Description
Object description
Polish Jewish inmate of Otoczno Labour Camp, Poland, 3/1940-5/1943; inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Stutthof Concentration Camps, Poland, 5/1943-12/1944, forced labourer in Stuggart area, Germany, 12/1944-2/1945; inmate in Ohrdruf Subcamp, Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany and Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia, 2/1945-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Sieradz, Poland, 1926-1939: family; education; orthodox beliefs of family; loyalty towards Poland; anti-Semitism. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Sieradz, Poland, 9/1939-3/1940: reaction to German invasion, 9/1939; leaving home town; shooting of Polish civilians by German Army; living standards; restrictions on Jews; execution of friend by Germans in Otoczno Labour Camp, 1940; rumours that Jewish civilians would be transferred to labour camp; his being taken from family home, 3/1940. Recollections of period as inmate of Otoczno Labour Camp, Poland, 3/1940-5/1943: effects of lack of food; being beaten by camp guard.
REEL 2 Continues: rations; daily routine and work building railway line; inmate suicides; possibility of escape; brutality of Hitler Youth towards his brother in another camp; attitude of Polish population towards Jews; character of kapos. Recollections of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 5/1943-11/1944: selection process under supervision of Dr Josef Mengele; roll calls; construction of camp compound; selection of inmates for gas chambers.
REEL 3 Continues: further details of roll calls; orchestra playing at camp gates; uprising by Sonderkommando in gas chambers, 6/10/1944; presence of gypsies in camp and their elimination by the Germans, 8/1944; question of resistance in camp; personal morale; story of support received from older inmate on march in 1945. Aspects of period as inmate in Stutthof Concentration Camp, Poland, 11/1944-12/1944: removal to camp; presence of sister in camp. Aspects of period as forced labourer in Stuggart area, Germany, 12/1944-2/1944: removal to airfield near Stuttgart, 12/1944; work duties and contact with German civilians.
REEL 4 Continues: Aspects of period as inmate in Ohrdruf Subcamp, Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 2/1945: brief internment in camp. Aspects of period as inmate in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia, 4/1945-5/1945: nature of march to camp, 3/1945; conditions; typhoid epidemic; death of friend; liberation of camp, 8/5/1945; contracting typhoid. Aspects of emigration to GB, 1945: reaction to arrival in Windermere; accommodation; attitude towards work of Jewish organisations. Reflections on Holocaust experience: German medical experimentation on twins in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland; inmate relations; discomfort of train journeys; psychological and physical impact of imprisonment; attitude towards Germans; punishment work on Sundays in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp; conditions in camps.
REEL 5 Continues: medical problems in camps; inmate with a sense of humour; rumours about war's progress; behaviour of Germans; degree of religious life in camps; impact of experience on religious beliefs; question of survival.