Rosa F. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Rosa F., who was born on Rhodes Island, Greece. She describes her happy childhood in a vibrant Jewish community; cordial relations with non-Jews; Italian occupation; anti-Jewish laws in 1938; one sister's emigration to Africa; her decision not to emigrate in order to remain with her family; German occupation; learning of the deportations of Salonika's Jews; deportation of all Jews in Rhodes to Greece in July 1944; transport to Auschwitz; separation from her parents upon arrival (she never saw them again); language difficulties; singing songs written by an Italian prisoner; observing Yom Kippur; separation from her sisters (they did not survive) when she was transferred to Wilischtal in October; forced labor at an munitions factory; public execution of an escapee; the death march to Chemnitz in March 1945; transfer to Theresienstadt; and liberation by Soviet troops in May. Mrs. F. recounts traveling to Rome; assistance from UNRRA and the Joint; emigrating to Brazil; reunion with her sister in Salisbury, Rhodesia in 1948; marriage; the births of her daughters; and emigrating to the United States, then Canada, thirty years later. She discusses her conception of Auschwitz as "another world"; continuing nightmares; and reluctantly sharing her experiences with her children.
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., Rosa.
Corporate Bodies
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Sisters.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Songs and music.
- Italian occupation.
- Nightmares.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Death marches.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Rome (Italy)
- Brazil.
- Italy.
- Rhodes (Greece : Island)
- Wilischtal (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Chemnitz (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Rhodesia.
- Salisbury (Zimbabwe)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat