- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Joseph K., who was born in Gorlice, near Kraków, Poland, circa 1926. He describes the anti-Jewish legislation that followed the German occupation, noting the powerlessness of the Jews in the face of Gestapo control; ghetto life in Gorlice; learning of the mass killings of Jews; his family's escape from a quarantine area that was the site of random executions; and Polish antisemitism and collaboration with the Germans as well as prewar and postwar antisemitism in Poland. He relates his deportation in 1943 to Mielec, where he worked in the Heinkel airplane factory; the evacuation of the camp in 1944 and his transfer to Wieliczka, then Auschwitz; and being taken from there to Flossenbürg. He speaks of his subsequent transfer to the subcamps of Litoměřice and Hersbruck before being sent back to Flossenbürg; the evacuation of Flossenbürg in April 1945; air raids by the United States Air Force; his escape from the convoy; and his liberation the next day, when he was given, and refused, the opportunity for revenge. Mr. K. also discusses his emigration to the United States; the sense of rebirth he felt there; and his involvement in passing on the lessons of the Holocaust to others.
- Author/Creator
- K., Joseph, ca. 1926-2011.
- Published
- Hartford, Conn. : Holocaust Survivors Film Project, 1979
- Interview Date
- December 2, 1979.
- Locale
- Poland
Gorlice
Gorlice (Poland)
- Cite As
- Joseph K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-61). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Vlock, Laurel, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Unpublished finding aid available in repository; 1/2 in. VHS is linked to finding aid by time coding.
