- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Alex H., who was born in Strzemieszyce, near Będzin, Poland, in 1923. He describes the antisemitism he experienced as a schoolboy; the German occupation of his town and the formation of a ghetto there; and his work as a forced laborer while he lived in the ghetto. He speaks of his deportation in 1943 to the slave labor camp of Blechhammer, where he worked in an I.G. Farben factory, and recounts in detail how he "organized" to get a little extra bread for his brother and himself. He tells of the death march from Blechhammer in December, 1944, during which his brother was killed, and relates his experiences in the concentration and slave labor camps of Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald, and Langenstein. Mr. H's postwar emigration to the U.S. and his service in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict are also discussed. Mr. H. is unusually frank in his description of the dehumanization which resulted from the treatment he was subjected to and wonders whether he was unique in reacting the way that he did. He speaks of the lasting psychological effects of his experiences and expresses the wish for a "living monument", a caring network of and for those who survived, so that they need never feel alone.
- Author/Creator
- H., Alex, 1923-1992.
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1983
- Interview Date
- July 16, 1983.
- Locale
- Poland
Strzemieszyce Wielkie
Będzin (Poland)
Strzemieszyce Wielkie (Poland)
Blachownia Śląska (Poland)
Halberstadt (Germany)
- Cite As
- Alex H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-210). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Balsam, Rosemary, interviewer.
Schwaber, Paul, interviewer.
