- Summary
- Videotape testimony of William K., who was born in Tarnów, Poland, in 1922. Mr. K. recalls his youth; his father, an "ultrareligious" Talmud scholar; his mother's modest businesses which supported them; escaping domestic unhappiness in school; and prewar anti-Semitic experiences. He tells of German occupation; anti-Semitic restrictions and looting; ghettoization; being beaten publicly; the first Aktion when his father and 12,000 others were killed in June 1942; his mother's death from a heart attack; forced labor; his sister's selection in the second Aktion; his refusal to reveal the locations of hiding Jews; deportation with his brothers to Płaszów; and transfer to Mauthausen in August 1944. He describes transport to St. Valentin in September 1944 and Ebensee in April 1945; liberation; returning to Poland with his brothers; anti-Semitic incidents; fleeing from Wrocław to Munich; emigrating to America in 1947; marrying in 1949; and establishing a successful business. He reflects on his loss of belief while in the camps; a recurring dream; inability to feel joy; disappointment at his children's lack of Jewish identity and interest in the Holocaust; inability to discuss his experience with his brothers; and becoming an activist in Holocaust education programs.
- Author/Creator
- K., William, 1922-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1985
- Interview Date
- November 10, 1985.
- Locale
- Poland
Tarnów (Województwo Małopolskie)
Tarnów (Województwo Małopolskie, Poland)
Wrocław (Poland)
Munich (Germany)
- Cite As
- William K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-635). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Blechner, Mark, interviewer.
Schulwolf, Martha, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Related publication: Sentenced to remember : legacy of life in pre-1939 Poland and sixty-eight months of Nazi occupation / by William Kornbluth ; edited by Carl Calendar. -- Cranbury, New Jersey : Lehigh University Press, c1994.
Related material: William K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1376), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocuast Testimonies, Yale University Library.
