Leopold K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3174) [videorecording] / interviewed by Michel Sobelman, May 12, 1995.

Kraków, Poland : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1995.

1 videorecording (2 hr.) : col.

Polish

This testimony is for the exclusive use of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Any other use is prohibited without the explicit permission of the donor.

Videotape testimony of Leopold K., who was born in Peremyshli︠a︡ny, Poland in 1918. He recalls his family's history as famous klezmer musicians; attending a multi-ethnic school; studies in L'viv; friendships with non-Jews; Soviet occupation; German invasion; escape east; returning home after Germans overtook them; formation of the ghetto and Judenrat; working in a hospital; a mass killing which included his father; building a bunker under their house; hiding in an outhouse, which still haunts him, and in the bunker; receiving food from non-Jewish friends; reluctance to escape from the ghetto; escaping execution after playing music for the German police; deportation to Jaktorów concentration camp; working in Krosenko quarry; playing in a camp band; teaching an SS-guard to play a waltz under threat of severe punishment; a German for whom he played bringing Mr. K.'s mother to Jaktorów; transfer to Kurowice; being abused while playing to a group of drunken Germans; making contact with A.K. partisans; "stealing" weapons for them; his mother being shot during his escape to the partisans with his brother; fighting Germans and Ukrainian partisans; writing songs and playing for his platoon; returning to Peremyshli︠a︡ny; moving to L'viv; joining the Polish Peoples Army; playing for the soldiers; meeting American troops at the Laba River; living in Kraków; organizing a singing and dancing group; studying conducting at the Academy of Music; becoming the music director of the Jewish Theater in Warsaw; and writing songs and music for film and theater.

June 01, 2002

Leopold K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3174). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Leopold K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3174). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)

Musicians.