Estelle B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Estelle B., who was born in Lask, Poland. She recounts a large, extended family; German invasion in 1939; ghettoization; hiding from round-ups; a public hanging; her older brother being taken as one of ten hostages and shot; round-up of the town's Jews to a church in 1942; transfer with her sister and another brother to the ?o?dz? ghetto; forced factory labor; deportation with her sister to Auschwitz in 1944; her sister sharing food and encouraging her; transfer with her sister to Neuko?lln; slave labor in a munitions factory; their transfer to Bergen-Belsen, Oranienburg and Ravensbru?ck; transfer to Sweden via Denmark in Swedish Red Cross busses prior to liberation (Folke Bernadotte negotiated this release); kindness from the Swedes; emigration to the United States in 1946 to join relatives (they treated her like their own child); assistance from HIAS; marriage; and the births of her children. Ms. B. discusses losing hope in the camps; the importance of her sister to her survival; nightmares and health problems resulting from her experiences; and difficulties sharing her story, even with her children, due to efforts to "block out" her painful memories. She shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
3 videocassettes
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
- B., Estelle.
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
- Svenska röda korset.
- HIAS (Agency)
- Oranienburg (Concentration camp)
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Lask.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar effects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Sisters.
- Forced labor.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Hiding.
- Nightmares.
Places
- Łódź ghetto.
- Neukölln (Berlin, Germany : Concentration Camp)
- Poland.
- Lask ghetto.
- Sweden.
- Denmark.
- Lask (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat