Bertha W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Bertha W., one of ten children, who grew up in Mukacheve (presently Ukraine). She recalls her family's orthodoxy; attending a Hungarian school; their move to a mixed neighborhood in 1918; cordial relations with non-Jews during the Czech period; Hungarian occupation; the draft of three brothers into Hungarian slave labor battalions (another had emigrated to France); her father's death in 1941, and her mother's in 1943; ghettoization with her sisters in a brick factory for one week; deportation with one sister to Auschwitz in spring 1944; slave labor in a chemical factory; the arrival of another sister; sharing food with her; her selection for death; transfer with her other sister to Lenzing; a kitchen worker sharing extra food; liberation; traveling to Prague; learning one brother was dead; reunion with another brother who had been in the Soviet army; marriage to a survivor; moving to Heidenheim displaced persons camp; the births of two children; emigrating to the United States in 1949; and her sister's emigration to Australia. Ms. W. discusses sharing her experiences with her children; nightmares resulting from her experiences; and the impossibility of portraying the Holocaust in movies.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette (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
- W., Bertha.
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Mukacheve.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Refugee camps.
- Nightmares.
- Sisters.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Mutual aid.
Places
- Mukacheve (Ukraine)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Heidenheim (Germany : Refugee camp)
- MunkaĚcs ghetto.
- Lenzing (Austria : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat