Anna O. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Anna O., who was born in Hungary in 1927. She recounts pervasive antisemitism; attending gymnasium in Debrecen; German invasion in March 1944; staying with her boyfriend's family; returning home despite regulations against Jews traveling; the town's Jews being forced into one house; deportation by cattle car to Auschwitz/Birkenau; separation from her father and grandmother (she never saw them again); remaining with her mother and a cousin; transfer to P?aszo?w; assisting her mother with slave labor; return to Auschwitz; relief at being tattooed, thinking they would survive; transfer to Parschnitz; being saved from selections by prisoner orderlies when in the infirmary; desertion by the guards in May 1945; a three-month journey to Hungary; the trauma of learning both brothers had perished; reunion with her boyfriend; finishing high school in Romania; marriage in 1946; escaping to Hungary, then Germany; briefly living in a refugee camp; attending medical school in Heidelberg with her husband; and their emigration to the United States. Dr. O. discusses the importance to her survival of remaining with her mother; sharing her story with her children; and her gradual process of mourning.
Extent and Medium
4 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
- O., Anna, -- 1927-
Corporate Bodies
- PĹaszoĚw (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Parschnitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Refugee camps.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Mutual aid.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Forced labor.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Hungary.
- Debrecen (Hungary)
- Heidelberg (Germany)
- Romania.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat