Jean M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Jean M., who was born in Zawalo?w, Poland, in 1922 to a well-established family. She relates attending school in Marijampole? and Stanislav; anti-Semitic incidents; German invasion; forced labor; German humiliation of the Jews; her brother's death at age fourteen in a labor camp; transfer to the Podhajce ghetto; her father's deportation; and her mother's death from typhus, though she herself survived it. Mrs. M. describes "aktions"; hiding in bunkers; the resulting physical and psychological difficulties; mass killings; liquidation of the ghetto; escaping; hiding in the woods; being recaptured; escape from a mass grave when she was left for dead; assistance from Jehovah's Witnesses; reluctance to trust anyone; hiding in a forest bunker with other Jews; liberation by Soviet troops; moving to Buchach; help from a Soviet soldier; fleeing from Buchach because of returning Germans; hiding in a village; working after liberation; return to Podhajce; marriage; moving to Germany; living in a displaced persons camp; and emigration to the United States. Mrs. M. discusses the psychological effects of her experiences and her nightmares in which she is still hiding.
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
- M., Jean, -- 1922-
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Nightmares.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Pidhaīt︠s︡i.
- Forced labor.
- Hiding.
- Refugee camps.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jehovah's Witnesses.
- Escapes.
- Postwar effects.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Mutual aid.
- Mass killings.
- Bunkers.
- Forests.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Pidhaīt︠s︡i (Ukraine)
- Buchach (Ukraine)
- Stanislav (Ukraine)
- Stanisławów (Poland)
- Poland.
- Zawalów (Poland)
- Marijampolé (Lithuania)
- Podhajce ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat