Regina B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Regina B., who was born in Magdeburg, Germany in 1920. She recalls her family's emigration to Paris in 1934 due to antisemitism; working for low wages; participation in Hashomer Hatzair; marriage in 1940; German occupation; moving to Toulouse with her family; their return to Paris; her daughter's birth in 1941; hiding with her family in Maisons-Laffitte; her protected status as a POW's wife; arrest in Paris in 1944; refusing to divulge her daughter's location; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau via Drancy; abuse from non-Jewish prisoners; cold, starvation, and degradation; forced labor in the Union Kommando; mutual support from two friends (Simone and Ida); public hanging of the women who provided gunpowder to the men's uprising; death marches with Simone and Ida to Ravensbru?ck and Neustadt-Glewe; separation from Simone (she never saw her again); receiving food from German prisoners; liberation by Soviet troops; reunion with her parents and daughter; her husband's return; and recuperating in Pau. Mrs. B. discusses the importance to her survival of her desire to see her daughter again; sustaining friendships formed in the camps; frequent painful thoughts about her experiences; reluctance to share her experiences with her children and grandchildren; and her husband's reluctance to listen.
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
- B., Regina, -- 1920-
Corporate Bodies
- Neustadt-Glewe (Concentration camp)
- Drancy (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar effects.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Friendship.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Mutual aid.
- Concentration camps -- Underground movements.
- Hiding.
- False papers.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
Places
- Toulouse (France)
- Germany.
- Magdeburg (Germany)
- Maisons-Laffitte (France)
- Paris (France)
- Pau (France)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat