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Leslie R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-380) interviewed by Michael Greenwald,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-380

Videotape testimony of Leslie R., who was born in approximately 1925, in Oradea, Romania. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; antisemitic harassment in school; Hungarian occupation; his brother's conscription into a slave labor battalion; ghettoization in May 1944; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in June; separation from his mother and sister (he never saw them again); separation from his father (he never saw him again); slave labor in a munitions factory; a black market in his barrack with prisoners from other kommandos; his group of seven friends from Oradea; stealing food as a group; evening cultural gatherings; the Sonderkommando uprising; public hanging of women who were involved; the death march in January 1945; two from his group dying; transfer in open train cars to Gross-Rosen; transfer to Flossenbürg, then Pocking; and liberation by United States troops. Mr. R. discusses inter-group relations; prisoners organizing themselves in camps; and the importance of his friends to his survival.

Author/Creator
R., Leslie, 1925?-
Published
Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984
Interview Date
August 2, 1984.
Locale
Romania
Oradea
Oradea (Romania)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Leslie R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-380). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.