Miriam W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Miriam W., who was born in approximately 1929 and lived in L?viv, Poland. She recalls antisemitic harassment; Soviet occupation in 1939; German invasion; anti-Jewish violence and restrictions; hiding during round-ups; being found; her mother urging her to run; escaping; finding her older sister, who did not look Jewish; her sister arranging their trip to Warsaw, posing as non-Jews; a friend finding her a servant's job; leaving, fearing denouncement; her friend finding her another job; frequently traveling to her employer's mother in Otwock; her employer briefly hiding a Jewish child; watching the ghetto burn; her sister bribing an official to obtain Polish papers for them both, which later confirmed she was not Jewish when her employer became suspicious; staying with her employer's mother in Otwock; contacting her sister after the war; traveling to Lodz to join her; continuing to use their Polish papers due to antisemitism; traveling to Austria; living in a displaced persons camp; assistance from UNRRA; emigrating alone to the United States in 1946 with an orphans' group; brief quarantine at Ellis Island; living with a kind foster family; attending school; and marriage in 1950. Ms. W. discusses dreams about her mother sustaining her in hiding; "deep scars" resulting from her experiences; and, after years of silence, sharing her experiences with her children, which opened a "new path" between them.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
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
- W., Miriam, -- 1929?-
Corporate Bodies
- Ellis Island Immigration Station (N.Y. and N.J.)
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
Subjects
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- False papers.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Child survivors.
- Hiding.
- Refugee camps.
- Escapes.
- Dreams.
- Foster parents.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Sisters.
- Soviet occupation.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
Places
- Otwock (Poland)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland) -- History -- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943.
- Poland.
- Lʹviv (Ukraine)
- Austria.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat