Ruth G. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Ruth G., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1938. She recounts her mother's descriptions of an affluent life amidst a large, extended family; ghettoization; her father buying false papers for her and her mother; escaping with her mother (she never saw her father again); living with a non-Jewish family in Lublin; leaving due to fear of exposure; traveling on trains because her mother did not know what else to do; a non-Jewish woman offering them shelter in Warsaw; leaving when the woman's husband thought they were Jews; her mother working as a maid; changing jobs frequently due to fear of exposure; working for a countess who knew they were Jewish; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to ?o?dz?; learning her father had perished; and reunion with an aunt. Mrs. G. describes antisemitic remarks and songs in school, and from Polish friends; pretending to be Christian; illegally traveling to Munich in 1946 with her mother; living in a Jewish community; feeling comfortable as a Jew; her mother's marriage; emigration to the United States in 1949; and her desire to "be American." She discusses her admiration for her mother and not sharing her experiences with her children until they were older.

3 videocassettes