Elizabeth K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Elizabeth K., who was born in Nagyrozva?gy, Hungary, one of seven children. She recalls a close extended family; cordial relations with non-Jews; attending public school; her family's orthodoxy; not attending high school due to new anti-Jewish restrictions; German invasion in 1944; ghettoization with her family in Sa?toraljau?jhely; her grandfather's death; assistance from a Romani who had worked for them; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; separation with two sisters from their family; humiliation at having to strip for selections; remaining with her sisters, but not revealing they were related fearing separation; assignment sorting clothing of murdered Jews; finding her younger sister's dress; taking food and clothing to share with others; discarding money they found so the Germans could not have it; lighting Sabbath candles and fasting on Yom Kippur; transfer to Beendorf, Bergen-Belsen, then Braunschweig; clearing bombing debris; destroying anything valuable she found so the Germans could not use it; transport to Sweden via Denmark in spring 1945 in the Folke Bernadotte prisoner exchange; living with her older sister in Uppsala; learning from the Red Cross their father had survived; emigration with her older sister to the United States in 1948 (her younger sister and father emigrated to Israel); assistance from the Joint and HIAS; and marriage to a survivor in 1951. Ms. K. discusses her daughter's death at age eight; sharing her experiences with her other daughter; continued hatred of the SS; a recent trip to Auschwitz/Birkenau and Nagyrozva?gy with her family, where they placed gravestones for their mother and siblings; and her deep sense of loss (only five of her family of over seventy survived). She shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
3 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
- Bernadotte, Folke, -- 1895-1948.
- K., Elizabeth, -- 1928-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Braunschweig (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Beendorf (Concentration camp)
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- HIAS (Agency)
Subjects
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Child survivors.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Sabotage.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Sisters.
- Jews -- Hungary -- Sátoraljaújhely.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
Places
- Hungary.
- Nagyrozvágy (Hungary)
- Uppsala (Sweden)
- Denmark.
- Sátoraljaújhely ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat