Hadassah R. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Hadassah R., who was born in Ko?o around 1923. She recalls attending Polish school in Da?bie Miasto; the German invasion; posing as a Christian to return to Ko?o; atrocities committed against Jews, particularly the brutal beating of her brother; establishment of a killing center in nearby Che?mno, from which she escaped; posing as a non-Jew; and meeting other Jews hiding near Grabo?w. Mrs. R. describes ghettos in Ozorko?w and ?e?czyca; working in a typhus hospital; transfer to ?o?dz?; attempts to warn Rumkowski about the Che?mno killing center; her sense that people simply could not assimilate this information ("they had eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear"); transfer to Auschwitz on the same transport as H?ayim Rumkowski; incidents with Josef Mengele; transfer to the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager); transport to Austria; and liberation by Americans on May 1, 1945. Mrs. R. relates travel to Italy to find her brother; work in Modena; the kindness of the Italians; attempts to reach Palestine; interception by the British and internment in a prison camp; the stress of three wars in Israel leading to her decision to emigrate; marriage and the birth of a daughter in Cuba; emigration to the United States in 1960; the birth of her second daughter; and her desire to convey her experience to students. Mrs. R. hopes that telling her story may help prevent a recurrence.

2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)