Rachel O. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Rachel O., who was born in Pabianice, Poland. She describes Zionist activities; marriage; German occupation; fleeing with her husband from ?o?dz? to Warsaw; their unsuccessful flight to the Soviet zone; a trip to Pabianice, posing as a German, to help her family; organizing a soup kitchen in the Warsaw ghetto; moving to the Pabianice ghetto with assistance from Polish acquaintances; transfer to the ?o?dz? ghetto; H?ayim Rumkowski's efforts to help children through the Judenrat; deportation to Auschwitz in September 1944; separation from her parents and husband (she never saw them again); transfer to an ammunition factory in Freiberg; hiding her pregnancy with assistance from fellow prisoners; giving birth in a train during evacuation in April 1945; and liberation from Mauthausen by United States troops on May 8, 1945. Mrs. O. recalls returning with her sisters and son to Pabianice; remarriage in Munich; and emigration to Israel in 1948. She discusses caring for three younger sisters in the camps and after liberation; sharing her experiences with grandchildren; and her belief that people did not change during the war, but exposed their true selves.
Extent and Medium
4 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
- O., Rachel.
- Rumkowski, Mordecai Ḥayim.
Corporate Bodies
- Mauthausen (Concentration camp)
- Freiberg (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Sisters.
- Jewish councils.
- Forced labor.
- Mothers and sons.
- Childbirth in concentration camps.
- Husband -- Death.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Zionists.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Jews -- Poland -- Pabianice.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Pabianice (Poland)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Poland.
- Warsaw ghetto.
- Israel.
- Munich (Germany)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Łódź ghetto.
- Pabianice ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat