Helena G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Helena G., who was born in Varín, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Slovakia) in 1913. She recalls cordial relations with non-Jews; her father's death; anti-Jewish measures after Slovak independence in 1939; forced evacuation from Varín; working in Žilina; former non-Jewish friends' hostility; transfer with her sister and mother to Poprad in March 1942; their return to Žilina; office work; volunteering for a transport to remain with her mother and sister; their deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; a privileged office position; using connections to place her mother in the hospital; her death followed by her sister's death; a Polish, non-Jewish prisoner helping her when she was sick; sharing food with friends; prisoners killing a Jewish collaborator; the death march to train transport in January 1945; arrival in Ravensbrück; train transfer days later to Malchow, then Leipzig; slave labor in a munitions factory; liberation by United States troops from a death march; traveling to Prague; hospitalization in Olomouc; staying with unsympathetic relatives in Bratislava one night; traveling to Žilina, then Varín; assistance from the local Catholic priest; and reunion with her surviving sister. Ms. G. discusses relations between ethnic and gender groups in camps, and reluctance of many to discuss prisoners' inhumanity to each other.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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
- G., Helena, -- 1913-
Corporate Bodies
- Malchow (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Žilina (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Revenge.
- Death marches.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Sisters.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
Places
- Olomouc (Czech Republic)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Leipzig (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Bratislava (Slovakia)
- Varín Slovakia)
- Austria.
- Poprad (Slovakia)
- Žilina (Slovakia)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat