Yakov S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1812) [videorecording] / interviewed by Dina Choshen and Raphael Rozner, November 20, 1985 and February 26, 1986.

Ramat Aviv, Israel : Beth Hatefutsoth, Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, 1985-1986.

2 videorecordings (2 hr., and 1 hr., 43 min.) : col.

Hebrew

This testimony is in Hebrew.

Videotape testimony of Yakov S., who was born in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland in 1924. He recalls his family's Hasidism; attending yeshivot in Tomaszów and Łódź; harassment by non-Jews; his bar mitzvah; German invasion in September 1939; deportation to Częstochowa a few days later; slave labor constructing a concentration camp; his anguish at being forced to work on Yom Kippur; transfer to Görlitz, then Rawitsch; praying for help; transfer to Buchenwald; sleeping next to a rabbi; a non-Jew smuggling medicine to him; sharing it with others; suffering after the rabbi died; observing Hanukkah and Yom Kippur in secret; transfer to Auschwitz/Birkenau; a Polish civilian worker bringing him food and explosives that he passed to the underground; their revolt and destruction of a gas chamber; a severe beating; refusing to divulge names; hospitalization; friends saving him from selections; transfer to Buna/Monowitz; a death march to Gleiwitz in April 1945; transport in open freight trains to Buchenwald; Czechs throwing them food en route; transfer to Altenburg; a Polish non-Jew bringing him extra food; liberation; exacting some revenge on Nazi guards; traveling to Prague, Plzeň, then Italy; illegal emigration to Palestine; incarceration in Cyprus; meeting his future wife; marriage; and arrival in Israel. Mr. S. notes his orthodoxy and continuing belief in God, and nightmares resulting from his experiences.

June 01, 2002

Yakov S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1812). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Yakov S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1812). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)