Antonia R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Antonia R., who was born in Lipany, Czechoslovakia. She recalls attending school in Pres?ov; anti-Jewish restrictions; deportion with her sister from Poprad to Auschwitz in March 1942; an SS officer taking special notice of her hair; slave labor in a mine, then in Canada Kommando; learning her brother had arrived; a futile attempt to see him; their transfer to Birkenau; the same SS asking about her hair; obtaining a privileged job because of him; the officer beating her sister, then transferring her to a better job upon learning who she was; losing their will to live; entering a truck to the crematoria; being pulled out by the SS man; the January 1945 death march to Ravensbru?ck; transfer to Malchow; continuing the death march; and liberation by United States troops. Mrs. R. describes transfer to Lu?beck, then Schwerin; being ordered "home;" going to Belgium instead of Slovakia; living with families in Brussels; meeting Jewish Brigade soldiers; her sister's marriage to one and her marriage to another's brother (a Hungarian survivor); and their emigration to Israel. She discusses her amazement upon arrival that Jews were living normally in Israel; she and her husband refusing to discuss their experiences with their children; emotional turning points in the camps; and testifying at the trial of the SS man who saved her.
Extent and Medium
4 videocassettes
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
- R., Antonia.
Corporate Bodies
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Malchow (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Forced labor.
- Sisters.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- War crime trials.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Death marches.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
Places
- Schwerin (Schwerin, Germany)
- Lübeck (Germany)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Belgium.
- Prešov (Slovakia)
- Poprad (Slovakia)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Lipany (Slovakia)
- Israel.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat