- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Nachman Z., who was born in Łęczyca, Poland in 1918, one of eight children. He recalls attending cheder; his brothers moving to Łódź; joining them with the rest of his family in 1933; joining Betar; attending their summer camp; working with his brothers in Ruda Pabianicka; German invasion in 1939; fleeing with his brothers as far as Pszczonów; hiding there briefly, then returning to Łódź; entrusting some of their valuables with two non-Jews; forced labor for a day in Kochanówka; a German warning him of a round-up; hiding with a friend; ghettoization in May 1940; living with seventeen others (his brothers and their spouses) in a small apartment with no indoor plumbing (his parents had joined his sisters in Warsaw and none survived); working in the post office and a sausage factory; a meeting with Ḥayim Rumkowski, head of the Judenrat; hiding during round-ups; receiving photographs from his friend Mendel Grossman and hiding them; arranging for Grossman to photograph the child of Aron Jakubowicz, a Judenrat official; being selected with a large group to clean up the ghetto after the final deportation in summer 1944; building a bunker and hiding with five others; liberation by Soviet troops in January 1945; retrieving photographs and papers documenting the ghetto; testifying at the trial of Hans Biebow (the German head of the Łódź ghetto) trial; receiving his family's valuables back from one friend, but not the other; and conveying documents and photographs to the newly formed Jewish Commission on which he worked. Mr. Z. discusses episodes of resistance and punishments; those who judge Rumkowski and the Judenrats; and perspectives and errors of specific historians.
- Author/Creator
- Z., Nachman, 1918-
- Published
- Tel Aviv, Israel : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1994
- Interview Date
- September 9, 1994.
- Locale
- Poland
Łódź
Łęczyca (Łęczyca, Poland)
Łódź (Poland)
Ruda Pabianicka (Poland)
Pszczonów (Poland)
Kochanówka (Poland)
- Cite As
- Nachman Z. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3646). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Polish.
Related publications: Pamiętnik z getta łodzkiego / Jakub Poznański. [Wyd. 1. Łodź] - - Wydawn. Łódzkie, c1960.
Associated material: Nachman Zonabend Collection: 1939-1944, RG 241 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011.
