Malka W. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Malka W., who was born in Nowy Sa?cz, Poland in approximately 1933. She recounts a Christian neighbor offering to take her or her brother; their decision to stay together; forced relocation with her parents and brother to Na?e?czo?w, then the Opole Lubelskie ghetto in spring 1942; hiding in an attic with others; her father paying a Christian to help them escape; escaping with others, including her friend Erica, to the forest; some of their group disappearing when robbers accosted them; Polish partisans refusing to assist them because they had children; hiding in a cave; her mother obtaining food for their money and jewelry (she did not look Jewish); assistance from a Christian woodcutter; she and Erica staying in the woodcutter's home in a hole in the floor; learning her family had been caught (the woodcutter buried her mother and gave her diamond rings he found in her mother's pocket, but did not find her father and brother); being left alone in the forest, fearing discovery; robbers killing the woodcutter, seeking rumored money he had for hiding Jews; the woodcutter's father giving them food and sending them away, instructing them not to reveal they were Jews; finding some Jews in Kras?nik; antisemitic violence; transfer to an orphanage in Lublin, then to Prague due to antisemitic violence; placement in a Protestant orphanage; her uncle and Erica's grandmother finding them after their names were read on the radio; her uncle placing her in a Jewish orphanage in Bratislava; emigration to join relatives in Israel (Erica remained, converted to Christianity, and married a Christian man); marriage; and the births of two children. Ms. W. discusses not sharing her story with anyone, including her children; nightmares resulting from her experiences; hoping her father and brother had survived; and recent visits from Erica reviving the past.

4 videocassettes