Helen F. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Helen F., who was born in Uz?h?horod, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1926. She recalls the warmth of her family's observances of Jewish holidays; her father's role as the cantor; cordial relations with non-Jews; sharing their home with relatives who had fled Germany; German occupation in spring 1944; ghettoization for four weeks; deportation to Auschwitz; separation from her parents upon arrival; brutal camp guards; starvation; lack of facilities for personal hygiene; frequent selections; receiving extra food from a female guard; suicides; a death march in December 1944; slave labor in an ammunition factory in Breslau; transfer to Mauthausen; going into shock when her friend was killed on the death march to Bergen-Belsen; liberation by British troops in April 1945; hospitalization for over a month; traveling to Budapest; living at Leipheim displaced persons camp for two years; meeting her future husband; and emigration to the United States in 1947. Mrs. F. notes her reluctance to reveal she was Jewish after the war and having her camp tattoo surgically removed. 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
- F., Helen, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Mauthausen (Concentration camp)
- Leipheim (Displaced persons camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Uz︠h︡horod.
- Refugee camps.
- Child survivors.
- Mutual aid.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Czechoslovakia.
- Uz︠h︡horod (Ukraine)
- Ungvár ghetto.
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Breslau (Germany : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat