Janet M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Janet M., who was born in 1921 in Be?ndzin, Poland. Mrs. M. details traditional Jewish life; German invasion; burning of the synagogue; confiscation of their valuables; ghettoization in late 1940; forced labor which they thought would save them; and liquidation of the ghetto in August 1943. She recalls hiding in an attic overnight; her father being found and shot; deportation to Auschwitz; living in a barrack next to the gas chamber; hearing screams and "shma's" day and night; becoming ill with typhus for six weeks; standing naked outside for hours during a delousing in January 1944 when many died in the snow; witnessing arrivals of transports from all over Europe, including a train of rabbis; the strong will to survive, resulting in some prisoners stealing food; a death march in January 1945; arrival at Ravensbru?ck; learning of medical experiments on humans; transfer to Neustadt Glewe; and liberation in spring 1945. Mrs. M. describes returning to Bendin; learning her sister had survived; traveling to Krakow to seek relatives; meeting a distant cousin, whose wife and child had been killed, and marrying him; Polish antisemitism; going to Germany; living in Stuttgart for five years; and emigration to the United States.

2 videocassettes