Ruth R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Ruth R., who was born in Pabianice, Poland in 1927. She describes her older brother and sister; her family's relative affluence; German invasion; ghettoization; round-ups including her father and brother (she never saw them again); deportation with her mother and sister to the ?o?dz? ghetto; forced factory labor; deportation to Auschwitz in summer 1944; separation from her mother and sister (she never saw them again); transfer to Bergen-Belsen, then Hasag-Leipzeig; slave labor in a munitions factory; nurturing from an older woman; receiving extra food from a French POW; deportation by train; being wounded in an Allied bombing; abandonment by the guards; assistance from Soviet troops; hospitalization for a year; returning to ?o?dz?, then Pabianice; living in Krako?w; marriage; being smuggled to Germany by Berih?ah; living in Salzburg, Wasseralfingen, and Regensburg displaced persons camps; her son's birth; emigration to the United States; and the births of two daughters. Mrs. R. discuses her severe postwar depression; not wanting children due to her experiences, but realizing they "are my life"; her husband's and son's deaths; pervasive fears; believing she is terribly scarred, though she looks "normal"; and sharing only parts of her story with her children.
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
- R., Ruth, -- 1927-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Hasag-Leipzig (Concentration camp)
- Beriḥah (Organization)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jews -- Poland -- Łódź.
- Jews -- Poland -- Pabianice.
- Prisoners of war -- Germany.
- Forced labor.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Refugee camps.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar effects.
Places
- Pabianice (Poland)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Poland.
- Pabianice ghetto.
- Salzburg (Austria : Refugee camp)
- Kraków (Poland)
- Łódź ghetto.
- Wasseralfingen (Austria : Refugee camp)
- Regensburg (Germany : Refugee camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat