Ruth S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Ruth S., who was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1936 and raised in S?iauliai. She recalls her sister's birth in 1939; German invasion in 1941; ghettoization in August; "running wild" when they were left alone during the day; hiding when Germans entered the ghetto; in November 1943, hiding all day; leaving when it was quiet; being taken by the Germans; her cousin influencing the Kommandant to let her go; his refusal to release her sister (they never saw her again); being smuggled to a farm of non-Jews the next day; staying in a closet until she learned Catholic rituals and Lithuanian; her mother's visits; hiding with a priest when it became dangerous; watching a Jewish deportation in August 1944, including some relatives (she thought her parents were dead); liberation by Soviets in September; her parents' arrival; refusing to go with them; their frequent visits; eventually retuning with them to S?iauliai; obtaining false papers to emigrate; living in a displaced persons camp near Munich; her brother's birth; her father establishing a business in Diessen; and emigration to Canada in 1951. Ms. S. discusses continuing relations with her foster family; guilt over her sister's death; becoming terrified when each of her children turned four - her sister's age when she was taken away; feeling Jewish, although she loves attending mass; and her family's close relationship with her mother.

2 videocassettes