Jozef B. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4311) interviewed by Rik Hemmerijckx

Videotape testimony of Jozef B., who was born in Nowy Sącz, Poland in 1925, one of three children. He recounts his family moving to Antwerp in 1926; his parents' orthodoxy; attending a Jewish school, then one year of vocational school; participating in Maccabi; antisemitic harassment; German invasion; fleeing with his family to Dunkerque; returning via De Panne; his father remaining in France to work; anti-Jewish restrictions; deportation with his mother and sisters to Malines, then Auschwitz/Birkenau in September 1942; separation from his family upon arrival; slave labor in the swamps; hospitalization for two weeks; avoiding work for several weeks afterwards; privileged positions in the laundry, as a mason, in Canada Kommando, then the disinfection unit; public hanging of five prisoners who had attempted an escape in December 1945; hiding during the evacuation; liberation by Soviet troops; transfer to Kraków; assistance from the Red Cross; repatriation in April via Prague; learning the diamond trade; living in Israel from 1948 to 1949; marriage; and the births of five children. Mr. B. notes he is the only survivor of his immediate family; joining the Jewish community which helped him after his return; his stolen youth; the prisoner hierarchy; not sharing his story with his children; and returning to Auschwitz in 1995, the 50th anniversary of liberation. He shows documents.