Claire F. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Claire F., who was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1926. She recalls attending German school; antisemitic measures in 1939, including expulsion from school; joining Hashomer Hatzair; expulsion from their home, then Bratislava; relocation to S?as?ti?n; round-up with her parents, sister, and grandmother in June 1942; transport to Z?ilina; deportation to Auschwitz; separation from her family (she never saw them again); transfer to Birkenau; assignment to the administration which resulted in privileged treatment; her work completing death certificates; learning about the gas chambers; Allied bombardments; public hanging of three women who participated in the Sonderkommando uprising; remaining with her friend during the January 1945 death march; helping each other to remain upright; train transport to Ravensbru?ck; transfer to Malchow and Leipzig; escaping with others from a death march near Grimma; posing as German refugees; liberation by United States troops; choosing not to take revenge; returning to Bratislava; living in Prague; emigrating to the United States in 1948; and marriage to a Czech survivor. Mrs. F. discusses the importance of her attitude and luck to her survival; nightmares; difficulties faced by Czechs who had helped Jews; and her sense that her experiences are always present despite her "normal" life. She shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
2 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
- F., Claire, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Malchow (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar effects.
- Revenge.
- Nightmares.
- Child survivors.
- Mutual aid.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Death marches.
- Escapes.
- Friendship.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Grimma (Germany)
- Leipzig (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Bratislava (Slovakia)
- Žilina (Slovakia)
- Šaštín (Slovakia)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat