Ilona T. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Ilona T., who was born in 1926 in Czechoslovakia, one of seven children. She notes her town had twenty-five Jewish families; cordial relations with non-Jews; her mother's death when she was nine; her father's loving care; Hungarian occupation in 1939; increasing anti-Jewish restrictions; German occupation in spring 1944; deportation to Irshava, then a week later to the Munkács ghetto; her father giving his food to her and her siblings; deportation to Auschwitz three weeks later; separation from her father and brothers upon arrival (she never saw them again); remaining with her two sisters and a cousin; transfer to Płaszów; slave labor; a kind kapo; threats of punishment from the camp commander; transfer to Auschwitz three months later; helping one sister stand during appell; constantly discussing their father and brothers; transfer three weeks later to Neustadt; slave labor in a weaving factory; Wehrmacht guards leaving them extra food; her sister Lilly saving several other prisoners; a death march in January 1945; being carried by her sisters; arrival in Gross-Rosen; train transport to Bergen-Belsen; encountering two cousins from Budapest; all of them getting typhus; not allowing their cousin to be taken out of the barrack; liberation by British troops; transfer to Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp, then Celle; a long recuperation; registering for emigration to the United States to join their sister; marriage; and emigration to the U.S. with assistance from the Joint. Ms. T. discusses establishing her life and working hard to provide her children with advantages she never had. She shows photographs.

2 videocassettes