Alina Z. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Alina Z., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1922. She recalls attending an ORT school; German invasion; ghettoization; hunger and round-ups; marriage in 1941; jumping from a train to Treblinka with her husband, having been warned by a Pole of their destination; hiding with a farmer; returning to Warsaw because they feared exposure; living on the Aryan side; returning to her parents in the ghetto because of blackmail threats; hiding in bunkers during the uprising; and deportation to Majdanek in May 1943 and Birkenau several months later. Mrs. Z. recalls her realization that she was pregnant; establishing contact with her husband; sharing extra food he supplied with her friends; the midwife taking her son away immediately after birth (she never saw him again); a death march to Ravensbru?ck; transport to Neustadt-Glewe; and liberation. She describes returning to Warsaw; traveling to Katowice and Prague; reunion with her husband in Germany; her second son's birth in Marburg; reunion with her sister; and emigration to the United States. Mrs. Z. discusses her pervasive memories; fears of discussing them with her children, and recently feeling able to talk about her experiences; the importance of learning lessons from this period; and her fears that the lessons are lost when observing events in Yugoslavia.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
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
- Z., Alina, -- 1922-1997.
Corporate Bodies
- World ORT Union.
- RavensbruĚck (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Neustadt-Glewe (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Forced labor.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Children -- Death.
- Family.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Husband and wife.
- Death marches.
- Postwar experiences.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Escapes.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Bunkers.
- Mutual aid.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar effects.
- Hiding.
- Childbirth in concentration camps.
- Resistance.
- Marriage in Jewish ghettos.
Places
- Marburg (Germany)
- Poland.
- Majdanek (Concentration camp)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Katowice (Poland)
- Warsaw ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat