Lilly W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Lilly W., who was born in 1926 in Nagyva?rad (now Oradea), Romania. She recalls her family's strong Hungarian identity; Hungarian occupation in 1940; anti-Jewish regulations; German occupation in 1944; ghettoization; transport with her family to Auschwitz in May 1944; separation upon arrival (she never saw them again); the brutal murder of a woman in her group (the last time she cried in a concentration camp); her friendship with her math teacher's wife; transport after three days to Kivio?li; improved conditions; forced labor in the lumber yard; transport to an Ochsenzoll ammunition factory; one Wehrmacht officer who instituted improved conditions (she and other prisoners testified on his behalf at a war crime trial); transport to Bergen-Belsen, where she experienced horrendous conditions and prisoners dying all around; and liberation by British troops. Mrs. W. describes her reunion with her uncle and three surviving family members in Budapest; returning to her home; her friend's marriage to her uncle; her own marriage; the births of her children; and emigration to the United States in 1964. She focuses on the importance of her friend to her survival and notes she did not speak of her experience until recently when she told her son.
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
- W., Lilly, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- KivioĚli (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Romania -- Oradea.
- Jewish ghettos.
- War crime trials.
- Mutual aid.
- Friendship.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Romania.
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Oradea (Romania)
- NagyvaĚrad (Romania)
- Oradea ghetto.
- Ochsenzoll (Germany : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat