Rena B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Rena B., who was born in Lv?ov, Poland in 1925. She recounts an affluent childhood; Soviet occupation; German invasion in June 1941; round-ups and mass killings, including her uncle and sister; forced labor; ghettoization; public hangings; working outside the ghetto; her father's death; purchasing false papers; leaving with her mother for work and not returning; a non-Jew taking them to his aunt in Warsaw; feeling they had come from hell into heaven seeing people living normally; observing the Warsaw ghetto burning from afar; hiding with another non-Jew in Jelonki; being joined by other Jews including her future husband; her mother obtaining funds from Armia Ludowa; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling to Siedlce, Lublin, then Krako?w; continuing to use her false name due to antisemitism; living in a displaced persons camp near Munich; marriage; separation from her husband; her son's birth; emigration to the United States; assistance from HIAS; remarriage; and her daughter's birth. Mrs. B. discusses the trauma of her sister's death; regrets that she could not save her cousin when they escaped; feeling for many years that her war experiences were unreal; her mother's delusions resulting from the war; and youthful aspirations to be an opera singer. 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
- B., Rena, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- Poland. -- Armia Ludowa.
- HIAS (Agency)
Subjects
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mass killings.
- False papers.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Mutual aid.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Refugee camps.
- Child survivors.
- Soviet occupation.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- L'viv.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Forced labor.
- Escapes.
Places
- Jelonki (Warsaw, Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Lʹviv (Ukraine)
- Kraków (Poland)
- Lublin (Poland)
- Siedlce (Poland)
- Poland.
- Munich (Germany)
- Lv́ov ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat