Videotape testimony of Alberto I., who was born in Rhodes, Italy (presently Greece) in 1927, one of ten children. He recounts three brothers and a sister emigrating to Congo; the early deaths of two younger siblings; cordial relations with local Greeks; attending a Catholic school; participating in fascist activities; enactment of Italian anti-Jewish laws; expulsion from the Fascist party and school; attending a Jewish school; destruction of their house in an Allied bombing; German occupation in 1943; a deportation order for all Jews; the Turkish consul saving Jews with Turkish citizenship; deportation with his parents, sister, and two brothers in July 1944 to Haidari; encountering a cousin who had been born in the United States and was released; a thirteen-day journey in cattle trains to Auschwitz/Birkenau in August; many deaths en route; separation from his parents (he never saw them again); the odor of burning flesh; slave labor constructing roads; speaking with his sister through barbed wire fences; forming a quorum to say prayers; observing Yom Kippur; transfer with the other Rhodians two weeks later to Charlottengrube; slave labor in a coal mine; Polish civilian miners sharing their food; and one brother's transfer.

Mr. I. recalls a death march, then train transfer to Mauthausen in January 1945; separation from his brother upon transfer to Ebensee; slave labor building a tunnel; public hangings; brief hospitalization; his brother-in-law's death; abandonment by German guards; prisoners killing kapos and local Germans; his inability to do so, but satisfaction that others took revenge; liberation by United States troops; being sent to Bolzano, Modena, then Bologna; hospitalization; learning his brothers had not survived; reunion with his sister in Rome; contacting his siblings in the Congo; emigration with his sister in May 1946 to join them; and returning to Brussels in 1962. Mr. I. discusses dehumanization in camps; moments when he lost his faith; learning to love again with help from a very loving sister; visiting Auschwitz where he said Kaddish for his parents and cried in Auschwitz for the first time; organizing a memorial service for all the Rhodian Jews, particularly those who had no surviving relatives; his deep sense of loss for his beloved Rhodian Jewish community; sharing his experiences with his granddaughter, but not his wife or children; a part of him that always remains in camp; physical maladies and nightmares resulting from his experiences; and wishing to be cremated to “end” like his parents.

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

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

Concentration camp inmates > Family relationships.

Concentration camp inmates > Religious life.

Concentration camps > Psychological aspects.

World War, 1939-1945 > Atrocities.