Irene G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Irene G., who was born in Kuchava, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1929, the youngest of eight children. She recounts her father died when she was an infant; attending school and synagogue in Kuz?mino; Hungarian occupation; living with her married sister in order to attend school in Mukacheve; German occupation in spring 1944; returning home with her sister; one brother hiding with assistance from non-Jews; forced relocation to Kal?nik, then the Munka?cs ghetto in April; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau two weeks later; separation with her four sisters from their mother (she never saw her again); a privileged assignment sorting belongings of murdered Jews; finding hidden valuables; liquidation of the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager) in one night; smuggling for the underground because she was less suspicious as a child; providing food and clothing to other prisoners; the Sonderkommando revolt; a public hanging; a death march and train transport with her sisters to Ravensbru?ck; transfer to Neustadt-Glewe; slave labor in an airplane factory; liberation; traveling with her sisters to Prenzlau, Prague, and Budapest; reunion with two brothers; marriage; emigration to the United States in 1949; and helping her sisters join her. Ms. G. discusses the importance of the sisters being together for their survival; pervasive painful memories; and frequent nightmares. 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
- G., Irene, -- 1929-
Corporate Bodies
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Neustadt-Glewe (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Nightmares.
- Death marches.
- Child survivors.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Concentration camps -- Underground movements.
- Concentration camps -- Revolts.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Sisters.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Prenzlau (Germany)
- Munkács ghetto.
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Mukacheve (Ukraine)
- Kuchava (Ukraine)
- Kalʹnik (Ukraine)
- Kuzʹmino (Ukraine)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat