Mildred W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Mildred W. who was born in Kielce, Poland in 1919. She recounts attending a private Jewish school; believing events in Germany could not impact them; German invasion; not fleeing in order to remain with her parents; marriage in 1940; a typhus epidemic; ghettoization in spring 1941; smuggling food; mass killings during deportations in August 1942, including her husband; emotional numbness; slave labor in Kielce; transfer to Auschwitz/Birkenau in August 1944; slave labor; transfer to Ravensbru?ck in December; meeting a cousin who provided her with extra food; hiding a friend so they could stay together; transfer to Malchow; improved conditions; arrival of the Red Cross in April 1945; transfer to Lund, Sweden; hospitalization; writing a memoir (she shows her book); attending school in Stockholm; futile searches for surviving relatives; emigration to the United States to join an uncle; and marriage to an American. Mrs. W. discusses many details of camp and ghetto life; her feelings and inter-group relations in the camps; continuing health problems resulting from her experiences; sharing her story with her children; and not teaching them about religion due to her anger. She show photographs.
Extent and Medium
3 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., Mildred, -- 1919-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- RavensbruĚck (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Malchow (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kielce.
- Forced labor.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Husband -- Death.
- Mass killings.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Kielce ghetto.
- Lund (Sweden)
- Kielce (Poland)
- Kielce (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Stockholm (Sweden)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat