Anna H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Anna H., who was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1928. She recalls her assimilated life; German invasion; her sister's marriage and transport to Terezi?n in 1941, followed by her and her parents in 1942; educational and cultural activities in Terezi?n; the Jewish leadership's decision to provide extra rations for children; her niece's birth in 1943; deportation to Auschwitz in 1944 and her promise to her sister to care for their parents; transfer from the family camp to Christianstadt (she never saw her parents again); a German foreman who allowed a woman who had just given birth to rest; learning of her sister's and niece's deaths; fleeing the camp with friends, including Doris W.; capture; and incarceration in Niesky and Go?rlitz. Mrs. H. recounts returning to Prague after the war; adjustment difficulties, particularly the first year; resuming her education; marriage and her children's births; publishing her story "underground," then officially when the Czech government changed; and her present work collecting oral histories of Holocaust survivors for the Jewish Museum in Prague. She discusses her feelings about her promise to care for her parents and seeing a photograph of a suitcase in Auschwitz with her niece's name, the only evidence the child ever lived.
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
- H., Anna, -- 1928-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Státni židovské muzeum (Czech Republic)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Görlitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Sisters.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Forced labor.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Parent and child.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Escapes.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar effects.
- Child survivors.
- Childbirth in concentration camps.
Places
- Christianstadt (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Niesky (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Prague (Czech Republic)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat