Lowit, Harry Petr (Oral history)

description

Object description

Czechoslovakian Jewish child inmate of Theresienstadt and Birkenau Familienlager camps, 1942-1944; inmate of Auschwitz, Melk and Ebensee camps, 1944-1945; escaped from Ebensee camp, 4/1945

Content description

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1930-1939: family circumstances; education. Recollections of German occupation of Czechoslovakia, 1939-1942: emergence of Czech antisemitism; question of effect of persecution on religious beliefs; attitude towards wearing Star of David; missed opportunity of family going to Bogota; story of father's arrest, execution and funeral; move to Kostelec. Various aspects of period as inmate in Theresienstadt, 6/1942- 12/1943: accommodation and reasons for lack of knowledge of experience in camp. Recollections of period as inmate in Birkenau Familienlager and Auschwitz I 1942- 1944: role as messenger for Irma Grese and Josef Kramer; layout of accommodation; reasons for keeping hair; question of culture shock of camp life and adapting to surroundings. REEL 2 Continues: experience of Familienlager and last sight of mother; character of messenger work; aid given to other inmates through his privileged position; question of guilt for working with Germans; treatment received from Josef Kramer; story of how his affidavit was read out at Nuremberg trials; camp hierarchy; nature of gas chamber and crematoriums; question of adapting to brutality of camp regime; role opening and closing of main Auschwitz gate; contact with Höss and Doctor Josef Mengele; illnesses endured during imprisonment. REEL 3 Continues: punishment of escapers; suicides; question of childrens' easier adaptation to camp regime than adults; decimation of family during Holocaust; question of lack of knowledge of sexual matters; awareness of progress of war. Aspects of journey from Auschwitz to Mauthausen, 1/1945: conditions on forced march; train journey on coal wagons. Aspects of period as inmate of Mauthausen and Melk, 1945: reception in camp; method of killing new transports in Mauthausen; move to Melk. Recollections of period as inmate of Ebensee, 4/1945-5/1945: witnessing incidents of cannibalism; escape with camp and hiding on farm. Recollections of period as refugee in Austria and GB, 1945-1947: liberation; crossing bombed bridge on route to refugee camp in Linz; reaction to freedom. REEL 4 Continues: reasons for keeping camp tattoo; mother's situation; reasons for not wishing to return to Czechoslovakia; decision to travel to Belgium with his friend; conditions on journey from Austria to Belgium via Munich; stay in Antwerp; making contact with uncle in GB; arrival in GB, 1/1946; continuing education; formative nature of camp experience. Recollections of visits to Czechoslovakia in 1947 and 1989: six weeks visit, 1947; question of compensation. REEL 5 Continues: finding picture of himself and mother hidden near his grandmother's house; return to Prague, 1989; visit to family villa, meeting with childhood friend. Reflections on Holocaust experiences: importance of recording experiences; question of how background was ill suited for survival in camps.

Object details

Category: Sound
Related period: Second World War (content)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Smith, Lyn E (recorder)
Lowit, Harry Petr (interviewee/speaker)
Production date: 1996-07-16
Dimensions: whole: Duration 140, Number Of Items 5
Catalogue number: 16785

Object associations

Related objects

Sound

Kodicek, Egon Hynek (Oral history)

Sound

Iveson, Stanley (Oral history)

Sound

Beavor, Douglas E (Oral history)

Related content

A pair of brown leather boots with brown laces and a brown leather strap across the laces. A pair of metal clip-on ice skates are attached (by screws at the base) to the undersides of the boots.

Holocaust

6 Stories Of The Kindertransport

In 1938 and 1939, nearly 10,000 children fleeing the persecution of Jews in Greater Germany (Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia), were brought to Britain on the Kindertransport ('children’s transports').

Holocaust

Concentration Camp Survivors Share Their Stories

The Holocaust was the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Second World War. The Nazis also enslaved and killed other groups who they perceived as racially, biologically or ideologically inferior or dangerous. Hear seven survivors talk about and reflect on their experiences.

On the right two benches of the accused leaders stretch away from the foreground to the centre of the painting. Behind the defendants stands a line of white-helmeted military police who guard the benches and separate them from the court beyond. On the left, in front of the defendants, sit two rows of lawyers, largely in black robes. The lawyers and the defendants study sheaves of paper.

Second World War

A Short History Of The War Crimes Trials After The Second World War

After the end of the Second World War, the Allies brought the leading civilian and military representatives of wartime Germany and Japan to trial on charges of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. The principles of the trial of the Nazi leadership were agreed at a meeting of the ‘Big Four’ – Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and France – in London in the summer of 1945, resulting in the Nuremberg Charter.