Description
Object description
Polish Jewish inmate of Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto, Poland, 10/1939-11/1942; inmate of Skarszysko-Kamienna Labour Camp, Poland, 11/1942-7/1944; inmate in Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Hugo Schneider AG Armaments Factory, Schlieben Subcamp, Buchenwald Concentration Camp and Freiberg Subcamp, Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, Germany, 7/1944-4/1945; inmate in Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, 4/1945-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland, 1925-1939: family; education; degree of anti-Semitism in pre-war Poland; reaction to German attack on Poland, 1/9/1939. Recollections of period as inmate in Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto in Poland, 10/1939-11/1942: formation of ghetto and privations, 9/1939; how his family survived in ghetto, 1939-1940; obtaining work in Hortensia Glass Factory, 1939-1940; temporary arrest for taking photograph of aircraft, 1939; obtaining sandwich for cleaning German policeman's car.
REEL 2 Continues: expectations that war would end quickly in 1939; German reprisals policy; administration of ghetto; sight of train loads of Jews being taken east; refusal to believe stories of extermination camps; hiding of Jews in ghetto from selection to 'work in Germany'; German ploy to get ghetto inmates to register with authorities; mass shooting of Jews by Ukrainian guards at Raków, 10/1942. Aspects of period as inmate of Skarżysko-Kamienna Labour Camp, Poland, 11/1942-7/1944: removal from Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto to work camp, 11/1942.
REEL 3 Continues: conditions in camp; munitions work; narrow escape from accusation of sabotage; question of role of luck in survival. Aspects of period as inmate of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 7/1944: removal to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 7/1944; loss of photographs in camp; improvement in rations; work in quarry and Communist inmates control of work. Aspects of period as inmate with Hugo Schneider AG Armaments Factory, Schlieben Subcamp, Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 7/1944-1/1945: nature of his removal to camp Hugo Schnieder AG Araments Factory at Schlieben Subcamp; hopes for Allied bombing of camp; sabotage of anti-tank weapons by anti-Nazis German inmates, 1945; prior recollection of trading leather for bread at Skarżysko-Kamienna Labour Camp, 1943.
REEL 4 Continues: prior recollection of witnessing execution of thief at Skarżysko-Kamienna Labour Camp, 1943; incident when he escaped beating for stealing leather at Skarżysko-Kamienna Labour Camp, survival on purloined potatoes at Schlieben Camp, 1/1945; beating he received for refusing to divulge who he had traded dollars with in camp. Aspects of period as inmate of Freiberg Subcamp, Flossenbürg Concentration Camp in Germany, 1/1945-4/1945: removal to camp, work manhandling rails; kindness shown to him by German family in Freiberg; building work in Freiberg.
REEL 5 Continues: coping with cold, 2/1945; failure of rations and approach of Soviet Army to Freiberg; hunger of inmates in wagon transport from Freiberg, 4/1945; escape attempt from wagon; German machine gunning of prisoners for shouting for bread, 4/1945. Aspects of period as inmate at Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Germany, 4/1945-5/1945: arrival at camp and belief that prisoners were to be gassed; physical condition, 5/1945; hearing news of end of war in Europe, 8/5/1945; liberation by Americans of 11th Armoured Div, United States Third Army and how they gave inmates 24 hours to deal with German guards; how he escaped gassing on arrival at camp; attempt to find his father in Buchenwald Concentration Camp; meeting with friend who survived. Aspects of period as refugee in GB from 1945: story of post-war meeting fellow camp inmate in Israel.
REEL 6 Continues: journey to GB, 1945; reception in Windermere; impact of freedom and trust experienced in GB; how he came to terms with Holocaust experiences; return post-war visit to Poland.
