Rita K. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Rita K., who was born in Grodno, Poland (presently Hrodna, Belarus) in 1926. She recalls ubiquitous antisemitism; Soviet occupation; destruction of their home during the German invasion; executions of prominent Jews; Polish collaboration; ghettoization in November 1941; her father's round-up for forced labor; non-Jewish acquaintances who gave him food to smuggle into the ghetto; her brother being severely beaten; liquidation of the ghetto in November 1942 during which she was separated from her family (she never saw them again); and transport to Auschwitz. Mrs. K. recounts selections in Birkenau; forced labor; a prisoner revolt and subsequent executions; evacuation to Bergen-Belsen; and liberation. She tells of living in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; marriage; emigration to the United States in 1949; having her tattooed concentration camp number removed; her children's response to her experience; and speaking frequently about the Holocaust. She attributes her survival to her mother, who gave her meager rations in the ghetto to her children.

2 videocassettes