Eva W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Eva W. who was born in Cluj, Romania. She recalls a comfortable childhood as the daughter of an attorney; pervasive antisemitism; Hungarian occupation in 1940; restrictive anti-Jewish laws; her shame at wearing a yellow star; ghettoization in 1944; her humiliation at forced nudity; deportation to Auschwitz; caring for her mother; meeting two cousins after her mother's selection for death; witnessing a prisoner giving birth; transfer to Birkenau; receiving bread and shoes from a male prisoner; selection with other "Aryan-looking" girls by Mengele; transfer to Weisswasser; working for I. G. Farben; help from a guard during the death march to Buchenwald; transfer to Sweden through the intercession of Folke Bernadotte; hospitalization; locating relatives in the United States through the Red Cross; and emigration to join them. She discusses her aunt asking her to convey her story to others and her accompanying shame; reluctance to share her experience with her husband and son, and their lack of interest; and fear resulting from war experiences.
Extent and Medium
3 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
- W., Eva.
- Bernadotte, Folke, -- 1895-1948.
- Mengele, Josef, -- 1911-1979.
Corporate Bodies
- Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft.
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Childbirth in concentration camps.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Mutual aid.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Forced labor.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Postwar effects.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Child survivors.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Jews -- Romania -- Cluj-Napoca.
- Death marches.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
Places
- Weisswasser (Czechoslovakia : Concentration camp)
- Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
- Romania.
- Cluj ghetto.
- Sweden.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat