Description
Object description
Polish Jewish inmate of Warsaw Ghetto, Poland, 10/1940-2/1943; in hiding with family at Otwock, Poland, 2/1943-7/1944
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of German invasion of Poland, 9/1939: his electrical engineering business in Warsaw, 1930s; move eastwards with Polish Army; return to Warsaw; prior anticipation of German invasion; question of emigration abroard; awareness of German anti-Semitism. Recollections of period as businessman in Warsaw, Poland, 9/1939-10/1940: placing business in hands of Polish partner Edward Idzikowski; wearing Star of David; restrictions on Jewish civilians. Recollections of period as inmate of Warsaw Ghetto, Poland, 10/1940-2/1943: establishment of ghetto, 16/10/1940; obtaining contracts with factories producing goods for Germans; importance of having contacts; role of Volksdeutsche; financial situation; character of German factory directors.
REEL 2 Continues: story illustrating character of partner Edward Idzikowski; allocation of work; food situation and lessons learnt from First World War; collection of victims of starvation; beggars; contracting typhoid and treatment; disposal of dead; water and electrical supplies; character of members of Jewish Ghetto Police; effects of quarantine in ghetto, 1940; appearance of posters for transportation to east, 7/1942; hearing of extermination camps; behaviour of Jewish Ghetto Police during round-ups, 7/1942; expulsion of Poles from ghetto, 1940.
REEL 3 Continues: story of arrest and release by Jewish Ghetto Police, 1940; attitude towards Jewish Ghetto Police; family circumstances; hiding family members; problems of keeping quiet in hiding; visit to flats of deportees; plans for wife and daughter to escape from ghetto to Otwock, 1943; overcrowding in flat; increase in deportations; treatment of deportees; selections; move to another flat; escape of wife and daughter, 2/1943.
REEL 4 Continues: arrangements for escape of family members from ghetto, 2/1943; fear of Polish blackmailers; reaction to buying railway ticket; hiding documents in cellar. Recollections of period in hiding in Otwock, Poland, 2/1943-7/1944: arrival in Otwock, 2/1943; financial arrangements with landlord; aid from Edward Idzikowski; constructing weighing machine; reaction to wife Ewa Pokorny's role; special knock used; German raid on house.
REEL 5 Continues: aftermath of raid; decision to build shelter; construction of shelter under house; sharing shelter with Soviet prisoners of war; billeting of German civilian manager in house; German manager's advances towards wife; move into shelter; living conditions in shelter; hidden entrance to shelter; relations with Soviet prisoners of war; reaction to landlord's attempt to get Soviet prisoners of war to work in town; hearing of progress of war; hearing of German withdrawal; leaving shelter.
REEL 6 Continues: Recollections of period living in Poland, 1944-1945: reasons for move away from Otwock; meeting with friends from ghetto; return to Otwock; threat of Polish anti-Semitism; financial situation; employment as travelling salesman; work for United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Gdynia; accommodation problems in Gdynia; reasons for wanting to leave Poland. Reflections on Holocaust experience: question of attitude of Poles towards Jews; fate of family members; question of reasons for family's survival; fate of partner Edward Idzikowski, 14/8/1944.
REEL 7 Continues: importance of daughter Halina; question of luck to survival; psychological state; effect of experiences on wife's health; question of compensation; question of unique nature of family's experience; attitude of a member of Jewish community to family's experience; adjusting to life in Liverpool, GB; importance of establishment of state of Israel, 1948.
REEL 8 Continues: Aspects of post-war business career in GB: business dealings with South America; loss of job and move to London; establishing business; reasons for changing name. Recollections of period as inmate in Warsaw Ghetto, 10/1940-2/1943: story of hiding daughter during selection; lack of contact with Jewish underground; anticipation of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 4/1943-5/1943; Polish comments during destruction of ghetto, 5/1943; question of importance of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
REEL 9 Continues: role of German factory directors; educational and cultural life; crime and prostitution; German trick to lure Jews out of hiding; question of experience of hiding being worse than ghetto; attitude towards Poles; question of not wishing to return to Poland.