Rita H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Rita H., who was born in Vilna, Poland in 1919. Mrs. H. recalls the vibrant Jewish culture; her family's involvement in Yiddish theater (her father owned a theater and she was a child actress); antisemitic harassment; living with her brother in Warsaw beginning in 1938, hoping to attend drama school; German invasion; returning with her brother to Vilna in the Soviet zone; moving to Moscow to attend drama school; spending several months in a Belarusian village waiting for documents; attending school in Moscow; German invasion in June 1941; communicating with her four brothers who were also in Soviet areas; evacuation to Tashkent; returning to Vilna after the war; reunion with one brother in ?o?dz?; learning her parents, sister, and sisters-in-law had been killed; resuming her acting career; moving to Munich in 1946; joining a Yiddish theater troupe, sponsored by the Joint, which performed in displaced persons camps, hospitals, and sanitariums; marriage; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Mrs. H. discusses her acting career in the United States and shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
4 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
- H., Rita, -- 1919-1993.
Corporate Bodies
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Soviet occupation.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Refugee camps.
Places
- Munich (Germany)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
- Moscow (Russia)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Vilnius (Lithuania)
- Vilna (Poland)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat