Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Stephen F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4009) interviewed by Barbara Hadley Katz,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-4009

Videotape testimony of Stephen F., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1912. He recounts his father's leaving for military service in 1914; his return four years later and death shortly thereafter; turmoil during the Nazi takeover in 1933; attending medical school; being warned to leave prior to a raid (his older sister and brother had already emigrated); an unsuccessful attempt to attend medical school in Strasbourg; studying in Amsterdam; joining his brother and sister in the United States; graduating from Harvard Medical School; getting his mother and grandparents out in 1938; becoming a citizen in 1940; not being allowed to enlist in the Navy because his citizenship was so recent; acceptance by the army after Pearl Harbor; interrogating German POWs in Alabama; serving in a hospital in England, then in the Battle of the Bulge; entering Buchenwald a week after liberation; shock at the piles of corpses and multitude of sick and dying prisoners; later entering Theresienstadt; and learning most of his relatives had survived in hiding in Holland. Dr. F. discusses his emotional difficulties remembering and talking about Buchenwald, and relatively better conditions in Theresienstadt.

Author/Creator
F., Stephen, 1912-2002.
Published
New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 2000
Interview Date
May 4, 2000.
Locale
Germany
Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
Strasbourg (France)
Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: Betacam SP master; 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Stephen F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4009). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.