Elizabeth S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Elizabeth S., who was born in Gyo?r, Hungary, one of five children. She recounts antisemitic harassment; working in her father's pastry shop; marriage in 1942; her husband's and three brothers' draft into Hungarian slave labor battalions; expropriation of her father's shop in 1943; incarceration with her parents, brother, his wife, and their two children; receiving Red Cross notification that her husband was probably dead; hiding when her brother and his family were deported; deportation with a friend; finding her father in the cattle car to Auschwitz; intense thirst and hunger; sharing water with fellow prisoners; becoming numb, then exhorting herself to alertness by remembering her family; transfer to Lippstadt; slave labor in a munitions factory; privileged kitchen work; sharing food with fellow prisoners; fasting on Yom Kippur; a guard giving her bread; a death march; losing hope; liberation by United States troops in Kaunitz in April 1945; protecting a kind German soldier; returning to Hungary; reunion with two brothers; her husband's return in September 1946; moving to Budapest two years later; and emigrating to the United States. Ms. S. discusses the kindness of French and Italian prisoners; prisoners keeping their spirits up with songs and jokes; and adopting a son (she was unable to have children due to her experiences).
Extent and Medium
2 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
- S., Elizabeth.
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Hungary -- Győr.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Mutual aid.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Friendship.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Death marches.
- Forced labor.
- Postwar effects.
Places
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Kaunitz (Germany)
- Lippstadt (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Győr ghetto.
- Győr (Hungary)
- Hungary.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat