Julia S. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 0457
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Julia S., who was born in Velyikyy Bychkiv, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1925, one of eleven children. She recounts Hungarian occupation; a brief trip to Budapest; an older brother's draft into a slave labor battalion and an older sister's emigration to Belgium; transfer with her family to the Ma?te?szalka ghetto; deportation four weeks later to Auschwitz; separation from her parents and siblings; finding one sister and a cousin in the barrack; sharing food; visits from her younger brother; selection of her sister and cousin for death; the Blocka?lteste lighting candles on Rosh ha-Shanah; slave labor digging anti-tank trenches; a death march with three cousins and an aunt to Helmbrechts, Falkenau and Gru?nberg; helping each other; her aunt being shot; Czechs giving them food; marching again; encountering American POWs; escaping with a friend in Klatovy; posing as non-Jews; liberation by United States troops; assistance from UNRRA; traveling to Prague, Budapest, then Bratislava; reunion with her younger brother, then with her older brother in Sighet and her older sister at home; marriage in Teplice; living in Munich, Heidenheim, and Landsberg displaced persons camps; her son's birth; and emigration to the United States in 1949 to join her husband's relatives. Ms. S. discusses the importance of memories of home and family to her survival; not wanting to be shot; and only the four oldest children surviving from her family.

Extent and Medium

3 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

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This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.