Sylvia M. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 0526
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Sylvia M., who was born in Vilna, Poland (presently Vilnius, Lithuania) in approximately 1926, one of three sisters. She recounts attending a Jewish school; increasing antisemitism in the late 1930s; Soviet occupation in 1939; attending free public high school; brief Lithuanian independence; an antisemitic riot; Soviet reoccupation in 1940; German invasion in 1941; her father's forced labor; learning her uncle had been killed with many others; ghettoization in September 1941; her older sister smuggling food; transfer to Keilis due to her older sister's privileged position a furrier; her younger sister's selection (she never saw her again); deportation with her parents and older sister to Ri?ga, then Stutthof; separation from her father (she never saw him again); her sister risking her life to obtain extra food for their mother; transfer to Mu?hldorf; Hungarian prisoners sharing food; slave labor washing clothes; liberation by United States troops; living in Feldafing displaced persons camp; learning her parents and older sister had not survived; attending an ORT school; marriage to a survivor in 1946; her daughter's birth in 1948; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Ms. M. discusses nightmares resulting from her experiences, and not sharing her experiences with anyone, including her children, until they were older.

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

Corporate Bodies

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Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.