Pnina T. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Pnina T., who was born in Pilvis?kiai, Russia (presently Lithuania) in 1913. She recalls attending high school in Kaunas and university in Vilnius; marriage in 1934; living in Kaunas; her daughter's birth; plans to emigrate to Palestine; briefly visiting there with her husband in 1939 to finalize arrangements; Soviet occupation; not being able to emigrate when the borders were sealed; deportation of her parents and one brother to Siberia; German invasion in June 1941; arrest by Lithuanians; her daughter's non-Jewish nanny claiming to be the child's mother; her arrest as well; separation from the men (she never saw her husband again); release with her daughter and the nanny after three days; sending packages to her husband through the nanny; futile efforts to obtain his release; ghettoization; learning her brother, brother-in-law, husband, and other relatives had been murdered; hiding her daughter during round-ups; smuggling food with help from a German guard; a Jewish man (her future husband) bringing her packages from the nanny; learning through the Jewish underground that one of her brothers was alive in Vilnius; participating in a literary club; pregnant women having abortions or hiding their pregnancies since giving birth was illegal; her future husband and the nanny arranging for her daughter to be hidden, with assistance from a priest; bringing her to a monastery; returning to the ghetto; a nun bringing her daughter to live with a widow in a village; learning her daughter was ill; escaping to visit her; remaining with the widow and her daughter; arranging for her future husband to join them; and liberation by Soviet troops. Ms. T. notes they are still in touch with their rescuer and her son.

3 videocassettes