Description
Object description
Polish Jewish schoolchild in Ozorków, Poland, 9/1939-1/1940; inmate of Ozorków and Łódź Ghettos, Poland, 1/1940-8/1944; inmate of Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp and Babitz Subcamp, Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 8/1944-1/1945; inmate in Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 1/1945-2/1945; forced labourer in Rehmsdorf Subcamp, Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 2/1945-4/1945; inmate in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia, 4/1945-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Ozorków, Poland, 1928-1939: family circumstances; education; incidents of anti-Semitism. Recollections of period as schoolchild in Ozorków, Poland, 9/1939-1/1940: overcrowding in town; restrictions on Jews; humiliation of Jews; brother's refuge in Soviet Union; knifing by Pole; Polish anti-Semitism under Germans. Aspects of period as inmate in Ozorków Ghetto, Poland, 1/1940-8/1942: problem of resisting Germans; German policy towards Jews.
REEL 2 Continues: selection of Jews by Germans, 5/1942; fate of family in Chelmno Extermination Camp. Recollections of period as inmate in Łódź, Ghetto, Poland, 8/1942-8/1944: conditions in ghetto; behaviour of criminal police; problems of cold and hunger; problems of escaping from ghetto; employment in ghetto; contracting typhoid and other health problems.
REEL 3 Continues: liquidation of ghetto, 8/1944. Recollections of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 8/1944-9/1945: restrictions on use of latrines; survival of selection process; tattooing; Gypsy inmates fear of other inmates; electrocution of Gypsies on perimeter wire; character of rations. Recollections of period as inmate in Babitz Subcamp, Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 9/1944-1/1945: friendship with German Jewish doctor, helping in surgery; inmate clothing. Aspects of journey from Babitz Subcamp, Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 1/1945: character of march. Recollections of period as inmate in Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 1/1945-2/1945: shaving and disinfecting of inmates; overcrowding. Recollections of period as forced labourer in Rehmsdorf Subcamp, Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 2/1945-4/1945: nature of conditions.
REEL 4 Continues: abuse of inmates by German civilians; breaking foot; escape from execution; obsession with survival; murder committed by inmate; behaviour of inmates towards each other; behaviour of kapos; conditions in camp. Aspects of journey from Rehmsdorf Subcamp, Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia, 4/1945: character of journey; Allied air attack on train; rejection of offer of escape attempt; question of sharing food; shooting of stragglers. Aspects of period as inmate in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia, 4/1945-5/1945: hospitalisation with broken foot.
REEL 5 Continues: sight of newly constructed gas chambers. Aspects of liberation of Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia, 5/1945: arrival of Soviet Army troops, 10/5/1945: lack of retaliation against Germans by inmates; physical condition on liberation; opinion of medical treatment given by Soviets; emigration to GB, 1945. Reflections of Holocaust experiences: obsession with survival in camp; lack of news about progress of war; religious observance and belief; effect of experiences on attitude towards non-Jews.
REEL 6 Continues: lack of contact with inmate organisation; impossibility of escape; behaviour of guards; impossibility of retaliation against guards; incident of random hanging of Jews in Ozorków, Poland, 1942; post-war visit to site of Chelmno Extermination Camp in Poland; execution of inmates in camps; sadism exhibited by guards; rehabilitation in GB.