Clara W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Clara W., who was born in Csenger, Hungary in 1924, one of four children. She recalls a large, extended family and their orthodoxy; one aunt's emigration to the United States in 1938; deteriorating conditions for Jews after Kristallnacht; her brother's and brother-in-law's draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion; moving in with her married sister in another town; her brother's death notice in 1940; forced relocation in Mezo?csa?t; transfer to the Miskolc ghetto; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; separation from her sister and baby (they did not survive); transfer ten days later to P?aszo?w; slave labor; a severe beating; friends giving her extra food; transfer back to Auschwitz, then Augsburg; factory labor for seven months; French Christian prisoners providing war news which gave her hope; transfer to Mu?hldorf; train deportation six days later; a mass shooting of more than half the prisoners; an Allied bombing (she hid under the train); liberation from the train by United States troops in Feldafing; living in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; learning her immediate family had all perished; marriage; moving to Hamburg; and emigration to join her aunt in the United States. Ms. W. tells of illness after the war; her continuing belief in God; and frequently discussing her experiences with others, including her children.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive. This testimony can only be used for scholarly and educational purposes.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- W., Clara, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Mühldorf (Concentration camp)
- DP-Camp Bergen-Belsen.
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Faith.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Jews -- Hungary -- Miskolc.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Refugee camps.
- Mass killings.
- Postwar effects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
Places
- Hungary.
- Augsburg (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Miskolc ghetto.
- Miskolc (Hungary)
- Feldafing (Germany)
- Csenger (Hungary)
- Mezőcsát (Hungary)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat