Oral history interview with Rudolph "Rudi" Herz, 1996.

ArchivalResource

Herz, Rudolph ("Rudi"), 1925-. Oral history interview with Rudolph "Rudi" Herz, 1996.

Oral history interview with Rudolph "Rudi" Herz, 1996.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52524874

Rudolph "Rudi" Herz, a survivor of the Holocaust, speaks to a class at the College of Charleston of his experiences during World War II, and his reflections on those events. Natives of Germany, Herz and his family were used to thinking of themselves as Germans first, and then Jews, although he learned soon after the events of Kristallnacht that his countrymen thought the reverse. During Kristallnacht, his family's apartment was spared destruction due to the presence of a picture of General Hindenburg on the wall. He speaks of the slow loss of civil rights of Jews in Germany. Because his father was a decorated war hero, his family was sent to the model camp Theresienstadt where treatment was fairly good. Eventually his family was taken to Auschwitz, in a part of the camp where they were kept in the dark regarding the mechanized killing going on. Eventually Herz and his brother were transferred out of Auschwitz and sent to work camps, where they labored making artificial fuel from coal. He was sent later to Mauthausen Concentration Camp, and survived a death march, as the inmates were herded back towards Germany in advance of the Russian troops. Herz was liberated by Americans in May 1945, and hearing that his younger brother had survived and was living in the United States, he emigrated there. In the 1950s, Holocaust survivors were discouraged from speaking of their experiences and were told to forget them. It was not until the publication of Elie Weisel's books, Herz says, that he and others began to open up and speak of his experiences. In a question and answer session, Herz speaks of the "moral sink" that the Nazi camp system encouraged, how degraded as a human being he was, and how un-contrite he feels modern day Germans are to the Holocaust. When asked if he can forgive his oppressors, Herz answers, quoting another survivor, "Only the dead can forgive."

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette : digital.Transcript : 16 p. ; 28 cm.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library