Suchedniów is my home. Jakub Berkman tells about his and his family’s fate during the Shoah

INTERVIEWEE: Jakub Berkman
INTERVIEWEE’S BIOGRAPHY AND DETAILED THEMES DEVELOPMENT: sztetl.org.pl/...
INTERVIEWER: Klara Jackl
OPERATOR: Przemysław Jaczewski
RECORDING DATE: 19th June 2017
RECORDING COPYRIGHT: POLIN Museum of the History of the Polish Jews
THE MOST IMPORTANT THEMES:
00:00:06 - The trauma of war, the need to remember the Shoah.
00:10:18 - The need to talk about World War II and anti-Semitism.
00:16:26 - Contemporary forms of anti-Semitism, migration crisis.
00:21:45 - Shoah.
00:26:00 - Views on contemporary terrorism.
00:30:55 - Information on the interviewee’s family, education as the first step towards the assimilation of the interviewee's family.
00:38:33 - Situation of Polish Jews before the war, knowledge of languages.
00:42:04 - The interviewee’s grandfather’s factory, the interviewee’s great-grandfather on his mother’s side, the grandfather on his mother’s side.
00:56:26 - Meeting of the interviewee’s parents, father’s siblings, mother’s siblings.
01:00:00 - Father’s education.
01:03:28 - Parents’ marriage, the place of residence of the family, the cuisine in the interviewee's home, Jewish holidays in the interviewee’s home.
01:08:30 - Learning at a Jewish school, a letter to an aunt, no sense of difference between Jews and Poles, no experience of anti-Semitism before 1939.
01:12:34 - Memories from school.
01:14:56 - The economic situation of the family, visiting Cracow and the Wawel castle in August 1939.
01:17:32 - The outbreak of war, escape to the East, return to Suchedniów and detention by the Germans, beating of an uncle.
01:24:42 - Repressions against Jews.
01:25:50 - Decision to leave for Brest, return of father and grandfather to Suchedniów.
01:29:06 - Information about the Shoah, ghetto in Suchedniów.
01:31:27 - Plans to rescue the family, acquaintance with Dr. Witold Poziomski and his help.
01:34:11 - Relocation of family members in the homes of Polish families, payment for hiding, security measures.
01:38:37 - Leopold von Krauze, plans to hide the parents.,
01:43:51 - Deportation to the Majdanek camp, hiding the parents in the basement and the sacrifice of the grandparents, hiding the parents with Leopold von Krauze.
01:53:13 - Placing the interviewee and his sister in hiding, false documents, saying goodbye to the grandfather.
01:59:08 - Circumcision of the interviewee's grandson, giving names according to the Jewish tradition.
02:03:02 - Arrival in Warsaw with his sister, black-mailers.
02:05:24 - Arrival at the church of the Holy Cross and meeting Father Cybulski, baptism.
02:10:00 - Stay in a monastery in Zielonka, stay with a teacher in Warsaw, arrival of Leopold von Krauze.
02:15:17 - Journey from Warsaw to Suchedniów.
02:18:57 - Living with Leopold von Krauze, the hideout in the attic.
02:25:50 - Learning in secret.
02:27:51 - Entering adulthood and receiving arsenic from his father.
02:30:09 - A threat from soldiers, the courage of Helena von Krauze.
02:35:15 - Visits to Poland after 1992, finding the graves of Leopold and Helena von Krauze.
02:40:28 - Help provided by Wacław Pajek, living with the Pajek family, views on the commemoration of those who rescued Jews during the war, reflection on the current situation of Jews.
02:49:09 - Visits to Suchedniów, fate of the interviewee’s sister, family members who survived the Shoah.
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