Rachel L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Rachel L., who was born in Che?m, Poland in 1924. Mrs. L. recalls family life; her father's respected position; German occupation; establishment of the Judenrat; ghettoization; children becoming "old" people; hunger; a mass killing in December 1939; forced labor; her father's death from hunger; her mother being taken on the first round-up; forming a bond with another girl who had been left alone; and going together to Polish villages. She describes helpful farmers; fear of staying long due to the risk to their helpers; Germans compelling Jews to perform humiliating acts in the Rejowiec ghetto; forced labor with chemicals resulting in burns and gangrene in her fingers; deportation to Majdanek; exchanging names with one of two sisters so they could remain together; transfer to Skarz?ysko-Kamienna; munitions work; producing more than her quota; receiving extra soup from the overseer which she shared with a friend; transfer a year later to Cze?stochowa, then Ravensbru?ck, and to Bergen-Belsen in 1945; extreme conditions; mass burials; liberation by British troops; many deaths after liberation; and contacting her future husband. Mrs. L. vividly details life and conditions in ghettos and concentration camps.
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
- L., Rachel, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Częstochowa (Concentration camp)
- Majdanek (Concentration camp)
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jews -- Poland -- Chełm (Lublin)
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Jews -- Poland -- Rejowiec Lubelski.
- Friendship.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Mass killings.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Jewish councils.
- Child survivors.
- Hiding.
- Mutual aid.
Places
- Chełm ghetto.
- Poland.
- Chełm (Lublin, Poland)
- Rejowiec Lubelski (Poland)
- Rejowiec ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat