Allen R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1159) [videorecording] / interviewed by Lucille B. Ritvo and Joanne Weiner Rudof, April 25, 1989.

New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1989.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 2 min.) : col.

English

Videotape testimony of Allen R., who was born in Koniecpol, Poland, in 1916 and raised in Sosnowiec. Mr. R. describes prewar antisemitism; capture during the German invasion while in the Polish army; escape and return home; seizure of the family salvage business; moving to the Srodula ghetto; sorting shoes of Auschwitz deportees; and volunteering for forced labor at a small camp in Silesia, to save his wife and family (most of whom he never saw again). He relates transport to Auschwitz with other Sosnowiec Jews; transfer to Warsaw; clearing rubble in the destroyed ghetto; finding hidden valuables which he traded for food; narrowly avoiding execution when a kapo informed on him; a beating which still affects him; the death march to the train; transport to Mühldorf; his appointment as Blockältester of the Sosnowiec Jews; and liberation by American troops. He discusses his job as manager of the food warehouse at the Feldafing displaced persons camp; meeting his second wife there; emigrating to the United States in 1949; establishing a successful salvage firm with his brother; and regret at his children's reluctance to ask about his wartime experience.

June 01, 2002

Allen R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1159). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Allen R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1159). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)