Pola D., Re?gine D., and Fany G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of sisters, Pola D., Regine D., and Fany (Fela) G., who were born in Kozienice, Poland, in 1924, 1925, and 1926, respectively, to an orthodox family of five children. They recall growing up in Pionki; attending Polish schools; their older sister's wedding in about 1935; German invasion; briefly fleeing to Kozience and a nearby village during bombings; ghettoization; forced labor; Pola's marriage to Chai?m D.; liquidation of the ghetto in summer 1942; deportation of their mother, older sister, and her child (they did not return); slave labor in Pionki concentration camp; sharing extra food their father brought with their brother; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; transfer to Hindenburg three days later; not revealing they were sisters in order to remain together; slave labor in a munitions factory; Re?gine's hospitalization; smuggling her out before a selection; a German bringing Fany extra food and clothing; a death march in January 1945 to Gleiwitz; train transport in open cars to Dora, then Bergen-Belsen; little or no food or water; liberation by British troops; Pola's reunion with her husband in France; her job for OSE; Re?gine's and Fany's marriages in Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; and their emigration to France. They discuss the importance of being together to their survival; Pola's leadership role; their father's and brother's deaths; Pola's and Re?gine's marriages to brothers; sharing their stories with their children; Pola's and Regine's recent trip to Poland; and their continuing close relationship. They show 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. This testimony cannot be used for commercial purposes.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- D., Régine, -- 1925-
- D., Pola, -- 1924-
- G., Fany, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Pionki (Concentration camp)
- Dora (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- DP-Camp Bergen-Belsen.
- World Union OSE.
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jews -- Poland -- Pionki.
- Forced labor.
- Sisters.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Refugee camps.
- Death marches.
- Marriage in Jewish ghettos.
- Child survivors.
- Fathers and daughters.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Husband and wife.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Survivor-child relations.
Places
- Hindenburg (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Kozienice (Poland)
- Pionki (Poland)
- Pionki ghetto.
- Gleiwitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat