Esther S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Esther S., who was born in Mukacheve, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1929, one of five children. She recalls her family's orthodoxy; Hungarian occupation; hearing of events in Poland but thinking it could not happen to them; ghettoization in early 1944; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; remaining with her two older sisters; once seeing her father beyond a fence; transfer to Stutthof, then Bromberg in summer 1944; trying to sabotage the work in the munitions factory; contact with French POWs; a death march in January 1945; stopping when one sister could not go on; realizing they were left behind; hiding in a cellar; liberation by Soviet troops; returning home through many Polish cities; learning only one uncle had survived from their entire family; living in Kos?ice, then Chomutov; living in Pocking displaced persons camp; and emigrating to the United States in 1946. Mrs. S. discusses being told not to share their experiences when they arrived in the U.S. because no one would believe them; feeling her American relatives did not want to know; and eventually sharing her experiences with her children. She shows photographs.
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
- S., Esther, -- 1929-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Child survivors.
- Escapes.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Mutual aid.
- Fathers and daughters.
- Sisters.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Mukacheve.
- Death marches.
- Prisoners of war -- Poland.
- Sabotage.
- Refugee camps.
Places
- Bromberg (Poland : Concentration camp)
- MunkaĚcs ghetto.
- Pocking (Passau, Germany : Refugee camp)
- KosĚice (Slovakia)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Chomutov (Czech Republic)
- Mukacheve (Ukraine)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat