Magdalena R. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 3694
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Magdalena R., who was born in Žilina, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1924. She recalls a loving family environment; anti-Jewish restrictions following Slovak independence; her father placing her in a tuberculosis sanitarium to prevent her deportation; living with her parents and brother in Rajec; joining the partisans during the Slovak uprising; escaping with her family to a forest cabin; leaving with her father to obtain medication for him; Germans discovering the cabin while they were gone (they shot her mother); deportation with her father to Sered, then a week later to Auschwitz/Birkenau; separation from her father (she never saw him again); remaining with a cousin; their transfer a week later to Kurzbach; slave labor digging anti-tank ditches; becoming inured to corpses all around her; a German supervisor obtaining better clothes and shoes for them; encountering a man from Žilina who gave her extra food; a death march to Gross-Rosen; male prisoners "adopting" females; assistance from the man who "adopted" her; train transport to Bergen-Belsen; epidemics, starvation; and thirst; liberation by Canadian troops in April; recuperating with her cousin in Glyn-Hughes hospital in the displaced persons camp; returning home via Plzeň; reunion with her brother; encountering a Nazi collaborator; authorities doing nothing when she reported him since there was no evidence; attempting suicide; moving to Prague for five years; returning to Slovakia; completing her education; marriage; raising her son; and her divorce. Ms. R. notes discussing her experiences after the war, but sensing others did not want to hear; the difficulty of conveying the horrors of the camps; visual memories of her early life, but not being able to connect the images; visiting Auschwitz/Birkenau; exhibiting photographs of that trip; meeting friends from Žilina when she visited Israel; and the importance to her of her Jewish self-awareness despite having no affiliation with the Jewish community.

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

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Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.