Helen R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Helen R., who was born in Wolbrom, Poland in 1923. She recounts her father's death when she was ten months old; antisemitic harassment by teachers and students in school; her mother's remarriage; moving to Sosnowiec; the births of two half-siblings; German invasion; ghettoization in Srodula; pervasive hunger; deportation with her sister to Guentherbruecke; forced labor in a munitions factory; she and her sister helping each other; receiving extra food from her cousin; transfer to Peterswaldau; liberation by Soviet troops; their return to Sosnowiec; learning her immediate family had been killed; her sister's emigration to Israel; marriage to a survivor; moving to Munich; her daughter's birth; and emigrating to the United States with help from HIAS. Mrs. R. tells of frequently discussing her experiences with her husband; her daughter's resulting depression; deriving strength from discussions of their futures while in camps; and her husband's death.
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
- R., Helen, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Peterswaldau (Concentration camp)
- HIAS (Agency)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jews -- Poland -- Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie)
- Jewish ghettos.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Forced labor.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Sisters.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
- Munich (Germany)
- Sosnowiec ghetto.
- Breslau-Guentherbruecke (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Wolbrom (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat