Jack L. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1604) [videorecording] / interviewed by Rochelle Karp and Marsha Grossman, May 9, 1991.

Ventnor, N.J. : Federation of Jewish Agencies of Atlantic County/Stockton State College, Holocaust Oral History Project, 1991.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 59 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Louis, Jack. Interview 39947. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Jack L., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1910. In an unusually detailed testimony, he recounts his musical education; emigration to Amersfoort, Holland; his musical career; activities in the Dutch underground; deportation to Westerbork, then Auschwitz; and witnessing atrocities. Mr. L. recalls transfer to Monowitz; work for I.G. Farben; teaching accordion to a German officer resulting in extra food and privileges; giving food to a boy whom he took home with him after the war; the influx of Hungarian Jews and acceleration of killing; work in the musicians unit; and the hanging of prisoners who attempted to escape, and others randomly chosen for retribution, including a Polish priest who volunteered in place of another. He describes leaving Auschwitz January 18, 1945; transport to Nordhausen; prisoners sabotaging V2 rockets by urinating on parts; public hanging of saboteurs who were caught; transfer to Bergen-Belsen; and liberation by American forces. Mr. L. tells of prisoners killing German guards; returning to Amersfoort; enlisting in the Canadian army in which he played in the band; and emigration to the United States. He discusses confronting Wernher Von Braun about Nordhausen and his complicity in events there and he shows a book which was a gift from the Dutch underground.

June 01, 2002

Jack L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1604). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Jack L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1604). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)

Musicians.