Holdings Information
Bibliographic Record Display
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Author/Creator:S., Walter, 1918?-
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Title:Walter S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-333) [videorecording] / interviewed by Sidney Elsner, July 9, 1984.
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Published/Created:Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984.
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Physical Description:1 videorecording (2 hr., 45 min.) : col.
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Yale Holdings
Holdings Record Display
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Location:LSF-Physical copy for request by library staff only
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Call Number: MS 1322
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Status:Not Checked Out
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Digital testimony (mssa.hvt.0333)
For information on where you can view this digital testimony, click here.
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Location:LSF-Physical copy for request by library staff only
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Notes:2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
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Summary:Videotape testimony of Werner S., who was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany in approximately 1918. He recalls his family's affluence; his father's service in World War I; close relations with non-Jews; expulsion from gymnasium after Hitler's ascent; working in the building trades; his sister's emigration to Kenya; his father's strong German identity; assistance from non-Jews, including a nun; gradual anti-Jewish restrictions; Kristallnacht (he and his father were among the few males not arrested); deportation with his parents to the Rīga ghetto in January 1942; a privileged position as a bricklayer; surviving through smuggling; transfer with his parents to Stutthof; separation from his mother; increasing physical debilitation and frequent beatings; escaping with a friend from a death march; identifying themselves as German soldiers when they were caught (they were both blond); imprisonment; transfer to the non-Jewish section of Stutthof; escaping with his friend from another death march; hiding on a farm; liberation by Soviet troops; living in Bydgoszcz; returning to Latvia, searching for his parents; learning they had perished; living in Berlin; emigration to join an uncle in the United States in 1949; and marriage to an American in 1951. Mr. S. notes anger at Hollywood representations of the Holocaust; attributing his survival to luck, looking German, and knowing the language; his strong belief in God, although not in organized religion; and fighting prejudice as a memorial to those killed in the Holocaust.
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Cite as:Walter S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-333). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
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Subjects:S., Walter, 1918?-
Stutthof (Concentration camp)
Holocaust survivors.
Video tapes.
Men.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish.
Jewish ghettos.
Jews--Latvia--Rīga.
Kristallnacht, 1938.
Forced labor.
Death marches.
Escapes.
World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, German.
Faith.
Mothers and sons.
Fathers and sons.
Gelsenkirchen (Germany)
Germany.
Bydgoszcz (Poland)
Berlin (Germany)
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Subjects (Local Yale):Antisemitism--Prewar.
Crystal Night, 1938.
Aid by non-Jews.
Mutual aid.
Hiding.
Postwar experiences.
Rīga ghetto.
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Genre/Form:Oral histories (document genres)
Link to this page: https://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4293431