Brenda H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Brenda H., who was born in Horodenka, Poland in 1926. She recalls her mother's death in childbirth; antisemitic incidents; Soviet occupation in 1939; her oldest brother's draft; Hungarian, then German occupation in 1941; ghettoization; her father's membership on the Judenrat; forced labor; hiding with her siblings during a mass killing in December 1941 during which her father and grandparents were murdered; hiding in a bunker during a second mass killing; the ghetto's liquidation; being hidden with her sister and younger brother by her older brothers and uncle; being hidden on a farm by Russians; hiding in a bunker, then in a cave; assistance from a non-Jew; her younger brother's and sister's deaths from starvation; and liberation by Soviet troops in March 1944. Mrs. H. describes fleeing to Chernivt?s?i with her brothers; traveling to Germany with assistance from Berih?ah; marriage in the Dieburg displaced persons camp; her son's birth; and emigration to the United States in 1949. She eloquently discusses their state of mind during the war; her inability to understand such cruelty; not taking revenge; and the constant pain of her memories which also impacts her children. She reads a poem written while in hiding.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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
- H., Brenda, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Beriḥah (Organization)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Sisters.
- Revenge.
- Refugee camps.
- Child survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Brothers and sisters.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Horodenka.
- Jewish councils.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Mutual aid.
- Bunkers.
- Mass killings.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Soviet occupation.
Places
- Horodenka ghetto.
- Chernivt︠s︡i (Ukraine)
- Horodenka (Ukraine)
- Poland.
- Dieburg (Germany : Refugee camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat