Dobka W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Dobka W., who was born in Golice, Poland in approximately 1920. She recounts marriage in 1939; fleeing with her husband to Khodoriv, then Buchach during the German invasion; Soviet occupation; moving to Vilnius via Lida and Eis?is?ke?s, where local Jews assisted them; German invasion in June 1941; escaping as a non-Jew; finding her husband; living near Trakai until February 1943; moving to the Vilna ghetto; forced relocation to Ries?e?; public hangings; separation from her husband; deportation to Kaiserwald; slave labor for A.E.G.; volunteering for difficult jobs to obtain extra food; solidarity with the women in her barrack; sharing extra food with each other; fasting on Yom Kippur; separation from her friends when everyone from her barrack was transferred but her; transport by ship to Stutthof; deteriorating conditions; volunteering to join a group working for A.E.G., hoping for improvement; transfer to Torun? with assistance from one of the guards; planning an escape with assistance from a local engineer; escaping with three others; the engineer hiding them; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling to Bia?ystok; learning her parents and eight of her nine brothers had been killed; and emigration to Israel in 1946. Ms. W. attributes her survival to her physical strength, solidarity with friends, and determination. She notes pervasive painful memories and nightmares resulting from her experiences, despite her successful career and family.
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., Dobka, -- 1920?-
Corporate Bodies
- Kaiserwald (Concentration camp)
- Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (Germany)
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Jews -- Lithuania -- Vilnius.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Escapes.
- Husband and wife.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar effects.
- Soviet occupation.
- Mutual aid.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
Places
- Białystok (Poland)
- Vilna ghetto.
- Toruń (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Vilnius (Lithuania)
- Riešė (Lithuania)
- Lida (Belarus)
- Eišiškės (Lithuania)
- Khodoriv (Z︠H︡ydachivsʹkyĭ raĭon, Ukraine)
- Buchach (Ukraine)
- Poland.
- Gorlice (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat