Description
Object description
Czechoslovakian civilian living in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1938-1942; inmate in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia, 7/1942-10/1944 and Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 10/1944-11/1944; forced labourer in Częstochowa Labour Camp, Poland, 11/1944-12/1944; inmate in Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 12/1944-4/1945; civilian in Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovak Republic, 1945-1948; escaped from Czechoslovak Republic to United States of America via Germany and Luxembourg, 1948-1949
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1925-1942: family; family religious background and outlook including conversion to Catholicism, 1933; discovery of Jewish background. Recollections of period as civilian in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1938-1942: reaction to Munich Agreement, 9/1938; loss of family friends following German invasion; nature of Czech people; personal effects of experiences and those of brother, Jan Hartman; later motivation for survival of concentration camps; story of later search for girlfriend, 1948; German invasion of Czechoslovakia, 3/1939; gradual changes to life including confiscation of property; morale of family.
REEL 2 Continues: support received from friends; relationship with brother Jan Hartman; parent's attitude to possibility of escape; events following assassination of Deputy Reichsproteketor of Bohemia and Moravia Reinhard Heydrich, 4/6/1942; opinion of reasons for absence of organised resistance; registration; Nazi and later Communist, propaganda; comparison of Czechoslovak and Polish Jews; opinion of treatment received under Nazi rule; warning received of forthcoming deportation; preparations made for deportation. Recollections of period as inmate in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia, 7/1942-10/1944: reception and processing on arrival; reaction of family members and self to situation; separation from parents; reaction of inmates to his and brother Jan Hartman's uncircumcised state; status of camp.
REEL 3 Continues: description of camp; details of work undertaken; theft of food; rations; problems with night sight; details of hospitalisation with typhoid including blood transfusion received from Pavel Grossman; test undertaken prior to discharge from camp hospital; work as delivery boy; playing football; father Karel Hartman's performance in an opera; further description of camp; knowledge of wider situation and organisation in camp; introduction to Jewish culture; opinion of nature of camp; visits from Swiss Red Cross; clothing worn; reasons for survival; question of ability of body to recover; art work done by parents and brother Jan Hartman in camp; physical labour undertaken; news received from outside world; story of aunt Jana Horcickova; question of escape; contact with parents and deterioration of their health; further details of father Karel Hartman involvement with opera; trick played in dormitory; coping with situation; removal of dead.
REEL 4 Continues: health and length of stay in camp; details of deportations; reasons for not attempting to escape. Aspects of journey from details of journey from Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 10/1944: alcohol consumed, final contact with parents; knowledge of destination. Aspects of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 10/1944-11/1944: reception, scenes and processing on arrival; story of homosexual advance in showers; brother's popularity with homosexuals at Theresienstadt Concentration Camp; issue of clothing; story of machine gun fire; punishment given to sportsman Jiri Taussig and later contact with him in United States of America; roll calls; story of man with hernia; details of camp; scenes in camp and morale; physical state; contact with guards; selection for transfer; policy to not volunteer. Aspects of period as inmate in Częstochowa Labour Camp, Poland, 11/1944-12/1944: issue of boots; morning procedures and rations; details of work; treatment received from Kapos; talking about food and need for will to survive.
REEL 5 Continues: reaction to daily life in camp; end to news of war; work undertaken; question of possibility of escape. Aspect of journey from Częstochowa Labour Camp, Poland to Buchwald Concentration Camp, 12/1944: opinion of reason for move to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany; description of march; train journey to camp including story of fight with fellow inmate; deaths on journey; separation from brother Jan Hartman. Aspects of period as inmate in Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 12/1944-4/1945: background of fellow inmates; contact with brother Jan Hartman; survival techniques; morale; health problems including treatment received and eating of scabs; story of theft and punishment; method of escaping entrainment away from camp; camp rumours prior to liberation; arrival of United States Army troops, 11/4/1945; former inmates' drowning of camp guards; looting of Ilse Koch's house; walk away from camp and visit to farm; return to camp and reunion with brother Jan Hartman; medical treatment received. Aspects of period as civilian in Prague, Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovak Republic, 1945-1948: journey to Prague, 1945; treatment received on tram; request from neighbour; details of flat.
REEL 6 Continues: care received from aunt; education; story of uncle's return from North Africa and later imprisonment by Communist regime; financial situation and regaining of family property; political situation including story of German businessman in Prague; Czech attitude to eastern and western powers; receiving news of parents death; comparison of experiences with those of brother and parents; recovery of health; coping with situations and completion of aim to survive to have sex; changes to body in concentration camps and after release; talking about experiences and reasons for removal of camp tattoos; discussion of own views of Judaism and Israel.
REEL 7 Continues: knowledge of Jan Masaryk; political situation in Czechoslovakia; holidays in Western Europe including warnings received about return to Czechoslovakia, 1947; organisation and execution of Communist coup, 2/1948; Czech attitude to conflict; details of Communist propaganda; earlier idealism of Czech communists and pressure to join the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia; changes to University of Prague; decision to leave for Western Europe. Aspects of escape and journey from Prague, Czechoslovak Republic to Luxembourg via Germany, 12/1948-1/1949: rejected plans for escape; plans to ski out of country on 31/12/1948; details of those travelled with and friend who would not go; ski from Zelezna Ruda into Germany; arrest and period in Ludwigsburg Displaced Persons Camp, Germany.
REEL 8 Continues: contact with Sudeten Germans; details of Ludwigsburg Displaced Persons Camp, Germany; interrogations; contact with brother's Jan Hartman's future wife, Genevieve in Paris, France; man assisted in escape; details of own exit from camp and journey across Germany; crossing of border into Luxembourg including contact with civilians in Germany and talk with German border guard. Aspects of period as civilian in Luxembourg, 1949: journey to Luxembourg City; gaining of refugee status; links between Luxembourg and Czechoslovakia; impressions of civilians; employment on farm; story of sacking after meal with government officials; employment in café; relations with women; work of brother Jan Hartman for a bakery; organisation of emigration to United States of America.
REEL 9 Continues: prior recollection of Soviet behaviour in Prague, Czechoslovakia following liberation, 1945; subsequent separation of Soviet Army troops and Czech civilians; Soviet military discipline; jokes about Soviet behaviour and reflections on Czech people; details of Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia; warning of deportation from Luxembourg to France. Recollections of emigration to United States of America, 1949: organisation of move to United States of America on a scholarship; voyage to New York; arrival and journey to Hastings; character of people of Nebraska; transition to American life and education at Hastings College, Hastings; details of father-in-law from first marriage to Mary Lou Kostal; story of meeting future wife Mary Lou Kostal; organisation of speaking tour about experiences; transportation; talks in Nebraska prior to tour; details of Czech immigrants; content of speeches.
REEL 10 Continues: success of tour and types of venues spoken at; story of Jan Hartman's disappearance in Seattle; experiences and reflections on tour; extension to education at Hastings College, Hastings; reasons for not talking about Holocaust on tours; background of family name; education at Princeton University; discussion of McCarthyism; story of speech given to John Birch Society; contact with former member of Schutzstaffel (SS); brother Jan Hartman's discomfort with speaking tours.
REEL 11 Continues: details of visa; arrest by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); events leading up to deportation including marriage; immigration from Halifax, Canada; discussion of marriage to Mary Lou Kostal; civilian employment; discussion of son, Peri Hartman's marriage to a Jewish woman and reasons for own anti-Semitism. Reflections of Holocaust: coping with life in concentration camps including details of Kapos; explanation of philosophy of dilution; discussion of race; affects of Holocaust experience.
REEL 12 Continues: use of experiences as benchmark against negative events; breakdown of first marriage; stories of George and Jan Hartman each talking about Holocaust experiences for first time; reactions to brother Jan Hartman's interview with Imperial War Museum oral history interview; discussion of Jan Hartman's life and family; cannibalism witnessed in concentration camps; coping with events; suicides in camps; method of keeping warm at Częstochowa Labour Camp, Poland; story of apple core thrown to inmates; discussion of the thin line between civilisation and immorality.
REEL 13 Continues: degree of homosexuality in concentration camps; presence of Zionists in concentration camps; coping with terrible events and scenes including discussion of and reactions to beating received at Częstochowa Labour Camp, Poland; reaction to punishment received following theft of food; role passing on knowledge of Holocaust; opinion of film Schindler's List; outlook on future; visits to and opinions of Germany.
REEL 14 Continues: importance of Imperial War Museum oral history interview; connections with family of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; discussion of Madeleine Albright's work; comparison of American and European outlook; effects of Holocaust experience on later life.