Anna K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Anna K., who was born in Biecz, Poland in 1915. She describes her childhood in the small town; her close family; education with a traditional female emphasis; marriage in 1939 and the birth of her son in 1940; her father's death from typhus; her husband's deportation to P?aszo?w in 1942; and hiding during the final liquidation with the aid of a Polish acquaintance who assisted her in leaving to join her husband. Mrs. K. recalls a few weeks in the Krako?w ghetto, working in the kitchen in P?aszo?w and her deep sense of hopelessness following her son's death in 1943. She relates her transfer to Skarz?ysko-Kamienna to join her husband; work in camp C with deadly chemicals; their transfer in 1944 to Buchenwald; discovering she was pregnant; the birth of her daughter on April 13, 1945 while Buchenwald was being evacuated; liberation by Americans; six weeks in a hospital in Leipzig; and transport to Switzerland. She tells of writing to her husband, who had returned to Biecz, about the birth of their daughter; reunion with him in Switzerland; emigration to the United States in 1951; and the difficulties of adjustment. She discusses her reluctance to think or talk about the Holocaust, particularly the death of her son, and her sense that her survival was due to "someone watching over me."
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette (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
- K., Anna, -- 1915-
Corporate Bodies
- Skarżysko-Kamienna (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Childbirth in concentration camps.
- Mutual aid.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Mass killings.
- Children -- Death.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Jews -- Poland -- Biecz.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kraków.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Forced labor.
- Husband and wife.
Places
- Poland.
- Biecz (Poland)
- Leipzig (Germany)
- Switzerland.
- Kraków ghetto.
- Biecz ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc