Chaja G. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Chaja G., who was born in Poland in 1925 and emigrated to Brussels with her family when she was about five. She recalls their orthodoxy; German invasion; her father's employees protecting them; her sister and brother being hidden; working in a school where Jewish children were attending as non-Jews; arrest with the school; deportation to Malines; taking one child to a hospital and secretly notifying his mother who escaped with him; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; remaining with her friends; hospitalization for typhus; assignment to a Polish barrack; harsh treatment by the Polish prisoners including their forcing her to work by herself; a guard ordering them to assist her; Mala Zimetbaum arranging her transfer back to her Belgian friends; assignment to Canada Kommando; intentionally ruining the clothing they sorted; receiving Red Cross packages from her parents through a non-Jewish friend; Mala's escape; her suicide before she could be executed; the Sonderkommando uprising; a death march to Gleiwitz in January 1945; train transport to Ravensbrück, then Malchow; escaping a death march in April; assistance from British POWs; hospitalization by Americans; encountering her friends; repatriation in May; and reunion with her family. Ms. G. discusses remembering little of her pre-camp life; strong bonds with her camp friends; their importance to her survival; taking death for granted; and losing her faith in God and trust in people.

3 videocassettes