Ella and Leon S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Ella S., who was born in Bielsko-Bia?a, Poland in 1918, and her husband Leon S., who was born in Lv?ov, Ukraine in 1918. Mr. S. describes details of his childhood in Kolomyya as the youngest of six children; attending high school where he edited a literary journal; training as a violinist; attending medical school; and anti-Semitic incidents throughout. Mrs. S. describes her family of four sisters; her parents' emphasis upon higher education; attending medical school in Lv?ov, where she met her husband; the Soviet occupation of Lv?ov and the hardships that resulted; their marriage in 1941 under false names; the German occupation; the death of her father in an Aktion in 1941 and her mother in 1942 in Belzec; and being sent with her husband to an area outside of Lv?ov to deal with a typhus epidemic. Mr. S. describes contracting typhus; hiding in a Ukrainian village with his wife where they treated all the peasants; learning of the deaths of all the members of his family; obtaining official documents for his wife and himself as Christians; several narrow escapes when they were almost discovered; many episodes in different places where they hid; working as exterminators killing lice to prevent typhus in Polish villages; and being drafted into the Polish military as a doctor in 1944.
Extent and Medium
3 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
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.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- S., Ella, -- 1918-
- S., Leon, -- 1918-
Subjects
- Husband and wife.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Polish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- Soviet occupation.
- False papers.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
Places
- Lʹviv (Ukraine)
- Bielsko-Biała (Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Częstochowa (Poland)
- Lv́ov (Ukraine)
- Lublin (Poland)
- Lwów (Poland)
- Kolomyi︠a︡ (Ukraine)
- Poland.
- Ukraine.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc