Hecona A. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Hecona A., who was born in Pabianice, Poland in 1927, the youngest of three children. She recalls her family's relative affluence; her father's Zionist activities; belonging to No'ar ha-Tsiyoni; her sister's emigration to Palestine in 1937; German invasion; anti-Jewish violence; her father being taken hostage as a leading citizen (he was the only one released); ghettoization; her family's selection for transfer to the ?o?dz? ghetto in May 1942; her father volunteering to accompany the children (they never saw him again); working in an orphanage which H?ayim Rumkowski sponsored; her brother's prestigious job with the Judenrat; deportation of the orphanage in 1943; her exemption due to her brother's position; living with her mother and brother; cleaning the ghetto after its liquidation in 1944; receiving assistance from Kommandant Biebow's secretary (she testified for her after the war); hiding with cousins in a bunker; liberation by Soviet troops; learning of the death camps; hearing from her sister; emigration to join relatives in London in 1946; her mother's emigration to Israel and her brother's to Australia; marriage; and raising two daughters. Ms. A. discusses details of ghetto life; owing her life to Rumkowski; other views of him; and not previously sharing her story. She shows photographs and reads from the Pabianice yizkor book about her father.

2 videocassettes