Mira B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Mira B., who was born in Vilna, Poland. She describes her parents who were both teachers in Jewish schools; her and her brother's education; their Zionist activities; the difficulties of life as Jews in Vilna; the outbreak of war; Russian occupation; the return of Vilna as capital of Lithuania; having to learn Lithuanian at the university; German occupation two years later; the first round-ups of Jews, including her brother, when they were taken to Ponary, forced to dig their own graves and shot; formation of the ghetto and the Judenrat; obtaining a job outside the ghetto due to her proficiency in Lithuanian and German; smuggling food which supported her parents for two years; the liquidation of the ghetto; her escape; entering Keilis, a fur factory where Jewish workers and their families were ghettoized because they were deemed vital to the German war effort; hiding there for nine months until its liquidation; escape with the help of a friendly Lithuanian; obtaining false papers; and living as a Christian for six months, which was extremely difficult. She recounts her return to Vilna after the war ended; involvement with illegal Jewish immigration; meeting her husband in Italy and their emigration to Palestine.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (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. This testimony or excerpts from it cannot be used for advertising.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- B., Mira.
Subjects
- Aryan side.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- False papers.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mass killings.
- Soviet occupation.
- Jewish councils.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Paneriai Massacres, Paneriai, Lithuania, 1941-1944.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Parent and child.
- Zionists.
- Jews -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
Places
- Keilis (Vilnius, Lithuania : Concentration camp)
- Vilna ghetto.
- Lithuania.
- Vilnius (Lithuania)
- Vilna (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat