- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Szaja L., who was born in Skalbmierz, Poland, a small town near Kraków, in 1915. He discusses his prewar childhood and work experiences after the family's move to Kraków in 1926; the wartime German raid and the round-up for forced labor in his neighborhood; the ghettoization of Kraków; and his move back to Skalbmierz with his family. He describes the roundup of the Jews of Skalbmierz and the killing of the town's elderly; the experiences of his family in hiding; the entrance of his mother and sister into the Kraków ghetto; and his own experiences in a nearby labor camp. He relates his transfer a year later to the ammunition factory of Skarżysko-Kamienna and an unsuccessful escape attempt by some of his fellow prisoners there. He describes his transport in June 1944 to Buchenwald, and, two weeks later, to an ammunition plant in Schlieben. He recalls his evacuation in April 1945, the twenty-day-long train journey, without food or water, to Terezín, where he was liberated; and his postwar discovery of the deaths of family members.
- Author/Creator
- L., Szaja, 1915-
- Published
- Norfolk, Va. : Holocaust Survivors Film Project, 1980
- Interview Date
- February 20, 1980.
- Locale
- Poland
Warsaw
Skalbmierz (Poland)
Kraków (Poland)
- Cite As
- Szaja L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-209). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Vlock, Laurel, interviewer.
