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Rolf W. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1724) interviewed by Brana Gurewitsch,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1724

Videotape testimony of Rolf W., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1912. He recounts his assimilated family's affluence; his parents' divorce; attending gymnasium; business training in Breslau, Düsseldorf, Berlin, and Bremen; termination because he was Jewish; working in his father's business in Auerbach; his father's death in 1934; economic and social problems resulting from the Nuremberg laws; returning to Berlin; a warning about Kristallnacht; hiding with his brother's friend; obtaining immigration papers for San Salvador from his half-brother who was there; his brother's emigration to the United States; joining him; military draft in spring 1942; training as an interrogator in the United States and England; assignment to the 7th Army; interrogating German prisoners in Blâmont; moving to Augsburg; interrogating and accompanying Hermann Göring; transfer to Nuremberg; heading the translation division working with the Soviets; taking command of his unit in May 1946; and working with the defendants, trial staff, and in the courtroom until 1947. Mr. W. discusses episodes with many Nazi defendants; the Einsatzgruppen trial (only four of fourteen death sentences were ever carried out); testifying concerning documents at the request of Judge Michael Musmanno; and indelible memories of obvious murderers. He shows photographs and documents.

Author/Creator
W., Rolf, 1912-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1990
Interview Date
November 19, 1990.
Locale
Germany
Berlin (Germany)
Wrocław (Poland)
Düsseldorf (Germany)
Bremen (Germany)
Auerbach (Saxony, Germany : Landkreis)
San Salvador (El Salvador)
Blâmont (Meurthe-et-Moselle, France)
Augsburg (Germany)
Nuremberg (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Rolf W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1724). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4296008
Record last modified: 2018-06-04 13:28:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4296008