Olga S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Olga S., who was born in Bobrynetsสน, Ukraine in 1910. She recounts her father's death when she was an infant; her mother's remarriage; speaking Yiddish with her grandparents; placement in a Jewish orphanage by her family at age ten; American aid during the famine in 1921-1922; studying in Kiev beginning in 1928; marriage to a non-Jew in 1929; her mother's and brother's deaths; the births of her son and daughter; her husband's training as a pilot, leaving her alone in Kiev; German invasion; missing evacuation east; a German order for all Jews to gather on September 29, 1941; observing Jews digging mass graves and some being buried alive (she believed she was the only surviving Jew); a non-Jewish friend supplying her with a false birth certificate and baptismal papers; supporting herself and her children selling food; joining the underground; transporting weapons, obtaining information about German troop movements, distributing leaflets, and hiding partisans; arrest; and liberation by Soviet troops. Mrs. S. describes hearing from her husband; their reunion; her son's birth in 1945; and receiving medals and a pension for her work as a partisan. She shows documents, medals, photographs, and a plaque commemorating her apartment as an underground meeting place.
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
- S., Olga, -- 1910-
Subjects
- Famines -- Ukraine -- History -- 20thcentury.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Ukraine.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Interfaith marriage.
- Orphanages -- Ukraine.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Postwar experiences.
- Partisans.
- False papers.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
Places
- Bobrynetsสน (Ukraine)
- Ukraine.
- Kiev (Ukraine)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat