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Oral history interview with Leon Greenman

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1285.52 | RG Number: RG-50.149.0052

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    Oral history interview with Leon Greenman

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Leon Greenman, born in 1910 in England, describes his grandfather, who grew up in Amsterdam, Netherlands and did trading in London, England; growing up in Rotterdam, Netherlands; his father’s work in trade; attending Hebrew school; hearing Oswald Mosley speak in London in the 1930s; the rise of Hitler; his marriage to Esther van Dam and their decision to settle in Rotterdam in 1935; anticipating the war; the German bombing of Rotterdam May 14, 1940 and the damage to his family home; the German occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions; registering with German authorities as Jewish; reasons for not being called up to British or Dutch armies; wearing the Star of David; his attempt to gain internment as a British citizen from 1941 to 1942; relations with Dutch neighbors; his employment selling door to door; the effects of food restrictions; continuing religious services in Jewish homes; his degree of knowledge of concentration camps; his lack of contact with resistance; listening to the BBC; the story of his postwar meeting with a Dutch policeman who did not help Greenman to escape deportation; witnessing the shooting down of a RAF reconnaissance aircraft in the summer of 1942; Allied bombings and the lack of air raid shelters; the deportation of Jews; being sent to Westerbork transit camp in October 1942; conditions in the camp; German Jewish refugees; work details in the camp; food rations; giving English lessons; his son's illness; the character of deportation administrator Kurt Schlesinger; his father’s arrival; being sent to Birkenau in January 1943; the fate of his wife and child; the selection of able bodied men; the treatment by Kapos; undressing, shaving, and receiving clothing; the shooting of an inmate; being tattooed with a camp number; the various colored triangles worn by inmates; Romani inmates; sexual relations in the camp; relations between inmates; rations; the lie infestation; his job shaving inmates; facilities in the camp; sharing soup with other inmates; the counting of dead bodies during Appells; finding money whilst tidying barracks; the importance of luck to survival; singing for Kapos; punishment of barracks for not saying good night loudly enough; attempt to treat his dysentery; problems with shoelaces; problems of night time ablutions; beating by SS man during selection; being marched to Auschwitz in March 1943; conditions in the hospital; stealing a potato from a fellow inmate; being subjected to medical experimentation; the issue of an olive ration; making knives; his work with a cable laying Kommando; his work unloading trains; working conditions in summer; sabotage attempts; his contact with British POWs; the problems of unloading coal; prostitution in the camp; seeing SS men with pet rabbits; strongman performances by a Kapo; being sent to Monowitz in September 1943; living conditions in barracks and life in the camp; having to unload railway wagon by himself as punishment; his contact with a Dutch friend, Jacques De Wolf; songs in the barracks; Christmas Eve 1943; the camp orchestra; being beaten; contracting pneumonia; the mortality rate amongst Dutch Jewish inmates; his memories of Jon Perez; birds in the camp; being sent to Buchenwald in January 1945 then being marched to Gleiwitz; the mental state of SS guards; receiving medical treatment for frostbitten feet; his memories of Albert Kongs and Oskar Rotschild; events in the camp leading up to liberation; being liberated by American troops in April 1945; receiving clothing and food; visiting Erfurt, Germany; meeting with journalist Anne Mattheson; going to Paris, France and being hospitalized; the amputation of his big toe; staying with a French family; going to the Netherlands; reuniting with his father; moving to Great Britain; his reflections on his Holocaust experiences; and his attitude towards Germans.
    Interviewee
    Leon Greenman
    Date
    interview:  1986 April 22

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    12 sound cassettes (90 min.).

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. Permission to copy and/or use recordings in any production must be granted by the Imperial War Museums.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Topical Term
    Antisemitism. Bombing, Aerial--Netherlands. Concentration camp guards. Concentration camp inmates as musicians. Concentration camp inmates--Intellectual life. Concentration camp inmates--Medical care--Poland. Concentration camp inmates--Selection process. Concentration camp inmates--Sexual behavior. Concentration camp tattoos. Concentration camps--Psychological aspects. Death march survivors. Death marches. Forced labor. Holocaust survivors--Great Britain. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Netherlands--Personal narratives. Human experimentation in medicine. Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Netherlands. Jews--Netherlands--Rotterdam. Kapos. Prisoners of war--Great Britain. Prostitution. Roll calls. Shooting (Execution) Star of David badges. V-E Day, 1945. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation. World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor. World War, 1939-1945--Songs and music. Men--Personal narratives.
    Personal Name
    Greenman, Leon.

    Administrative Notes

    Holder of Originals
    Imperial War Museum
    Provenance
    The interview was conducted by the Imperial War Museum as part of their retrospective oral history interview program. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum acquired a copy of the interview with Leon Greenman from the Imperial War Museum in February 1995.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:17:33
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn510857

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