Sara M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Sara M., an only child, who was born in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland in 1938. She recounts early memories of fear; living among many relatives; constant hunger; her mother soothing her; being smuggled to a non-Jewish family friend during a round-up in about 1943; being smuggled back to the ghetto two weeks later (her mother was gone); being cared for by her mother's half-sister; a painful separation from her father when forced to board cattle trains; her aunt caring for her in Ravensbrück; sexual abuse by guards on Christmas; a female SS guard giving her extra food because she looked like her daughter; transfer to Bergen-Belsen; bodies strewn everywhere; indescribable hunger pains; liberation by British troops in April 1945; a long hospitalization; living with her aunt in the displaced persons camp; reunion with her father; wandering in nearby fields and drawing; other relatives joining them; attending school; her father's marriage to her aunt; her brother's birth in 1946; and their emigration to the United States in 1949. Ms. M. discusses never really being told her mother's fate; her father's emotional problems, her pervasive nightmares, and issues with food resulting from their experiences; and becoming an artist, which brings her great joy.

1 videocassette