Betty D. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Betty D., who was born in Bodrogkeresztu?r, Hungary in 1927. She recalls pleasant experiences in an observant home; attending Hungarian schools; friendships with non-Jews; disbelief in the horror stories of Polish refugees; unexpected change in 1944; anti-Jewish measures; transfer to the Sa?toraljau?jhely ghetto; deportation three weeks later to Auschwitz; separation from her father, mother and brother; efforts to always remain with her sister; work in the Canada Kommando; the emotional trauma of being beaten; her sister's efforts to protect her; and the public hanging of prisoners who had blown up a crematorium. Mrs. D. recounts evacuation to Bergen-Belsen; dreaming of her mother; transfer to Braunschweig to clean up bombing rubble, then to Bernsdorf to work in a salt mine; liberation from a train; transfer to Denmark, then Sweden for recovery; the kindness of the Swedish people; attending school; discovering her brother had survived and lived in Palestine; emigration to the United States in 1950; adjustment difficulties; marriage; and the birth of her children. She discusses ignorance of outside events while in the camps; wondering "where God was;" the loss of almost her entire family; regrets that she had not told her children of her experiences; and discovering her photograph in The Auschwitz Album.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (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
- D., Betty, -- 1927-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Sisters.
- Jews -- Hungary -- Sátoraljaújhely.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Resistance.
- Dreams.
- Sabotage.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Bodrogkeresztúr (Hungary)
- Denmark.
- Sweden.
- Sátoraljaújhely ghetto.
- Bernsdorf (Czechoslovakia : Concentration camp)
- Hungary.
- Braunschweig (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat