Leon and Molly N. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Leon N., who was born in M?awa, Poland in 1910 and his wife, Molly N., who was born in M?awa in 1923. Mr. N. tells of prewar life; German occupation; ghettoization in 1941; starvation; food smuggling; mass killings and public hangings; deportation to Auschwitz in 1942 with his first wife and four children; wanting to kill himself "on the wires" knowing his family had been murdered; work as a shoemaker for over three years one-quarter mile from the gas chambers; evacuation in 1945 to several camps ending at Bergen-Belsen; liberation by British troops; meeting General Patton; return to M?awa; finding thirty-three of 11,000 Jews had returned; establishing his business; and emigration to the United States. Mrs. N. recalls transport from M?awa with two sisters to Auschwitz; their transfer to Budy; forced labor constructing roads; one of her sister's death; a death march three years later to Ravensbru?ck; another death march; liberation by American troops; returning to M?awa with her sister; marriage there to Mr. N.; fleeing Poland after anti-Semitic incidents; and emigration to the United States in 1949. They discuss their pride in their son and grandchildren; feeling their experiences were impossible to survive; and their sense of loss of European Jewry - an entire nation.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette (3/4" u-matic)
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
- N., Molly, -- 1923-
- N., Leon, -- 1910-
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Family.
- Forced labor.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Women.
- Wife -- Death.
- Death marches.
- Sisters.
- Brothers and sisters.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Children -- Death.
- Jews -- Poland -- Mława.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
Places
- Budy (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Mława ghetto.
- Mława (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat