Allen R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1159) interviewed by Lucille B. Ritvo and Joanne Weiner Rudof

Videotape testimony of Allen R., who was born in Koniecpol, Poland, in 1916 and raised in Sosnowiec. Mr. R. describes prewar antisemitism; capture during the German invasion while in the Polish army; escape and return home; seizure of the family salvage business; moving to the Srodula ghetto; sorting shoes of Auschwitz deportees; and volunteering for forced labor at a small camp in Silesia, to save his wife and family (most of whom he never saw again). He relates transport to Auschwitz with other Sosnowiec Jews; transfer to Warsaw; clearing rubble in the destroyed ghetto; finding hidden valuables which he traded for food; narrowly avoiding execution when a kapo informed on him; a beating which still affects him; the death march to the train; transport to Mühldorf; his appointment as Blockältester of the Sosnowiec Jews; and liberation by American troops. He discusses his job as manager of the food warehouse at the Feldafing displaced persons camp; meeting his second wife there; emigrating to the United States in 1949; establishing a successful salvage firm with his brother; and regret at his children's reluctance to ask about his wartime experience.