Clara K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Clara K., who was born in Cehu Silvaniei, Romania in 1927. She describes cordial relations with non-Jews; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish laws; confiscation of her father's business; attending a Jewish school in Cluj-Napoca; ghettoization in Szila?gysomlyo? (Simleul-Silvaniei) in May 1944; public hanging of her boyfriend; transport to Auschwitz in June; separation from her father and brother (she never saw them again); transfer with her mother five days later to Kaiserwald; slave labor in a munitions factory; transfer by ship to Stutthof; transfer three days later to Dorbeck, Germany (Pro?chnik, Poland); slave labor digging antitank ditches; transfer to Guttau; a fellow prisoner giving birth; a German hiding the birth and the baby (it died); a death march in January 1945; abandonment by the guards; liberation; her mother protecting her from rape by a Soviet soldier; returning home; learning they were the only family survivors (thirty-six relatives were killed); marriage; and emigration to France in 1958, then the United States in 1962. Ms. K. discusses the importance to her survival of being with her mother and of luck; her mother's faith in God throughout; and sharing her experiences with her children and students (she is a retired teacher). 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
- K., Clara, -- 1927-
Corporate Bodies
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
- Kaiserwald (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Romania -- Simleul-Silvaniei.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- Faith.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Childbirth in concentration camps.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
Places
- Cehu Silvaniei (Romania)
- Romania.
- Szilágysomlyó ghetto.
- Próchnik (Poland)
- Simleul-Silvaniei (Romania)
- Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
- Guttau (Poland : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat