Herman H. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2083) [videorecording] / interviewed by Pam Goodman and Kathy Strochlic, May 22, 1990.

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

1 videorecording (1 hr., 57 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Haller, Herman. Interview 4189. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Herman H., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1924. He recounts that his parents were divorced; living with his mother; attending public school until 1935; transferring to a Jewish school due to anti-Jewish laws; destruction of his mother's furniture store on Kristallnacht; being sent with his younger brother to an uncle in Brussels; living with relatives in Antwerp, Brunoy, then being returned to Antwerp; learning his mother had emigrated to England and his father to Palestine; German invasion in 1940; he and his brother living on their own; being caught in a round-up in 1942; his brother's escape; forced labor on France's Atlantic coast for Organisation Todt; hospitalization in Boulogne; deportation to Auschwitz via Malines; attending brick-laying school; working in a Krupp factory; trading with Polish workers for food and cigarettes; a privileged job as a mechanic; smuggling letters between male and female prisoners; trading with Polish civilian workers for food and sharing it with others; women smuggling explosives to the Sonderkommando that blew up a crematorium; a death march and train transport to Gross-Rosen in January 1945; transfer to Bolkenhain; a death march to Wrocław, then train transport to Buchenwald; life-saving assistance from prisoners who ran the camp; liberation by United States troops; hospitalization in Weimar; returning to Brussels; assistance from the Joint and HIAS; reunion with his brother; emigrating to join relatives in the United States; and marriage. Mr. H. notes having nightmares for several years after the war and his daughters' current interest in his experiences. He shows photographs and documents.

June 01, 2002

Herman H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2083). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Herman H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2083). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)