Overview
- Summary
- Videotape testimony of William S., who was born in Kraków, Poland, one of three children. He recounts German invasion; fleeing east; receiving a gun from a Polish officer; arriving in Lʹviv; Soviets disarming him and sending them home; forced labor breaking rocks; ghettoization; clandestinely leaving the ghetto to smuggle food for his family; deportations including his parents, brother, and his girlfriend's family; marriage in the ghetto; transfer to Płaszów; separation from his wife and sister; visiting them; public executions; being beaten for defending a fellow prisoner; his wife's deportation; transfer to Auschwitz, then Rajsko; being used once for specious medical experiments; observing sadistic "experiments" on other prisoners; working as the prisoner-doctor's assistant, then in the garage; smuggling meat and bribing the kapo with it; sharing extra food with a cousin; transfer to Gross-Rosen; brief hospitalization; escape and capture, then escaping again; joining a transport to Buchenwald; liberation by United States troops; hospitalization; returning to Kraków; reunion with his wife; traveling to Austria; living in a displaced persons camp; assistance from UNRRA; his son's birth; emigration to the United States in 1949; and the births of two more children.
- Published
- Dallas, Tex. : Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies, 1991
- Interview Date
- October 22, 1991.
- Locale
- Poland
Kraków
Kraków (Poland)
Lʹviv (Ukraine) - Cite As
- William S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2397). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Copies
- 4 copies: 3/4 in. submaster; Betacam SP restoration master; Betacam SP restoration submaster; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
- Physical Description
- 1 videorecording (1 hr., 56 min.) : col
Keywords & Subjects
- Subjects (Local Yale)
- Soviet occupation.
Marriage in Jewish ghettos.
Mutual aid.
Hospitals in concentration camps.
Postwar experiences. - Subjects
- Holocaust survivors. Video tapes. Men. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish. Forced labor. Jewish ghettos. Jews--Poland--Kraków. Husband and wife. Brothers and sisters. World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities. Human experimentation in medicine. Concentration camp inmates--Family relationships. Escapes. Refugee camps. Poland. Kraków (Poland) Lʹviv (Ukraine) Oral histories (document genres) S., William,--1919?- Płaszów (Concentration camp) Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp) Buchenwald (Concentration camp) 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/4296806
- Record last modified:
- 2018-05-29 11:58:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4296806
Additional Resources
Librarian ViewDownload & Licensing
- Terms of Use
- This record is digitized but cannot be downloaded online.
In-Person Research
- Requires Research Visit
- Plan a Research Visit
- Find Viewing Location
Request Access from Yale University Libraries
- Requires Yale University Libraries Permission
- Accessing Fortunoff interviews
- Log in to Request and View
- About the Fortunoff Archive
