Esther K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Esther K., who was born in Seredne, Czechoslovakia in 1922, the tenth of eleven children. She remembers one brother's emigration to the United States; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish laws resulting in confiscation of her father's business; moving to Budapest, then Debrecen; returning to Seredne in 1944; ghettoization in a brick factory in Ungva?r (Uz?h?horod); deportation to Auschwitz in spring 1944; passing through a selection with her mother, sister, and other relatives; her sister, mother, and sister-in-law being taken in subsequent selections; pledging to remain with her two nieces; their transfer to Frankfurt in August, then Ravensbru?ck in December; arduous slave labor; evacuation in March 1945; brief detention near Berlin; liberation in Hamburg by the Swedish Red Cross; transfer to Malmo?, Sweden via Denmark; recovering in Landskrona; the kindness of the Swedish people; and emigration to the United States in 1946. Mrs. K. recalls reunion with her brother; learning only one brother had survived; marriage in 1947; and the births of three sons. Mrs. K. discusses recurring nightmares of dogs and SS; difficulty believing what was happening when she was in camp; and the importance to her survival of being with her nieces. 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., Esther, -- 1922-
Corporate Bodies
- Svenska röda korset.
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Uz︠h︡horod.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Sisters.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Nightmares.
- Forced labor.
- Family.
Places
- Landskrona (Sweden)
- Malmö (Sweden)
- Denmark.
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Debrecen (Hungary)
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Seredne (Ukraine)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Ungvár ghetto.
- Frankfurt an der Oder (Germany : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat