Description
Object description
Polish Jewish inmate of Łódź Ghetto, Poland, 1/1940-8/1944; inmate of Auschwitz II-Birkenhau Concentration Camp, Poland, 8/1944-9/1944 and Görlitz Subcamp, Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp, Germany, 9/1944-3/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Sonpolno, Poland, 1921-1938: family circumstances; education; relations between non-Jews and Jews; increase in Polish anti-Semitism, 1938-1939; reason for move to Łódź, 3/1939; languages spoken; Recollections of period in Łódź, Poland, 3/1939-9/1939: Jewish community and cultural life; problems of emigrating; political beliefs; story of gaining employment; improvement in family lifestyle after move to Łódź; behaviour of Poles.
REEL 2 Continues: anticipation of outbreak of Second World War; dangers of leaving Jewish area; character of Polish anti-Semitism. Recollections of German invasion of Poland, 9/1939: German Air Force bombing of Łódź Railway Station, 1/9/1939; listening to speech by Polish Prime Minister Felicjan Skladkowski; knowledge of German treatment of Jews; joining refugee trek towards Warsaw; reasons for return to Lodz. Recollections of period of civilian in Łódź, Poland, 9/1939-1/1940: arrival of German Army troops, 8/9/1939; sight of Adolf Hitler on visit to Łódź, 13/9/1939; behaviour of Volksdeutsche; restrictions on Jews.
REEL 3 Continues: question of Germans not being able to recognise Jews. Recollections of period as inmate of Łódź Ghetto, Poland, 1/1940-8/1944: formation of ghetto, 1/1940; sealing of ghetto, 4/1940; treatment of Jews outside ghetto who did not move in quickly enough, 3/1940; hanging of twenty three Jews on Adolf Hitler's birthday, 20/4/1940; administration of ghetto; role of German criminal police; establishment of industries; raid on food stores; memories of Chaim Rumkowski; rationing; restrictions of social, religious and educational life; effects of disease and living conditions; arrival of Jews from outside ghetto; fate of relatives; employment in leather factory.
REEL 4 Continues: mother's job sorting feathers; sister's job in laundry; opinion of Chaim Rumkowski; effect on parents of selection of children, 9/1942; avoiding selection, 9/1942; restrictions on rationing and character of soup; sister's death from typhoid, 6/1944; reaction of mothers to receiving their children's clothing in laundry, 1942; burying sister; hearing approach of advancing Soviet Army, 8/1944; address by German administrator, 8/1944.
REEL 5 Continues: Recollections of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Germany, 8/1944-9/1944: character of train journey from Łódź to camp; selection procedure; shaving and issue of uniforms; sight of gas chambers and crematorium; reaction to first evening in camp; story of volunteering with father as watchmaker; hearing screams of those going to be gassed; volunteering for engineering work, 9/1944. Recollections of period as inmate in Görlitz Subcamp, Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp, Germany, 9/1944-3/1945: move to camp; issue of number and shaving of head; daily routine; behaviour of Ukrainian and Baltic States guards; allocation to underground factory making parts for V weapons; character of work; treatment of inmates for alleged sabotage; contact with French Communist forced labourer.
REEL 6 Continues: food obtained from German instructor; decline in work load; question of degree of knowledge of German civilians about concentration camps and ghettos; making comb for Hungarian Jewish female inmates; brief sight of Soviet Army tanks, 2/1945. Aspects of march away from Görlitz Subcamp, Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp in Germany, 3/1945: character of march; contact with German Schutzstaffel (SS) men; reaction to potential of being shot; period recovering from injuries in barn; return to Görlitz by truck. Aspects of period digging defences in Germany, 1945: character of work; reaction to sight of Soviet Air Force aircraft; departure of Schutzstaffel (SS) man, 5/1945; attitude of German civilians. Aspects of liberation by Soviet Army, Germany, 5/1945: arrival of Jewish Soviet officers; saving German civilian from shooting by Soviet Army personnel.
REEL 7 Continues: story of how he kept his belt from pre-war Lodz; relations with Soviet Army troops; treatment for dysentery. Aspects of return to Poland, 6/1945: robbery by Polish policemen; reaction to surviving Holocaust.