Description
Object description
Polish Jewish schoolchild in Kraków and Wieliczka, Poland, 1939-1942; in hiding in Kraków, Poland, 6/1942-12/1944; inmate in Montelupich Prison, Kraków, Poland, 12/1944-1/1945; inmate in Gross-Rosen and Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camps and Nordhausen Subcamp, Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camps, Germany, 1/1945-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Kraków, Poland, 1930-1939: family; relationship with parents; daily routine; education; relations between Jewish and non-Jewish children at school; relationship with his 'nanny'; memories of mother; Polish anti-Semitism; degree of awareness of situation in Europe, early 1939. Recollections of period as schoolchild in Kraków, Poland, 1939-1940: Polish mobilisation, 8/1939; German invasion of Poland, 1/9/1939.
REEL 2 Continues: father's volunteering for Polish Army, 4/9/1939; arrival of Germans in Kraków, 6/9/1939; mother's refusal to leave Krakow; end of official education for Jewish children, 11/1939; attending 'private' school; memories of various lodgers including German civil servant; rations available to Jewish civilians; introduction of wearing of Star of David; friendships with local children; father's escape to GB via France. Aspects of period as child in Wieliczka, Poland, 7/1940-6/1942: reasons for leaving Kraków, summer 1940; economic circumstances; accommodation.
REEL 3 Continues: relations with local child; start of deportations of Jewish civilians; return to Kraków and decision of mother and aunt to stay in Wieliczka. Recollections of period in hiding in Krakow, Poland, 6/1942-12/1944: alternating hiding between homes of Polish doctors, Dr Jadwiga Spoczyńska and Dr Jan Gołąb; false identity; restrictions of life in hiding; fate of mother and aunt; how his Polish accent and Aryan appearance aided his hiding; danger to those hiding him; awareness of progress of war; prior recollection of German preparations for attack on Soviet Union in Wieliczka, 6/1941; hearing of discovery of Katyn Massacre; importance of sense of humour to morale.
REEL 4 Continues: involvement of Dr Jadwiga Spoczyńska and Dr Jan Gołąb with Polish Resistance; learning of Warsaw Uprising, 8/1944; betrayal and arrest with Dr Jan Golab and Dr Jadwiga Spoczynska's families, 18/12/1944. Recollections of period as inmate Montelupich Prison, Krakow, Poland, 12/1944-1/1945: interrogation at Gestapo Headquarters and removal to prison; conditions; how he and other prisoners were forced to participate in anti-typhus serum experiment; news of Soviet Army's advance; shooting of two of his cellmates; shooting of Gestapo man who had arrested him by Polish Home Army. Aspects of period as inmate in Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp in Germany, 1/1945-2/1945: journey in cattle truck to camp.
REEL 5 Continues: procedure on arrival; issue of clothing; appells; executions for escape attempts; coping with incarceration; atmosphere in camp as Soviet Army advanced. Recollections of period as inmate in Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp, Germany, 2/1945-4/1945: nature of train journey to camp including unloading dead bodies from cattle trucks for roll call; issue of camp number and red triangle as political prisoner; description of camp; how he was excused work by camp doctor due to frostbite; work transporting coal in wheelbarrow up hill to crematorium; how Schutzstaffel (SS) guard excused him from work; gift of pair of shoes from fellow inmate; rations and attitude towards food in camp.
REEL 6 Continues: organisation of camp; origins of camp's inmates; latrines; medical facilities; work duties; sleeping arrangements; punishments for attempted escape or sabotage; defiance of Pole during execution; question of sabotage; development of camp; presence of inmates who had been involved in Warsaw Uprising; German opening of brothel for inmates; inmates' concern for food rather than sex; degree of awareness of homosexuality in camp.
REEL 7 Continues: question of German civilians' awareness of nature of concentration camps; question of escape; relations with other inmates; friendship with young Polish inmate who had participated in Warsaw Uprising; degree of friendship amongst inmates; rumours about progress of war; United States Army Air Force fighter aircraft attack on train at camp; belief that Americans would liberate camp. Recollections of period as inmate in Nordhausen Subcamp, Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945: removal to camp; description of camp; how inmates prevented from being removed to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp; physical condition; description of term 'Muselmann' for inmates nearing end of their life; death of Polish friend.
REEL 8 Continues: awareness of gas chambers; bombing of camp by United States Army Air Force; damage to camp and deaths caused by bombing; desertion of camp by guards; liberation of camp and reaction to arrival of first American in camp; smoking first and last cigarette; Americans' filming of camp; medical treatment. Aspects of period of hospitalisation in liberated Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945-7/1945: conditions in hospital; his physical condition and period in camp; former inmates' revenge against former camp guards; his decision to stay when Americans withdrew from area.
REEL 9 Continues: arrival of Soviet Army, 7/1945; period in tuberculosis sanatorium under Soviet care. Recollections of period as civilian in Kraków, Poland, 8/1945-8/1946: journey to Krakow via Prague, Czechoslovakia, 8/1945; reunion with Dr Jadwiga Spoczyńska and Dr Jan Gołąb; news of father in GB; problems caused by lack of education; arrangements to leave Poland; Soviet/Communist influence in Poland; anti-Semitism in post-war Poland; attitude towards concealing his Jewish background and conversion to Catholicism.
REEL 10 Continues: attitude towards religion; contact with father; leaving Poland, 8/1946. Recollections of period as civilian in London and Blackpool, GB from 1946: initial impression of London; reunion with father; sight of bomb damage in London; move with father to Blackpool; accommodation in small hotel; education and language problems; continuing education; contrast between life in Poland and Blackpool; meeting future wife Jean; help gained from visiting psychoanalyst; lack of discussion about wartime experiences with father. Reflections on Holocaust experiences: concealing his Jewish background.
REEL 11 Continues: growing need to discuss Holocaust experience; discussing experiences with children; contrast between period in hiding and camp experience; lessons learned from Holocaust experience; belief in importance of recording his memories; father's wartime experience; post-war visits to Poland; attitude towards Germans.