Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project
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Interviewer
Michael Hirsh
Publication Date
3-21-2022
Date
November 2008
Abstract
Coenraad Rood was born in the Netherlands and was first taken prisoners by the Nazis in 1942 at the age of twenty-four. Altogether, he was a prisoner at eleven different camps but spent the most time at Gleiwitz, where he was for over two years. In January 1945 the Nazis began to move him and their other prisoners from camp to camp, trying to avoid the Allies, and Rood ended up at Ampfing, a sub-camp of Mühldorf, where he was liberated by the 14th Armored Division. Conditions at Ampfing were primitive even by concentration camp standards: the inmates lived in covered ditches and had no food or water. On the day of liberation, Rood was lying semiconscious in the barracks when he heard shouting about Americans; as he was unable to move, an American soldier picked him up and carried him outside. After the war, Rood was reunited with his first wife; they lived in the Netherlands for fifteen years and immigrated to the United States in 1960. Rood, a professional tailor, published his memoir in Germany in 2002.
Keywords
World War II (1939-1945), Holocaust (1939-1945), Concentration camps, Concentration camps--Liberation, Holocaust survivors, Genocide, Crimes against humanity, Prisoners of war, Gliwice (Concentration camp), Mühldorf (Concentration camp), Ampfing (Concentration camp)
Extent
01:04:46; 30 page transcript
Subject: geographic
Gliwice (Poland); Ampfing (Germany); Mühldorf (Germany)
Language
English
Digital Date
2022
Media Type
Oral histories
Format
Digital Only
Identifier
C65-00116
Recommended Citation
Rood, Coenraad, "Coenraad Rood Oral History Interview" (2022). Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project. 103.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/concentration_OH/103
Rights Statement
