George was liberated by the American forces in May 1945. He had spent three years during the war in ten different concentration camps. In 1945 he was in the Woebbelin camp in Germany. After liberation, he spent over two years in various displaced persons camps. George immigrated to the United States in October 1947.
I had basically deteriorated very badly physically. I couldn't, I couldn't walk very well. My, my hip hurt me, and I was really very weak and, and reaching the state in which a prisoner no longer cared whether he or she survived. Now, I did not reach that point, I still, when I saw people running out of the corner of my eye, I still got up and went looking what was happening. But I was in very bad shape, and I think if I wasn't liberated, in a matter of days, I would have been one of those bodies that was laying in mountains of dead in front of the toilets. I, I would guess that I had maybe a week or ten days to...left, and if I wasn't liberated and was not given additional food and was allowed to rest and sit in the sun I wouldn't have recovered.
Why are survivor testimonies important in studying the Holocaust?
How can personal testimonies and oral histories provide insights into the challenges Allied forces faced when encountering and documenting the evidence of Nazi atrocities?
How do oral histories differ from other primary sources such as artifacts, documents, and photographs? What can we learn from different types of primary sources?
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