Peretz L. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3916)

Videotape testimony of Peretz L., who was born in Chemnitz, Germany in 1903, the oldest of four children. He recalls completing gymnasium; a year of military service; apprenticing in a large factory for two years; disillusionment with the German political situation after the assassination of party leaders in 1919; forming a Zionist group in Fröndenberg in 1921; living on a hachsharah in Wartenberg in 1923, then in Zwickau to learn technical skills; moving to Frankfurt; meeting his future wife's parents in Munich; marriage in Nuremberg in 1926; traveling to Vienna; living in Berlin; organizing for Hechalutz in Hameln; his son's birth; their emigration to Palestine; living in Yagur; being sent to Germany by Hechalutz in 1931 to organize emigration to Palestine; organizing hachsharot in several locations; living in a Hechalutz house with Yehudah Sharett; meeting with Chaim Weizmann in London in 1933; traveling through Denmark, Sweden, France, and the Netherlands organizing hachsharot; support by the Joint; lecturing in Metz; seeking placement for Jews in England after Kristallnacht; his wife's death; being sent to Lisbon to organize emigration to Palestine; visiting Jewish refugees in Ericeira and Caldas de Rainha; representing the Jewish Agency in Madrid and Barcelona; organizing a ship of emigrants to Palestine from Lisbon in 1944; remarriage; facilitating the transfer of 700 Jews who were Spanish citizens from Thessalonikē to Morocco; visiting them there; returning to Yagur after the war; and his position in Israel's foreign ministry starting in 1950. Mr. L. discusses meetings with Recha Freier in 1932 leading to the founding of Youth Aliyah.