Rella E. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Rella E., who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1923. Mrs. E. tells of the death of her father during her infancy and her mother's remarriage; her family's move to Khust; staying with her religiously observant grandmother in Uz?h?horod when her family moved to Yugoslavia (she was thirteen); Hungarian occupation; joining her family in Yugoslavia in 1940; her father's removal to a labor camp; and the family's deportation, after being confined at home for eight days, to the ghetto in Szeged, Hungary, where they lived in a former pigsty. She speaks of disregarding soldiers' warnings to flee, choosing to remain with her debilitated mother and caring for her two younger sisters; the transport four weeks later to Auschwitz; separation from her mother and younger sister upon arrival; and her disbelief on being told by a cousin of their deaths. She describes her life during her three months in Auschwitz; her transfer, with her sister, to another town, where they worked in a nearby grenade factory; and her sustaining relationship with her sister. She relates their liberation by Russians; transport to Siberia; and the journey home to Yugoslavia, where they were eventually reunited with their father and another sister. Mrs. E. also recounts her emigration to Israel; her marriage and divorce; the death of her son in the Israeli army; her move to the United States; and her reason for giving testimony.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
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
- E., Rella, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Forced labor.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Husband and wife.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Jews -- Hungary -- Szeged.
- Sisters.
Places
- Uzď¸ h︥horod (Ukraine)
- Szeged (Hungary)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Khust (Ukraine)
- Israel.
- Szeged ghetto.
- Yugoslavia
- Siberia (Russia)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat