Hanka K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Hanka K., who was born in Che?m, Poland in 1930. She recalls her traditional childhood; her parents' Zionist background; the outbreak of war; brief Soviet occupation; hiding during a pogrom; German invasion; her father's arrest during a round-up (she never saw him again); hiding with her mother and sister in a cellar; her mother's killing; escaping with her baby sister to the Rejowiec ghetto; hiding her sister while working as a maid; her sister's death; deportation to Majdanek, then Skarz?ysko-Kamienna, Cze?stochowa, and Bergen Belsen; witnessing cannibalism in Belsen; evacuation to several camps ending at Tu?rkheim; stealing potatoes and sharing them with two friends from Skarz?ysko; disappearance of the German guards during a death march; liberation by United States troops; walking from Tu?rkheim to Landsberg; recovering in a hospital in Bad Bergzabern; joining her friends in Stuttgart; and living in the Gunzenhausen UNRRA camp. Throughout the testimony, Mrs. K. discusses her state of mind, including her extreme loneliness and isolation after the deaths of her parents and sister, the importance of her two friends, and continuing fears resulting from the war years.
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
- K., Hanka, -- 1930-
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Concentration camp)
- Majdanek (Concentration camp)
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- Türkheim (Concentration camp)
- Częstochowa (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Refugee camps.
- Child survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Death marches.
- Hiding.
- Mutual aid.
- Soviet occupation.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jews -- Poland -- Chełm (Lublin)
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jews -- Poland -- Rejowiec Lubelski.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Friendship.
- Cannibalism.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Gunzenhausen (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Rejowiec ghetto.
- Chełm ghetto.
- Postwar effects.
- Poland.
- Chełm (Lublin, Poland)
- Stuttgart (Germany)
- Landsberg am Lech (Germany)
- Bad Bergzabern (Germany)
- Türkheim (Bavaria, Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat