Description
Object description
Polish Jewish child in Chodecz, Poland, 1927-1940; inmate of Łódź Ghetto, Poland, 5/1940-8/1944; inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland and Stuffhof Concentration Camp, Germany, 8/1944-11/1944
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as schoolchild in Chodecz, Poland, 1927-1939: family; relationship with grandfather; education; multi-cultural nature of town; friendship with ethnic German boy; family life; relations between Polish and Jewish schoolchildren; problems of obtaining visa to leave; political/religious outlook of town's Jewish population; Jewish religious life; town market; relations with gypsies; arrival of German Army, 9/1939; ritual bathing; Jewish festivities.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of period as schoolchild in Chodecz, Poland, 1939-1940: ethnic Germans reaction to arrival of German forces; allocation to work for German Army officer; grandfather's reaction to German occupation; leaving German officer's employ; witnessing massacre of Jewish civilians in ravine; German humiliation of Jewish men with beards; removal of able bodied men. Recollections of period as inmate in Łódź Ghetto in Poland, 5/1940-8/1944: move into ghetto, 5/1940; inadequacy of rations; death of grandfather; fate of sister; escape from selection; work in metal factory; behaviour of denouncers; need to know someone on Jewish council; fear of Germans entering ghetto; memories of Chaim Rumkowski.
REEL 3 Continues: protection received from Leon Chimowicz in metal factory; gaining metal working skills in factory; question of resistance; writing down of experiences; death of father and burial, 4/1941; nature of work in metal factory; visit by Albert Speer to factory; selection of 500 metal workers to leave ghetto; march from ghetto to station; Schutzstaffel (SS) punishment of inmates at station. Aspects of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 1944: train journey to camp; reaction to arrival in camp; selection procedure; smell of burning flesh from crematoria; showering; removal to former Gypsy Camp; German treatment of non-Jewish inmates. Aspects of period as inmate in Stutthof Concentration Camp in Germany, 1944: selection to transfer to camp.
REEL 4 Continues: reaction to treatment; ability to wake up in time for Appell; threat of theft of bread; problems with lice; treatment of incontinent inmates; question of survival; selection to load machines; degree of awareness of progress of war; behaviour of Kapos; escape from death march and hiding in cigarette factory, 2/1945.
