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Henry E. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1250) interviewed by Anne Kaplan and Bernard Weinstein,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1250

Videotape testimony of Henry E., who was born in 1919 in Kraków, Poland, the youngest of three children. He recounts attending cheder; his father's death when he was nine; attending public school, then a Jewish high school; participating in a Zionist youth group; increasing antisemitism; German invasion; fleeing briefly to Lublin; returning home; ghettoization; forced labor; a Pole hiding his mother during a selection; learning his brother and his children had been killed while in hiding; his sister's deportation with her children (he never saw them again); his mother's deportation; his deportation to Płaszów; public hangings; becoming emotionally numb; transfer to Dresden; slave labor in a factory; Allied bombings; a cousin and friend helping him on the death march to Theresienstadt in February 1945; liberation by Soviet troops in May; walking to Prague; hospitalization; reunion with his fiancée; marriage; traveling to Plzeň, then Munich; and emigration to the United States. Mr. E. notes the murder of almost all his extended family; sharing his experiences with his children; attributing his survival to luck; and a recent visit to Kraków.

Author/Creator
E., Henry, 1919-
Published
Union, N.J. : Kean College Oral Testimonies Project, 1988
Interview Date
October 19, 1988.
Locale
Poland
Kraków
Kraków (Poland)
Lublin (Poland)
Dresden (Germany)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Plzeň (Czech Republic)
Munich (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
4 copies: 3/4 in. dub; Betacam SP Restoration master; Betacam SP Restoration submaster; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Henry E. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1250). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.