Description
Object description
Polish Jewish civilian in Lubin, Poland, 1939; inmate in Lubin Castle Prison, Poland, 1939-1940; inmate in Lubin, Majdan Tartarsk and Warsaw Ghettos in Poland, 1940-1943; in hiding in Lubin area, Poland, 1943-1944; private served with Polish People's Army in Poland, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Lubin, Poland, 1923-1939: family background; Jewish community in city; question of anti-Semitism; description of life in non-orthodox Jewish family; lack of awareness of situation in Germany. Aspects of period as civilian in Lubin, Poland, 1939: arrival of German Army troops; plans for Jewish men to escape from Poland; attempt to escape to Soviet occupied Poland across River Bug; capture by German Army patrol. Aspects of period as inmate in Lubin Castle Prison, Lubin, Poland, 1939-1940: interrogation by Gestapo; rations; release from captivity, 1940. Aspects of period as inmate in Lubin Ghetto, Poland, 1941-1942: conditions; decimation of first ghetto.
REEL 2 Continues: organisation of ghetto. Aspects of period as inmate in Majdan Tartarski Ghetto, Poland, 1942: hiding places; fear of Germans; attitude towards Judenrat. Aspects of period as inmate in Lubin Ghetto B, Poland, 2/1942-4/1942: industry in ghetto; work in electrical factory; brief period in Lipowa Street Camp; how he was saved from being shot by brother-in-law's intervention; disappearance of grandmother. Aspects of period as inmate in Warsaw Ghetto, Poland, 1942: escape from Lubin Ghetto and travelling to Warsaw; conditions in ghetto. Aspects of period as inmate in Majdan Tartarski Ghetto, Poland, 1942-1943: return to ghetto; liquidation of ghetto, 11/1943; escape from ghetto. Recollections of period in hiding in Lubin area, Poland, 1943-1944: taking refuge in family home of Catholic Polish peasant woman Maria Cekalska; penalties for those sheltering Jews.
REEL 3 Continues: searching for hidden family money at night; description of hiding in cellar of Maria Cekalska's home; incident of fighting with friend Julian Fogelgarn over food; description of cellar; relations with Maria Cekalska's son Zbigniew; entry of Soviet Army into Lubin, 7/1944. Aspects of period as private with Polish People's Army, Polish Armed Forces in the East attached to Soviet Army in Poland, 1944-1945: fate of family; enlistment in Polish People's Army; working with Polish Army rabbi; relations between Jews and non-Jews in Polish People's Army.
REEL 4 Continues: uneducated character of Soviet troops; relations with Soviet troops. Aspects of period as civilian in Poland, 1946-1948: meeting and marriage to wife Alicia, 1946; difficulties surviving in post-war Poland; attitude towards life under Communist regime; continuing anti-Semitism in Poland; move to Paris, France, 1948. Aspects of period as civilian in GB from 1950: reasons for move to GB; difficulty of adapting to British life; setting up business; wife Alicia's continuing illness.
REEL 5 Continues: Reflections on Holocaust experience: reasons for not thinking about wartime experiences; impact of experience on his religious beliefs; difficulty of adapting to normality of British life; lasting psychological impact of experience; reaction to loss of family; attitude towards Germans; attitude to question of compensation; his need to read books and watch films relating to Holocaust; importance of art to wife Alicia and business to him; attitude of son towards his parent's Holocaust experience; description of what it was like to be in a starved condition; importance of Israel to Jews.
REEL 6 Continues: visiting Israel; impact of experience on his Jewish identity; reaction to those who are religious; belief that survival was down to luck; attitude towards move to France; contact with Maria Cekalska and family; success in getting Maria Cekalska named as Righteous Amongst Nations; attitude towards life as refugee in GB during 1950s.