Martha S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Martha S., who was born in Uz?horod, Czechoslovakia in 1919. She recalls her affluent, orthodox home; one sister's emigration to the United States in 1937; her non-Jewish boyfriend; being fired in 1942 because she was Jewish; her father's death; German occupation; refusing to leave her mother to hide with her boyfriend; deportation to Auschwitz in 1944; separation from her mother (she never saw her again); transfer to Dundangen three days later; working in the kitchen; supplying food to friends; escape with a male prisoner; their capture and imprisonment; benign conditions compared to camp; transfer to Stutthof; public hangings of prisoners who stole food; receiving food from a friend when she was ill; transfer to another camp; burying corpses; a death march; liberation near Danzig by Soviet troops in March 1945; being protected by a friend from Stutthof; hospitalization; returning to Uz?horod via Bydgoszcz; staying with her cousin; meeting her future husband; moving to Prague; contact from her American sister through the Red Cross; traveling to Paris with her sister; emigration to the United States in 1947; and marriage. Mrs. S. attributes her survival to luck and believes she has repressed her worst memories. 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
- S., Martha, -- 1919-
Corporate Bodies
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Dondangen (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Mutual aid.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- Escapes.
- Friendship.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Latvian.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Uz︠h︡horod (Ukraine)
- Gdánsk (Poland)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Bydgoszcz (Poland)
- Užhorod (Czechoslovakia)
- Paris (France)
- Danzig (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat