Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Alter W. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1729) interviewed by Jane Eger and Pam Goodman,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1729

Videotape testimony of Alter W., who was born in Chrzanów, Poland in 1926. He recalls his family's affluence; his mother's death when he was four; his father's remarriage; antisemitic harassment; German invasion; fleeing east with his stepmother, older brother, and younger half-brother; returning home three months later (his father had disappeared in their absence); finding his father's corpse when it was exhumed from a mass grave; his older brother's deportation in 1941; his deportation to Blechhammer; meeting his brother there; slave labor; transfer to Brande; separation from his brother (he never saw him again); slave labor on the Reichsautobahn; transfer to Gross Masselwitz, Klettendorf, then Waldenburg; a German civilian worker bringing him extra food; contemplating suicide; liberation by Soviet troops in May 1945; recuperating in a sanatorium; returning home; learning three cousins from his family of 120 had survived; illegally traveling to Italy with assistance from the Jewish brigade; illegal emigration to Palestine; imprisonment by the British; military service in the 1948 war; marriage in 1952; the births of two sons; and emigration to the United States in 1960. Mr. W. discusses focusing only on food and survival in the camps, and his loneliness and isolation after the war.

Author/Creator
W., Alter, 1926-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1990
Interview Date
November 11, 1990.
Locale
Poland
Chrzanów (Poland)
Italy
Palestine
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: 3/4 in. dub; Betacam SP restoration master; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Alter W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1729). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4296017
Record last modified: 2018-05-30 11:33:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4296017