Daniel Bennahmias oral history interviews, 1986 June 24 and 1991 November 12

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Summary

Creators:
Bennahmias, Daniel, Barnett, Lisa, Braun, Ilana, Mauldin, Denise, Netter, Bea, and Neuberg, Joel
Abstract:
This collection comprises one sound disc with accompanying transcript and one videotape of two oral history interviews with Daniel Bennahmias conducted by the Holocaust Media Project on June 24, 1986 and by the Holocaust Oral History Project on November 12, 1991.
Extent:
0.3 Linear feet comprising one sound disc with accompanying transcript of 27 pages, and one videotape with a total running time of 2:40
Language:
Preferred citation:

Daniel Bennahmias oral history interviews - OHP.8334, Tauber Holocaust Library, JFCS Holocaust Center, San Francisco, California

Background

Scope and content:

This collection comprises one sound disc with accompanying transcript and one videotape of two interviews with Daniel Bennahmias. One interview was conducted by Joel Neuberg on June 24, 1986 on behalf of the Holocaust Media Project; the second interview was conducted by Bea Netter, Lisa Barnett and Ilana Braun on November 12, 1991 on behalf of the Holocaust Oral History Project. Daniel Bennahmias is a Holocaust survivor

The interviews describe Mr. Bennahmias experiences growing up in the Jewish community of Salonika in Greece; his and his family's incarceration in concentration camps by Greece because of their Italian citizenship; the occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany; his deportation first to a transit camp in Haidari and then to Auschwitz and his experiences there as a sonderkommando. The interview describes Mr. Bennahmias deportation to Mauthausen, Austria and then to Ebensee; his liberation by American troops; his subsequent reactions to the trauma of his concentration camp experience; his eventual immigration to the United States, and his marriage and career.

Biographical / historical:

Daniel Bennahmias was born in 1923 in Salonika, Greece, where he lived with his parents, Mark and Harriet. His father's family was from Italy, and had Italian citizenship. His father worked at the Bureau of Information in Salonika. During the period that Italy was at war with Greece, Italian citizens were imprisoned. When the Bennahmias family was released they moved to Athens in 1941, lived in the ghetto, and hid there during the period after 1943 when the Nazi occupiers began to deport Greek Jews.

The Bennahmias family was discovered in March of 1944, arrested, and imprisoned in Haidari concentration camp for one month, after which they were deported to Auschwitz. Mr. Bennahamias's parents were murdered upon arrival, and he was selected to be part of the sonderkommando unit. He worked in the crematoria until January 1945, when he was sent to Mauthausen, then Ebensee, in Austria. He was liberated by American troops in 1945.

After the war, he returned to Athens. He married and moved with his wife to the United States, where he got a chemistry degree at UC Berkeley. Mr. Bennahmias died October 22, 1994.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

There are no restrictions to access for this collection.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions to use for this collection.

Preferred citation:

Daniel Bennahmias oral history interviews - OHP.8334, Tauber Holocaust Library, JFCS Holocaust Center, San Francisco, California

Location of this collection:
JFCS Holocaust Center
2245 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115, US
Contact:
(415) 449-3717
HolocaustCenter@jfcs.org
Website