Salomon K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4439) interviewed by Josette Zarka and Colette Zumstein

Videotape testimony of Salomon K., who was born in Thessalonikē, Greece in 1926, one of four children. He recounts a happy childhood; German invasion; ghettoization; deportation with his family to Birkenau; an older man compelling him to separate from his family; pointless slave labor moving stones; volunteering as a machinist; a privileged position as a mason; a French-Jewish prisoner helping him; remaining with him throughout his experience, to which he attributes his survival; seeing two of his sisters from a distance; transfer three months later to Warsaw; clearing rubble; improved food and housing; their supervisor protecting them; escaping during the Warsaw uprising; joining the Poles, posing as French prisoners; capture by the Germans; transfer to Germany as POWs; other French prisoners placing decorative tattoos over their camp tattoos to hide their identities; forced labor on farms; constant fear of discovery as a Jew, particularly by the Poles; liberation by British troops; requesting repatriation to the Hotel Lutetia in Paris; attending school to learn French; and marriage to another student. Mr. K. discusses continuing painful memories of his experience; frequent nightmares; and identifying himself first a Jew, then as French.