Bertha H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Bertha H., who was born in Szatma?rcseke, Hungary in 1920 to a family of ten children. She recalls a happy family life; working as a dressmaker; marriage in 1942; her husband's deportation to a work camp six weeks later; German occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions; transfer with her family to the Ma?te?szalka ghetto in April 1944; separation from her older sister and mother upon arrival at Auschwitz (she never saw them again); transfer with her two younger sisters to P?aszo?w; concealing her younger sister's deafness; working with her sister in a tailor shop; transfer to Auschwitz; slave labor in Silesia, then Liebau; and liberation by Soviet troops. Mrs. H. describes returning to Szatma?rcseke with her two sisters; joining her husband in Czechoslovakia; and emigrating to the United States in 1949. She discusses her sense that Americans did not want to hear about her experiences; a trip to Hungary and Auschwitz in 1977; and her continuing nightmares.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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
- H., Bertha, -- 1920-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Mutual aid.
- Mátészalka ghetto.
- People with disabilities.
- Deaf.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Hungary -- Mátészalka.
- Sisters.
- Forced labor.
- Nightmares.
Places
- Hungary.
- Liebau (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Silesia.
- Szatmárcseke (Hungary)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat