Sofia S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Sofia S., who was born in Boryslav, Poland in 1917. She describes her family background; marriage; German invasion; her husband's draft into the Soviet army; her son's birth in September 1939; her mother's deportation; fleeing to Stanis?awo?w to save her son; pretending to be half Jewish when interrogated by Ukrainians; being hidden by Poles; returning to Boryslav; hiding her baby with a Polish family; Germans killing her son; being forced into the ghetto; brief imprisonment; release with assistance from her cousin; working as a cook for a German officer; deportation with her father to P?aszo?w; her father's deportation to Wieliczka in 1943; her job removing gold dental work from dead bodies; deportation to Auschwitz in the summer of 1943; slave labor in a stone quarry; transfer to a cotton-mill in Lichtwerden-Freudenthal; receiving extra food from her friend; and liberation by Soviet troops. Mrs. S. recounts meeting her husband in Krako?w; learning none of her family had survived; the birth of two children in Katowice; and emigration to Israel. She reflects on being unable to fully describe all the atrocities she experienced and considers herself lucky to have survived.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette (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
- S., Sofia, -- 1917-
Corporate Bodies
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar effects.
- Mutual aid.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Fathers and daughters.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Children -- Death.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Lichtwerden-Freudenthal (Czechoslovakia : Concentration camp)
- Stanislav (Ukraine)
- Kraków (Poland)
- Stanisławów (Poland)
- Boryslaw (Poland)
- Poland.
- Boryslav (Ukraine)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat