Stella K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Stella K., who was born in Przemys?l, Poland in 1923. She recalls her happy, comfortable, and observant childhood; antisemitic attacks by children; attending public school; accompanying their maid to Catholic services; moving with her family to Krako?w; German invasion; ghettoization with her parents and sister outside Krako?w; her parents' deportation (she never saw them again); working as a nurse; transfer to P?aszo?w; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; selections; Polish civilian workers' indifference to the piles of bodies; transfer to Ravensbru?ck and Malchow; liberation by the Swedish Red Cross in April 1945; recuperating in Sweden; antisemitism of Polish patients; learning that her sister had survived (her parents and brother were killed); marriage; and emigration to the United States in 1951. Mrs. K. discusses the pervasive antisemitism in prewar Poland; how the passage of time only increases the pain of her losses; the depressing effect of her experiences on her children, particularly her daughter; the importance of luck to her survival; participating in survivors' organizations; and strong positive feelings for Israel. She shows pictures.
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., Stella, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
- Svenska röda korset.
- Malchow (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
Places
- Poland.
- Przemyśl (Poland)
- Sweden.
- Kraków (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat