Selma E. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Selma E., who was born in Groningen, Holland, in 1922 and grew up in Zuidwolde, Holland, where her family operated a kosher hotel. She recounts her prewar family life; the influx of German Jews in 1938; anti-Jewish legislation following the German occupation of Holland; going into hiding; her capture and internment in the Dutch camps of Vught and Westerbork; and her deportation to Sobibo?r. She describes her arrival at Sobibo?r; her gradual realization that she was in an extermination camp; her work sorting the clothing of the victims of gassing; and the circumstances under which she met her husband-to-be, Chaim, who was active in the camp underground. She vividly recalls the brutality and dehumanization that characterized daily life in Sobibo?r; her sustaining relationship with Chaim; and the uprising and her escape, with Chaim, from the camp. She tells of their hiding in the Polish countryside; spending nine months in the hayloft of a Polish farmer, during which time she became pregnant; and liberation by the Russians in July 1944. Postwar recollections include her difficulties adjusting to her life in Poland; the birth of her child, who did not survive; postwar antisemitism in Poland; and her attempt to emigrate to Holland with her husband and child.

2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)