Frederick T. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1932) [videorecording] / interviewed by Toby Blum-Dobkin, December 18, 1991 and March 17, 1992.

New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1991 and 1992.

2 videorecordings (3 hr., 46 min., and 3 hr., 21 min.) : col.

English

Videotape testimony of Frederick T., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1923. Mr. T. recalls his family moving to Benešov, then Prague; their assimilated lifestyle; his mother's death in 1932; increasing anti-Jewish restrictions; expulsion from gymnasium in 1939; his father obtaining false papers for him; working as a non-Jew on a farm for a year (the owners knew he was Jewish); returning to Prague when he was exposed; forced labor in another location beginning in October 1941; transfer to Theresienstadt in March 1943; reunion with his father; learning a great deal from him during their visits; his father's deportation to Auschwitz (he perished); sham improvements for a Red Cross visit and propaganda film; attending organized lectures by prisoners; deportation to Auschwitz in October 1944; placement in the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager); the pervasive smell of burning; transfer to Kaufering; slave labor; starvation rations; assistance from an SS man; liberation by United States troops; convalescing in Bad Wörishofen; returning to Prague; a nine-month hospitalization; moving to Paris with his future wife in October 1946; beginning his career as an artist; emigration to the United States via Canada in 1952; his wife's death; and remarriage. Mr. T. describes obsessive thoughts of food and being sustained in camps by thoughts of German defeat; pervasive, painful memories and vivid visual memories of Auschwitz that influence his art; and speaking to groups about his experiences.

June 01, 2002

Frederick T. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1932). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Frederick T. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1932). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)

Artists.