Henry A. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4296) [videorecording] / interviewed by Barbara Hadley Katz and Helen Katz, June 8, 2004.

New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 2004.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 20 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Adler, Henry. Interview 24020. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Henry A., who was born in Jasło, Poland in 1922. He recounts cordial relations with non-Jews (many assisted him when he escaped in 1943); German invasion; fleeing to the Soviet zone; imprisonment in Lʹvov; release three weeks later; returning home; ghettoization in 1941; moving to Jedlicze in late 1942; selection to work in a refinery (his father and brother were deported and killed); placing his young cousin with a non-Jew (she survived); transfer to the Rzeszów ghetto in late 1942; transfer to Płaszów; surgery without anesthesia; escaping four weeks later; hiding with his mother's non-Jewish friend; entering Szebnie; transfer two weeks later to another camp, then to Auschwitz in August 1944; transfer to Laurahütte, then Mauthausen; slave labor in a quarry; transfer to Hannover five days later; a death march to Bergen-Belsen; liberation by British troops; living in Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; assistance from UNRRA; moving to Stuttgart; marriage; assistance from the Joint; learning from the Red Cross of friends and relatives who had survived; returning to his hometown; threats from members of the AK; leaving for Kraków, then Stuttgart; and an uncle sponsoring his and his wife's emigration to the United States in 1949. Mr. A. notes reluctance to share his experiences after the war; suspending judgment of cruel kapos, regardless of their ethnicity, since they were trying to save their own lives; and testifying at a war crime trial in Germany. He shows photographs, documents, and a book written by his brother-in-law.

September 29, 2004

Henry A. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4296). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Henry A. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4296). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)