Shalom K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4165)

Videotape testimony of Shalom K., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1925, one of four children. He recounts his father's death; his mother running his father's factory; attending school; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions; ghettoization; Germans killing his mother when she tried to keep them from taking his older brothers, then killing his brothers (he and his sister were hiding under a bed); transfer to an orphanage; slave labor in a shoe factory; his sister's transfer to a hospital; her murder there; living at a former Hechalutz hachsharah; deportation to Birkenau in 1943; transfer to Auschwitz; slave labor building barracks; remaining with a group that helped each other; a German soldier giving him extra food; brief escape during train transfer to Sachsenhausen; a death march to Mauthausen; observing cannibalism; returning to Sachsenhausen, then transfer to Lieberose; a death march to Gunskirchen; liberation by United States troops; assistance from UNRRA: living in the Wels displaced persons camp; traveling with the Jewish Brigade to Villa Minozzo; illegal emigration to Palestine in 1946; and joining the Palmaḥ. Mr. K. discusses relations between different national groups of prisoners and different treatment by the guards; not sharing his experiences; and nightmares.