Esfira F. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Esfira F., who was born in Belopol?ye, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) in 1924. She recalls friendly relations with non-Jews; attending Ukrainian school; German bombardment and invasion in 1941; anti-Jewish restrictions and violence; translating to the Germans for her kolkhoz director; refusing a marriage offer from a German soldier; ghettoization in Berdychiv; escaping; returning to Belopol?ye; escaping a mass killing with her family; escaping a mass killing by Germans and Ukrainian police in May 1942 with help from a German who pushed her into a pit (her mother and brother were killed); injuring herself in the fall; receiving care from Ukrainian peasants; reunion with her father and younger brother; her father's murder when he went for food; wandering about with her brother and staying with many peasants; liberation by Soviet troops in December 1944; her brother's military conscription (he was killed in 1945); returning to Belopol?ye; moving to Z?H?ytomyr to join her aunt; marriage to a widower; her son's birth; and emigration to Israel in 1991. Mrs. F. discusses her nightmares; visiting a peasant couple who often hid her and her brother; and encountering antisemitism after the war. 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
- F., Esfira, -- 1924-
Subjects
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Nightmares.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mass killings.
- Postwar effects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Berdychiv.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Escapes.
Places
- Belopolʹye (Ukraine)
- Soviet Union.
- Berdychiv ghetto.
- Z︠H︡ytomyr (Ukraine)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat