva; German invasion; his family selling their belongings to get food; forced labor; ghettoization; transfer to a labor camp at the airport (his parents and brothers remained in the ghetto); transfer to Schindler's factory; transfer to Płaszów, then Mauthausen, in 1944; slave labor in a quarry; transfer a month later to Linz III-Kleinmünchen; working in a tank factory; happiness at Allied bombings; working with Russian, French, and American POWs; liberation in May 1945; hospitalization; living in a displaced persons camp near Linz; assistance from UNRRA; working for the Joint in Linz; attending the Dachau trial as a potential witness (he did not testify); and emigration to the United States in 1949. Mr. B. discusses losing hope in the camps; attributing his survival to luck; not feeling defined by his Judaism as he did before the war; not sharing his experiences; and frequent nightmares.
- Published
- Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984
- Interview Date
- August 9, 1984.
- Locale
- Poland
Kraków
Austria
Germany
Linz (Austria)
Kraków (Poland) - Cite As
- Mayer B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-338). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Copies
- 2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
- Physical Description
- 1 videorecording (1 hr., 43 min.) : col
Keywords & Subjects
- Subjects (Local Yale)
- Antisemitism Prewar.
Zionist organizations.
Youth movements.
Mutual aid.
Postwar experiences.
Postwar effects. - Subjects
- Holocaust survivors. Video tapes. Men. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish. Jewish ghettos. Jews--Poland--Kraków. Forced labor. Prisoners of war--Austria. Concentration camps--Psychological aspects. Refugee camps. War crime trials--Germany. Dachau Trial, Dachau, Germany, 1946. Nightmares. Identification (Religion) Linz (Austria) Kraków (Poland) Oral histories (document genres) B., Mayer,--1921?- Płaszów (Concentration camp) Mauthausen (Concentration camp) American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
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/4293576
- Record last modified:
- 2018-06-04 13:25:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4293576
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