Elisheva Z. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Elisheva Z., who was born in 1931 to a Vishnitz Hasidic family in Sighet, Romania. She recalls Hungarian occupation; general disbelief of reports of annihilation of Jews from a man returning from Poland; German occupation; ghettoization; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau with her family in May 1944; prisoners informing them how to survive selection; encountering Gisella Perl, whom she knew in Sighet, and who often helped her in camp; separation from her mother (whom she never saw again); saving her shoes (she still has them); her sisters trading their food for medicine for her when she had typhus; disappearance of one friend whom she still mentions in memorial prayers; male prisoners tossing food to them; and praying every morning for bread. Mrs. Z. recounts transfer with her sisters to Torgau; the birth of a baby in their barrack; writing poems and keeping a diary; a German worker giving her food; liberation by United States troops; and living in a hotel in Leipzig. She emphasizes the importance of her sisters and friends to her survival.

2 videocassettes