Videotape testimony of Moshe G., who was born in Końskie, Poland in 1928, the fifth of six sons. He recalls his father was Hasidic; a comfortable life; German invasion; attending cheder; his father's arrest, then release weeks later; anti-Jewish restrictions, including wearing the star; his father hiding his store merchandise with a non-Jewish friend; his bar mitzvah in 1941; forced labor; the Polish supervisor who knew his father safeguarding him; former Polish customers continuing to buy merchandise from his father, which provided them with food; losing his belief in God; hiding with his family during round-ups in November 1942; deportation to Skarżysko-Kamienna with his father and three brothers in November 1943 (his mother and youngest brother remained and did not survive); slave labor in a HASAG factory; his father purchasing milk for him and his brothers when they were ill; a Polish civilian worker giving him soap; groups of prisoners praying; brief transfer to Częstochowa, then to Buchenwald; transfer with his brothers to Schlieben; an easy assignment because he was so young; running from an explosion that injured him; and treatment in the local hospital.

Mr. G. relates his transfer to the Buchenwald hospital (his brothers faked injuries to join him); sympathetic treatment by a Czech prisoner-doctor; visiting his father; transfer by himself to Dora; a privileged assignment as a messenger due to his German speaking ability; reassignment digging trenches when it was learned he was Jewish; public hanging of an escapee; transfer to Bergen-Belsen; corpses strewn throughout the camp; liberation by British troops; registering to go to Sweden, despite his desire for revenge; traveling to Malmö via Lübeck; kindness from the Swedes; joining a group training to emigrate to Palestine; learning in Stockholm that his father and brothers had survived; illegal emigration in winter 1947; interdiction by the British; incarceration in Cyprus; assistance from the Joint; arrival in Israel; living on kibbutzim; and marriage in 1949. Mr. G. discusses his father's and brothers' lives in the United States and Israel; visiting Końskie with his son; a trip to Sweden in 1979 at the invitation of the Swedish government; and nightmares resulting from his experiences.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) > Personal narratives.

World War, 1939-1945 > Personal narratives, Jewish.

World War, 1939-1945 > Children.

World War, 1939-1945 > Atrocities.

Concentration camp inmates > Religious life.

Palestine > Emigration and immigration.