Philip H. Holocaust testimony (HVT-174) interviewed by Dori Laub and Nanette Auerhahn,

Videotape testimony of Philip H., who was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1922. He describes a violent childhood in a poor Jewish neighborhood in Chicago, and vividly recalls the isolated experiences of love and kindness which proved crucial to his later outlook and conduct. He also discusses the dissolution of his mystical view of the unity of all life, as represented by the "Shema", after witnessing the devastation of Mannheim during World War II. Professor H. documents how his study of cruelty and evil eventually focused on the Holocaust, and how his discovery of goodness in its midst, exemplified by the French village of Le Chambon (which served as a refuge for Jews), enabled him to "complete the circle" and return to his original world view.