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Benjamin V. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4370) interviewed by Barbara Hadley Katz and Susan Millen,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-4370

Videotape testimony of Benjamin V., who was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1936, one of four children. He recounts his parents living in Palestine in the 1930s; their return to Holland; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions; round-up to a synagogue; deportation with his family to Westerbork; hunger and lack of sanitation; his father sabotaging deportation lists when he cleaned the offices; celebrating Hanukkah; transfer to Bergen-Belsen in 1944; looking for extra food; his father obtaining school books for him; his mother making matzo and his father reciting the Haggadah in their barrack; sharing bread he found with his father; receiving two Red Cross packages; piles of corpses; boarding a train; Allied bombings; abandonment by the Germans in Zielitz; liberation; recuperating in Hillersleben; hospitalization; returning to Amsterdam; and encountering antisemitism. Mr. V. notes he and his siblings survived because of his parents' Palestine documents; feeling like he entered a “vacuum” after liberation; physical impairments resulting from concentration camps; and continuing to be orthodox.

Author/Creator
V., Benjamin, 1936-
Published
New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 2007
Interview Date
January 3, 2007.
Locale
Netherlands
Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Zielitz (Germany)
Hillersleben (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: DVCam Master; Betacam SP submaster; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Benjamin V. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4370). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.