Aron S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2381) [videorecording] / interviewed by David Herman and Elliot Perry, January 31, 1991.

London, England : British Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1991.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 50 min.) : col.

English

Videotape testimony of Aron S., who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1930. He recalls Sabbath and holiday meals at his maternal grandparents; attending a Jewish school; cordial relations with non-Jews; summers with a priest's family; German occupation in 1940; his bar mitzvah on July 10, 1943; going into hiding with his family on October 1, 1943 (as did most Danish Jews), waiting for boats to Sweden; being caught; one week imprisonment; transfer to Gedser; transport by boat to Warnemunde, Germany, then cattle trains to Theresienstadt; separation from his mother and sisters upon arrival, then from his father in December; brief hospitalization; living in a boys' barrack until summer 1944; transfer with his family and all other Danes to special accommodations; receiving Red Cross packages; trading and sharing the extra food; sham improvements for a Red Cross visit; seeing a pile of corpses (he still has nightmares about this); having to load deportation trains, which included many of his friends, knowing they were bound for Auschwitz; Swedish buses arriving in April 1945 to transport the Danes; observing the destruction of Dresden and Potsdam en route; a hero's welcome in Denmark; staying in Odense en route to Sweden; living in a camp; returning to Denmark after the war; becoming an architect; marriage; his son and daughter attending Jewish camps; divorce; emigration to England; and his son's death in Israel. Mr. S. discusses his reluctance to share his experiences until 1978, and finding his family's names when visiting Theresienstadt in 1990. He shows photographs.

June 01, 2002

Aron S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2381). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Aron S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2381). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)