Lenka M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Lenka M., who was born in Porúbka, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1927, one of four children. She recalls her parents sending her to Uz︠h︡horod to avoid deportation; working as a hairdresser for nine months; joining her family in an Uz︠h︡horod brick factory; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; separation from her mother and brother (she never saw them again); remaining with her two sisters; one sister's selection (she never saw her again); public executions; transfer with her sister to Canada Kommando; assistance from a Jewish Slovak kapo; a severe beating by Therese Brandl, a sadistic official, for taking clothes to trade for food; witnessing the herding of people into the gas chambers; a death march with her sister to Ravensbrück in January 1945; transfer to Neustadt/Glewe; slave labor in an airplane factory; liberation by United States troops; traveling to Łódź, then home; kindness from neighbors; learning their family had not survived; marriage to a survivor; and the births of three daughters. Ms. M. discusses the importance to her survival of working in Canada Kommando; most prisoners helping their relatives; relations between prisoner groups; not expecting to survive; her children not wanting her to share her experiences, thinking it too painful for her; and nightmares and stress resulting from her experiences.

1 videocassette